100-Word Fiction: ‘On Arriving In the Present’

It was not the 100 million tonne North Atlantic Garbage Patch, which covered hundreds of miles of ocean, that most shocked Jack, a northern pike from Saskatchewan, on arriving in what we term the present. Nor was it that he could hardly catch sight of a cod off the coast of Newfoundland, or that crabsContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘On Arriving In the Present’”

100-Word Fiction: ‘Secessio Plebis’

Out of the city they ran, with great speed and intent, to where the harsh rule of the little Caesars could not shackle them; where usurious debts were not counted and where all trading was banned. Rejoicing, they joined hands and soon found themselves at the foot of a sacred mountain. Climbing it, they, inContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Secessio Plebis’”

100-Word Fiction: ‘The Market Value’

Traffic is terrible in the market square. Marie Claire goes there to buy vegetables in bulk. There are no fake tomatoes, she says, but so much fake all around. She goes out of town to get her quality cheap goods. Out of town, out of country, out of continent. She eats KFC and flies toContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Market Value’”

100-Word Fiction: ‘The Era of Cheap Food May Be Over’

I got a plate full I can tell you, a plate full of hungry mouths to fill, emerging markets in China, India and Brazil. I got 7 kilos of grain making 1 kilo of beef, corn turned into biofuels never nibbled by my teeth. I got poor harvests and lousy weather, farmers’ profit and loss,Continue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Era of Cheap Food May Be Over’”

100-Word Fiction: ‘In the House’

They do not listen to me and I do not care. They shout amongst themselves, deaf to pleas of order, order. I have a plan. They know but hardly share their thoughts. They only vainly oppose, and meek protestations coalesce into a sticky goo. I laugh, send deputations of sneering divisiveness: a ploy. Do myContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘In the House’”

100-Word Fiction: ‘The Way I See It’

Oh but the rains I remember, alternating with the regular insistence of windscreen wipers: downpour, drizzle, downpour, drizzle, downpour, drizzle. They seem so long ago. Now, the way I see it, the world is brighter. Plants bud sooner, the birds always sing. There are children playing in the cul-de-sacs and everyone, at any time, canContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Way I See It’”

100-Word Fiction: ‘So I Got My Head Kicked In, But I Was Asking For It (Redux version)

So I went to this dodgy pub and at the bar this fella gives me grief. But I chat to him then we’re having a laugh and he buys me a pint. Later I’m with my mates and he keeps looking over. At closing time he starts chatting again, pissed. I don’t want any aggroContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘So I Got My Head Kicked In, But I Was Asking For It (Redux version)”

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 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: ‘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’”