100-Word Fiction: ‘Little Georgey’

It clicked with Little Georgey at around the time of his eleventh birthday. At first it was his father’s inventiveness, the way there was always some unfathomable new excuse: No, there could be no new holiday, not while the roof needed fixing. No, there would be no big birthday presents this year, not while hisContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Little Georgey’”

100-Word Fiction: ‘Flying Scotsman’

It’s prehistoric, Jonesy had commented when Cam walked him through the engine shed to the turntable, where the locomotive gleamed in the electric light. Aye, a mammoth job, Cam had replied. Indeed it was. The smell of paint and grease had been in Cam’s nostrils for weeks. It was a beast all right. It wasContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Flying Scotsman’”

100-Word Fiction: Girl Meets Boy

The young girl ran out of the hotel in tears. Her family thought it was a good job, prestigious. She earned little, like all the immigrant workers, and hoped for tips she could split between the family fund and a Friday night out. Chambermaids were suspended from work all the time, said the cleansing manager.Continue reading “100-Word Fiction: Girl Meets Boy”

100-Word Fiction: ‘The Cave’

For many years we have lived a cave. We have been chained, our heads fixed, our gaze transfixed. We have watched shadows, believing them to be real. We have heard echoes, believing them to be true. We have been entrapped by reflections of reality, thinking we understood the nature of the world and that societyContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Cave’”

100-Word Fiction: ‘That Wedding Dress’

Wearing this jacket, which bears witness to the grand public schools, the British Empire, Kipling and Kitchener, Ypres, the Somme and the Western Front, brassy medals, Chelsea bombings, fighting in Norway, Palestine, South Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans, the Order of St Patrick, the ‘Troubles’, Brian Boru, the kid cadets still named ‘mini Micks’,Continue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘That Wedding Dress’”

100-Word Fiction: ‘The Problem With Statistics’

I’m not sure if I can remember the exact amount. Bear with me. Was it 997, or 979, or 977, or 799, or 797, or 779, or maybe even 759? This number. It was hundreds. There were sevens and nines in it, definitely. Hundreds. Sevens of hundreds, I think, if I remember. Did you notContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Problem With Statistics’”

100-Word Fiction: ‘The Prime Minister Speaks’

The sun is out and a flurry of cars pass the end of the road, windows open. Mr and Mrs Bluebird are hopping through the velvet branches of the staghorn tree and there is laughter in the little park. At the corner, a man with his shirt sleeves rolled up arranges a drink with aContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Prime Minister Speaks’”

100-Word Fiction: ‘Andy’

Oh, you know, he was gorgeous. I thought so when he had short hair but when he grew it, my god. A local boy through and through, a real strapping lad. Those shoulders! Of course everyone knew he liked a drink. A bad lad. None of us judged, not while he was causing such aContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Andy’”

100-Word Fiction: ‘For the Kids, RIP’

In a bedroom with a notebook and biro. Turning words into lyrics. The radio on. Up-and-coming stars. Thoughts of playing gigs and getting on telly. The songs to be sung and the power to change the world. All those guitars. Rips in jeans and hair falling over eyes. A plaid shirt. Some jotted down chords.Continue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘For the Kids, RIP’”

100-Word Fiction: ‘Over’

I’m over it, said John. But how could he be? It was still fucking going on, still in the air like, ah what the fuck. You couldn’t fucking tell him, he just turned away, the old head in the sand. Things had to be confronted, dealt with, even if it meant facing the worst. TheContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Over’”