Sssshhh, said Jackie, sssshhh, listen. Pete stopped still. Silence. Jackie beckoned. How brown the woods looked: the conifers dulled in the late afternoon light, the ground muddy after the rain. Jackie was pointing, his face contorted into an expression – half delight, half anguish. Pete shook his head and whispered: What? There! Listen! Silence. ThenContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Until They are Gone’”
Tag Archives: Bewick
100-Word Fiction: ‘For Years / Four Years’
On reflection it was perhaps youth and its restlessness that always took people away… corners turned, bridges crossed… The real challenges come surreptitiously… almost… and seem little more than normalities. Is this the sign that caprice is being buried under the rubble of real change? On Monday morning he wakes early and drinks coffee, trains,Continue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘For Years / Four Years’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Out, Damned Spot’
As a reminder, he wrote the words ‘Human Rights’ in red ink on the palm of his hand. They were there when he showed his passport; there when he pressed the flesh; there when he clinked crystal glassware; there when he lifted a knife during dinner; there when he signed the lucrative contracts, there whenContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Out, Damned Spot’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Ash Wednesday’
It is here. Which means it is too late. Who knows whether we could have resisted it? Ten cases of the disease are already local to us. It is in the hedgerows and the woodlands, brought by visitors, carried on the wind. The infection spreads, stains appear, the flesh wilts and limbs crack and split.Continue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Ash Wednesday’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘A Black and White Night’
I walked home all the fucking way the main roads as well. It’s quiet at three in the mornin and you can get a pace on; thinkin of the alarm clock oh jesus and work sat at the desk. The road like a river, the current pullin you on and the moon overhead lightin upContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘A Black and White Night’”
100-Word Fiction: A Return (Sonnet)
Those years – did it ever really stick In mind, this mire of brown estuarine mud? A trick, forgot in ideals, thick With thought: how? why? what? should? There was no habitat here but the past: The sweet chestnut and bluebells of a dream A deluge of deliberations that never last A ferry to aContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: A Return (Sonnet)”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Please Write Me’
100-Word Fiction: ‘On Arriving In the Present’
It was not the 100 million tonne North Atlantic Garbage Patch, which covered hundreds of miles of ocean, that most shocked Jack, a northern pike from Saskatchewan, on arriving in what we term the present. Nor was it that he could hardly catch sight of a cod off the coast of Newfoundland, or that crabsContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘On Arriving In the Present’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Secessio Plebis’
Out of the city they ran, with great speed and intent, to where the harsh rule of the little Caesars could not shackle them; where usurious debts were not counted and where all trading was banned. Rejoicing, they joined hands and soon found themselves at the foot of a sacred mountain. Climbing it, they, inContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Secessio Plebis’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘The Market Value’
Traffic is terrible in the market square. Marie Claire goes there to buy vegetables in bulk. There are no fake tomatoes, she says, but so much fake all around. She goes out of town to get her quality cheap goods. Out of town, out of country, out of continent. She eats KFC and flies toContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Market Value’”
MW Bewick 