As he walked away from the football fields he heard a cheer. One of the kids must have scored. He looked at the time on his phone: it was fine, he’d be in the pub in twenty. Sometimes he wondered whether his own boy liked playing football. How old would he be now? Nine, maybeContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘He Walked Away’”
Category Archives: MW Bewick
100-Word Fiction: ‘6 May 2010’
A light aircraft just dropped out of the sky, enmeshed, literally, in its own trail of propaganda. Over our own heads are helicopters and, down in the square below, hundreds of office workers have congregated for a fire drill. We are booking my birthday meal and discussing people’s relationships: how friends are feeling; what mightContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘6 May 2010’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘There Is a Moment’
Maybe there is a moment when you shudder and feel a touch more dislocated from the world and even yourself. As if the axis of everything had just been tilted to a slightly more precarious degree. Waves of repressed memory. Cracks found in the waking day. Roads broken. A moment when you are shaken intoContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘There Is a Moment’”
100-Word Fiction: New Term
Outside the school leaves were on the ground, all green and orange and yellow. A group of adults were talking on the corner by the bench that you could jump from. They had deep, grown-up voices and were saying things about stuff – countries in the world and money and things. Oh, the world isContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: New Term”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Enduring Freedom’
The date: October 7, 2001. The place: a landlocked country. The aims: to locate a man; to bring men to trial; to remove a regime. Aerial bombardments followed. Then came the tanks and troops. The date: July 13 , 2009. The website stated: ‘Estimates of the number of civilians killed vary widely and must beContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Enduring Freedom’”
100-word fiction: ‘He Rides Bicycles’
He was a machine, that’s what people said. So powerful – and everything tested, tuned, synchronised. They said he was in perfect shape. He said it was all about the timing: it was in the mind, not the legs. You looked at him and wondered what thoughts went through his head as he crossed theContinue reading “100-word fiction: ‘He Rides Bicycles’”
100-word fiction: ‘Those Eyes’
It was for the country, not any individual. He was a friend not an enemy. He was on holiday not business. She did not want money she wanted help for a personal project. He was a political ally not a friend. It was not a closed enquiry, it was open and transparent. It was notContinue reading “100-word fiction: ‘Those Eyes’”
100-word fiction: ‘What People Want’
“People are scared. This is what I know. People are scared for so many different reasons. People think they deserve so much. They tell you so, saying they are good people and hard-working. People want to feel protected. They will confide this. They say they need protecting from all kinds of enemy and hardship. PeopleContinue reading “100-word fiction: ‘What People Want’”
100-word fiction: ’34 Years’
The radio said the missile tests were a direct threat. There was rhetoric too: the nations of the free world would not stand idly by. In the street, a man shouted to neighbours that the sunshine was set to last. A couple were watering the pot plants in their garden. They’d now been married forContinue reading “100-word fiction: ’34 Years’”
100-word fiction: ‘On the Attack’
They were on the attack; shots rained in. Soon each side would assess the casualties, know who was defeated. It had all been going on too long; it felt senseless, stupid. Days ago he had felt optimistic but now reports were coming through on the radio about yet another loss. He wanted it to beContinue reading “100-word fiction: ‘On the Attack’”
MW Bewick 