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: London
100-Word Fiction: ‘Plenty’
Trains backing up into Surrey and the onslaught of the crush at the barriers. A roadside reek of last night’s piss and the morning’s nicotine and bleach. A man laughs into his hand. A woman switches to flats. The freesheets are a coconut shy. Two shots please. I like my coffee very strong. I couldn’tContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Plenty’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Night Shifts’
Dreaming of Cairo, so I thought, and I was on some concrete balcony at the edge of the desert, with the city in the distance, illuminated by explosions – and the death-rattle of guns and screaming missiles echoed across the void between me and… them. I peered harder and saw that the explosions were fireworks,Continue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Night Shifts’”
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: ‘Savoy Shuffle’
That ol’ London thing, waiting at a crossing in rush hour between showers and a book falls out of the sky, lands at the side of the road, hardback, heavy, with a thud, the biography of a sports personality with late-career broadsides to discharge, and you look up, and there are only clouds. A dayContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Savoy Shuffle’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Clouded Out’
A broad-brimmed black felt hat lies on the tracks below the bridge that crosses the railway line on Shoreditch High Street. They sip sweet creamy coffee, shuffle and talk of failed interviews and jobs that didn’t work out. A man by the Tube shouts ‘Freedom out!’ or perhaps ‘Free Time Out!’ They add a pre-meetingContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Clouded Out’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Jesus of Kingsway’
Jesus takes the rubbish out when the last customers leave the café at 5.45, nods to the lads on the street and goes back inside, brings down the shutters, exits by the back. Charlie and Isaiah are the first to the bags, carefully untying the orange plastic and reaching inside. Ricky and Mohammed look on,Continue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Jesus of Kingsway’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘In No Particular Order…’
1. Dress up and jive dance at the Clore ballroom. 2. Watch carol singers on a giant screen in Paternoster Square. 3. Take the kids to My Brother the Robot at the Roundhouse. 4. Shop for last-minute gifts at a ‘German’ market on the South Bank. 5. Donate blood at Leytonstone Methodist Church. 6. HearContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘In No Particular Order…’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘This is My Job’
Downstairs in the shop it is sweltering. I am at a designer furniture launch. This is my job. Bring on the canapés, I should be eating dinner. Sean works for a competitor. He tells me about when his wallet was fat, when he was drunk every evening. Across the room Seb shakes hands. Everyone wantsContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘This is My Job’”
MW Bewick 