The faces in anguish. The screams of a horse. The door of no exit. The eye of the blistered sun low as a ceiling bulb. The gasping bull that looks away. A glove for a hand – palm deep-lined. The screeching bird. The heavy mortal stagger of feet, the trampled flowers, the limp child in aContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘On Guernica’”
Tag Archives: Bewick
100-Word Fiction: ‘The New Trade Agreements’
After they tore open the skies there was little left to protect. No more checkpoints. No more sanctions. No more barriers. No more disputes. There had been nowhere left to go on sovereign land. No way through the impasse of government and state. There was nowhere left to grow. They looked upwards instead, above theContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The New Trade Agreements’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Water Memory’
I was told that water has memory. I can believe it. I think of how a drop – the cold moisture of a cloud, somewhere a continent away – might precipitate itself upon an azure sea. That it might get pulled this way and that, become submerged, forgotten, embroiled in the waves and the churnContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Water Memory’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘A Week in Pictures’
He stands in the empty doorway of his roofless house. Inside is only landfill. The storm has passed. * They drive the sheep up to the mountains where they graze through the summer. The blizzard continues. * They came to the streets to protest about land reforms and were met by police. The water cannonsContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘A Week in Pictures’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Polina [2]’
Picks up a coffee, checks her Facebook at her desk and feels angry. Sits through two hour+ meetings. Emails Robin. Looks through the glass at the boys on the floor becoming animated, arms waving, pointing, voices raised. Now, now, they seem to be saying. It is to do with Russia. Before lunch the office empties.Continue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Polina [2]’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Tomorrow’
The air conditioning blows against the office cold while the mice scuttle in the dust of the ducts. The flagpoles of opposing buildings are wrapped tight with their blind standards. A solitary gull circles above the white towers; above the dripping lights of theatreland. Cars choke the arteries all the way to the estuaries whereContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Tomorrow’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Some Old Queen or Other’
And so what if they thought she had nothing to offer and nothing to say? If they thought she had no place in the modern world, then what? She would ride it out, keep going, fix herself on being there, again, always. What would they know about independent thought? They dieted on whatever fodder theyContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Some Old Queen or Other’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Hallucinations’
She fell asleep worrying about the tremor in her heart. She awoke wondering about the tension across her skull. Maybe she really was critically ill. Maybe she should see the doctor. Those late-night and early-morning hallucinations of gunshot riots, rabbiting politicians, redactive summit meetings, those rabid howls of the naysayers and cynics and dreamers andContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Hallucinations’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘The Off-Stage Terror’
The off-stage scream terrorises. We are caught off-guard. On-stage actions cease. Whose scream is it? Why has it occurred? What will the consequences be? What awful truth awaits us? What does it mean? It means things occur elsewhere. It means we have been diverted. It means we have been looking in the wrong place. ItContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Off-Stage Terror’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Sludge’
The little man at the side of the road where the hearses do their U-turns is pointing at passing pedestrians and shouting ‘You’ll never get out! And you’ll never get out! But you’ll get out! But you’ll never get out!’ I fall into the ‘Never get out’ category. My coffee has gone cold and IContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Sludge’”
MW Bewick 