Johnny had grown to love that old dog. After the yapping stopped, when it was no longer such a keen and overbearing puppy, when its occasional mistimed bark seemed endearing, some kind of grudging trust had been formed between them. Then, the dog went missing. Rumours were that another snarling hound chased it straight outContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: Gone, but”
Tag Archives: literature
100-Word Fiction: ‘Squares: 25 X 4’
Stuffy and straightlaced, that’s a square. A word parents say, or are. Fearful, inward-looking, conservative, old-fashioned and boring. Boring most of all. That’s a square. And the box shape of houses, dotted along roads. Little boxes with hats on, regulation size and order. Boring. Terraces and semis, square gardens, rooms. Or the symmetrical flats andContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Squares: 25 X 4’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Barricades’
Batten down the hatches Man the barricades Prepare to defend your privilege From the grenades of the betrayed Send in water cannons Baptise the unholy few Shoot them with rubber bullets But duck if they rebound onto you Let sirens be of comfort Reclaim the streets and the ‘feds’ Then raze the estates to theContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Barricades’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘The Caterpillar’
It is high summer and through the oldest of urban gardens crawls the caterpillar. Which way will it turn today? It approaches a crowd of city kids, tucking into falafel and hummus. It watches them a while: a mixed, raggle-taggle bunch with hungry eyes, holding their lunch proudly, guardedly, as if it were civilisation itselfContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Caterpillar’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘He Makes a Cup of Coffee’
He makes a cup of coffee: milk, one sugar. Drinks it in the kitchen, his bathrobe loosely tied. He dresses in front of the mirror, tweaks his tie and collar. He walks through the hallway, steps out to the waiting car. He checks emails in his office, calls meetings, takes lunch. He looks at figures,Continue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘He Makes a Cup of Coffee’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘When It Changes, It Changes Quickly’
It’s not that I used to believe you and that now I don’t. Or that I thought you were amusing whereas now you infuriate me. I never thought you spoke the truth. It was clear that everything you did was a sham. Maybe you helped pass the time, or maybe I thought… what did IContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘When It Changes, It Changes Quickly’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘I Knew You’
I knew you for a while but not for as long as before, or after. Oh, the after, it goes on. Each summer the sunflowers and the roads. Rains in the North and the heat of the South. Mountains rise and rise. Summer. We shared those of course – a handful, a decade, just. TalkingContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘I Knew You’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘A Dream’
It came to me in a dream – woke me from my sleep – a unifying image, an idea that could take the insurgencies and economics, deaths and party politics, hopes for the future and legacies of the past, the festivals and hangovers, culture high and low, the academics and judges, phone hackers and strikers,Continue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘A Dream’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘A Conversation’
Old: We’ve never had any problems previously. Young: Oh you’ve had problems? Old: We’ve not done. Young: You’ve not done anything? Old: It’s not happened before. Young: No, if that’s the case then something needs to be done. Old: You want to do something? Young: What could we do? Old: If we are okay… Young:Continue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘A Conversation’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Fashion’
Christ but there’s too many flags about, he said, sittin back down and slidin three pints across the table. Too much wavin from balconies, fly-pasts and old codgers grumblin bout the way they suffered. Christ, I mean. He sniffed. Look at you man, the guy’s friend said, sweepin his fringe from his eyes. I meanContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Fashion’”
MW Bewick 