Nails hammered into the trunk let him climb to the tree’s big branches. He edged out and hung his legs over, swinging them in the air. The sun was on his face. Then he pressed his palms down into the branch, feeling the tension, lifting himself up and pushing out, out, into the sky. HeContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Sycamore’”
Tag Archives: MW
100-Word Fiction: ‘The Truth Tied Down’
Tie the history down. Me and little Kenny running in the dewy fields under the crackle of electricity pylons. Tie the family down. Aunts and uncles filling up my grandfather’s little sitting room with their cigarette smoke. Tie the present down. Me and my lonesome workplace banter and the nights drinking and looking at girlsContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Truth Tied Down’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Gestas’
She didn’t torch the place. Not yet. The others could have done it if they’d wanted. She fudged a tear. Anything more might have signalled guilt. Her predecessor, Gestas, would take the blame. They’d be happy to let him have it. They’d needed to crucify someone and Gestas, such an impenitent robber, the one she’dContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Gestas’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Association Games / A-Side’
We played word association games: Levant? Stump. Stump? Sounds. Sounds? Music magazine. Magazine? Cover mount. Cover mount? Flexidisc. Felxidisc? Vinyl. Vinyl? Black. Black? Black. Is this working? Sorry can we go back to Stump? Stump? Stump? Chart Show. Chart Show? Channel 4. Channel 4? TV. TV? Music. Music? Indie. Indie? Sounds. Sounds? Stump. Stump? IceContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Association Games / A-Side’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Composition at a Toumani and Sidiki Diabate Concert’
It is boat season and migrating humans attempt more perilous journeys across the Mediterranean. Europe is a dream but not always a destiny. Paper-sketched holding centres are a plan for refugees: some sand-blown pop-ups in north Africa and the Middle East – not a solution, just a siesta for peace. News from the front lineContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Composition at a Toumani and Sidiki Diabate Concert’”
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: ‘Thomas Piketty Sells Out’
On the bookshop’s basement computer A deleted message relates That Thomas Piketty has sold out. The email from the book’s printer Suggests a second run is required – But the price of paper shows a long upward trend. Customers leave empty-handed. Along the city’s cigarette streets Workers stroke their palms And bud their ears inContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Thomas Piketty Sells Out’”
100-Word Fiction: ’18 Sackings’
The man who did too little. The man who did too much. The woman left in the frame. The woman who ducked the issue. The man who spoke too late. The man who spoke too soon. The woman with the loudest voice. The women you never heard. The man who no one liked. The manContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ’18 Sackings’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘And How She Danced’
The day the border was crossed he drank sweet coffee. He had been waiting to hear a cuckoo. His father railed “Let them in!” and waved his handkerchief. The fields were yellow with rape. Vasily had his toys all over the carpet. His mother made soup. Later he would meet friends at the corner barContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘And How She Danced’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Faces and Names’
To S___ on High Street it would be the time when the names were erased. She counted them up, window-shopping in the spring sun. The names that were now gone, in such a brief spell of time. Sam T and Granny F. Uncle, suddenly. The fit guy in the year above. And now they disappearedContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Faces and Names’”
MW Bewick 