A giant flag draped behind the nation’s leaders. A faded flag hanging limply in an antique shop in a small town. A book of ensigns on a shelf next to tea sets and cracked crockery, medals and vinyl records and gas masks. A woman standing proudly in front of a house. A family on theContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Woman and the Flags’”
Tag Archives: UK
100-Word Fiction: ‘Stasis’
There will be no clichés. No morning light, no birds singing, no greening of the year. This is no bildungsroman. We learn nothing. We will repeat the same mistakes because we have the same hopes and the same fears and we continue to lack the facility to contend. We are compromised by ourselves and othersContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Stasis’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘How He’s Talked Lately’
I try to shut the thoughts away but the words he says prise open my every defence. I can’t not hear it. He talks about his life, his friends, the plans we’ve made, the things we’ve achieved, places we’ve been. He talks about his grandmother, about my own family history. He claims he’s talked toContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘How He’s Talked Lately’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘The Red Dust’
The red dust came from desert skies sanded the paper and screens of the press caught in the eyes of conspiracy freaks piled up the stress of Western dreams grazed the feet of measured prose stormed the sounds of drum and song covered the rows of memorial crosses and all their long-remembered losses tickled theContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Red Dust’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Nowhere’s Flood’
Lord Jesus, think on me well, for I built a shippe for your animals. Yet those people did not come aboard. They stayed wretched and drunk even as the storm approached and I was left alone with the beasts. When all was still I let your raven fly in search of some dry haven. ItContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Nowhere’s Flood’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘The Storm of St Lou’
Yeah can you get some now now Hear it comin’ yeah yeah Howlin’ howlin’ oh yeah howl howl All the way and back and down down Down the line now baby Oh come on now keep it yeah Storm is raising Storm is raising Storm is raising Can you hear it rainin’ rain rain WhistleContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Storm of St Lou’”
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’”
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: ‘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’”
MW Bewick 