Choking from the tree pollen and the blanket of smog that had blown in from across the sea and the dust that had risen from the roads after the fires of the previous week. The atmosphere was unbreathable. Slowly jogging through the drag of streets from west to east was a chore for the chest.Continue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Suffocating City’”
Tag Archives: city
100-Word Fiction: ‘The Goose and the Merchants’
After the merchants were pardoned and the townsfolk were sent to the fields, Tom the goose laid three golden eggs. The first hatched to reveal a hundred bronze brooches. In the second were a hundred silver goblets; in the third a hundred golden swords. The merchants pinned the brooches to their hearts, filled the gobletsContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Goose and the Merchants’”
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’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Into the Grey’
The grey months are back. The river is a monochrome line through a commuter town. Shrieking magpies hop across the railway sleepers; five for silver. Wheel rims slash the gutter puddles of a wet street. City towers wear loose shrouds and leak osmotically into the concrete sky. Coats are zipped, umbrellas black dots streaming pastContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Into the Grey’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘137 Days, 137 Minutes’
They say we have no solutions; that we are in disarray, confused, guileless; we have no plan; we are so loose a collective as to be redundant. But what a cockeyed view that is: of course, we are all those things. We have been pulled this way and that, confused past our wits, futures beatenContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘137 Days, 137 Minutes’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘I Do Not Wish’
I do not wish to speak ill of life while I see her drying her hair and the coffee tastes so good. Outside the sky is winter-cold but clear and the buildings go up and up, all across the city. Last night, when we left the cinema and crossed the river, watching the tourist bargesContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘I Do Not Wish’”
MW Bewick 