On the quay in a cagoule, with a north wind blowing in rain and echoing through the halyards of the Essex smacks. A cormorant headed up the estuary; the Roman River was full and the silent black-headed gulls bobbed on the choppy water. There was no one there, no one at the pub or inContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘August’s End’”
Tag Archives: MW Bewick
100-Word Fiction: ‘Here It Comes’
Here it comes: the football back on telly, the root around the wardrobe for a jacket, the predictions for the bank holiday weekend weather, the TV trailers for autumn’s best viewing. It feels like a final sign-off. You will hear no more from us until Christmas. What you haven’t got done won’t get done. AndContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Here It Comes’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘The Populist Trick’
In a pub, the winner of a popularity contest, as captured in a reporter’s photograph, balances an empty pint glass on his head and grins a rubbery wet slop of a grin. In the background, unwitting members of the public, alongside some of the man’s friends, are also grinning. Their mirth has been caused byContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Populist Trick’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Raptor’
The bird’s wings scythed through the morning air imperiously as it locked its position over some ground prey, unseen, scuttling in the wildnerness below. The long arc of those wings; I had seen something like them before. An owl, perhaps, or a bird of prey, a falcon or harrier, a raptor. Was an owl aContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Raptor’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Kora’
Kora of calabash, the bottle gourd lute, cowskin resonator, bridge and strings. Kumbengo riffs and birimintingo runs, across the wires of the dancing desert harp. Griot storytellers of Mali’s Mandinka, keepers of memory, ancient people of Sundiate Keita. Plucking notes that quiver into being, hardly heard above the arid air or the brushing of sandContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Kora’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘If Just Once Those Birds’
If just once those birds That scatter snow from the tall tree – Its branches shaken from white to green By whirled circles on the wing – Would cross to us and feed If just once those birds Would cease from flailing And flashing their colours To the phosphorescent sky And be still If justContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘If Just Once Those Birds’”
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’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Paparazzi’
They say there aren’t many of us left. We’ve had a bad press, it’s true, camouflaged in the bushes and aiming a telescopic lens at our prey. And the youngsters don’t care, they’d never take it up. They can get all their thrills on the internet – and everyone’s a photographer these days – damnContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Paparazzi’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘This Is a Possible Fiction’
Demands were made to sack them. If they excercised their legal rights, employers should be able to ensure workers had no job on their return: strikes should become illegal. The show must go on. So, shunt private cars from the roads, disrupt public services and tell the citizens to walk. Call for an exodus –Continue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘This Is a Possible Fiction’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘I Chase Bicycles’
There is something in human nature, I heard it said, that is disruptive. We favour the underdog, laugh too loud, stare too long, make stupid remarks. We are drawn to sarcasm, cynicism and hypocrisy. We tell little lies, become brave and boastful or lazy and stubborn. We accelerate too fast, brake too late, take theContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘I Chase Bicycles’”
MW Bewick 