100-Word Fiction: ‘The Woman and the Flags’

A giant flag draped behind the nation’s leaders. A faded flag hanging limply in an antique shop in a small town. A book of ensigns on a shelf next to tea sets and cracked crockery, medals and vinyl records and gas masks. A woman standing proudly in front of a house. A family on theContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Woman and the Flags’”

100-Word Fiction: ‘And If I Do Not Speak’

I can’t get into it, said Alex, shaking his head, turning his palms upward. The conversation is one that is built around a vocabulary linked inextricably to a standardised and, yes, populist argument put forward by the ruling classes. It doesn’t matter which side you take in the argument, the fact that you’re using theirContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘And If I Do Not Speak’”

100-Word Fiction: ‘The Cottage’

Can you see it? asked James. Corrina was squinting into the May sunlight. It was somewhere over there but I can’t make it out exactly. But the cottage was around here? Here? Somewhere over there, near the horizon, past the trees, where it’s all blue with the distance and haze. We could drive around theContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Cottage’”

100-Wird Fiction: ‘No Mountain High’

That a life builds, grows Is what she had heard. But it sometimes felt The opposite. It was as if a life Started with a mountain A mass of granite Immovable, vast And then things happened: Events, thoughts. The mountain Was chipped away at Incrementally. Tiny etchings, furrows – Surfaces scuffed, worn – From theContinue reading “100-Wird Fiction: ‘No Mountain High’”

100-Word Fiction: ‘Trajectories’

A clear blue sky and two planes crossing it, one after the other, perhaps too close, turning southerly. As is often, here, at this time, there is talk of politics. Governments this, ministers that, history and security, links to conspiracies. An older man and a younger man are looking skyward, standing, waiting. One holds aContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Trajectories’”