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’”
Tag Archives: ukraine
100-Word Fiction: ‘The Gyre’
I looked at the silver mud along the banks of the river. A month ago it was filled with birds. You could see them scurrying even at night. Now they have gone. The seasons are changing and the mud is becoming bare. The gulls’ heads are taking on their summer colour. It’s as if theContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Gyre’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Darja [4]’
Get the fucking stretcher –––– here now! Get it here! Blood is pouring from –––– left of the child’s leg. Med-tent is 200 metres and watch the air – the shrapnel – it is so full. A glance, quickly, buildings at street end are rubble. Patches of street have turned red. Six bodies – roughContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Darja [4]’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Yulia [3]’
She confirmed that the meeting lasted for more than three hours. At these times pastries and coffee are merely decorative. Neither party stoops to accept a fix of sugar or caffeine. After the smiles and handshakes it is the tiniest details that count. The way one of them tilts their head towards an unnecessary interpreter;Continue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Yulia [3]’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Polina [2]’
Picks up a coffee, checks her Facebook at her desk and feels angry. Sits through two hour+ meetings. Emails Robin. Looks through the glass at the boys on the floor becoming animated, arms waving, pointing, voices raised. Now, now, they seem to be saying. It is to do with Russia. Before lunch the office empties.Continue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Polina [2]’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘Oksana [1]’
Watches the joggers run past the flats as she towels her hair dry. Hums along to the radio and eats toast, drinks orange juice. Waits at the bus stop where all the men cough into the cold wet street. Stares at the passing shops, swaying as the bus jerks. Walks up past the park andContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Oksana [1]’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘The Graves Above’
That our lives are nothing less than fissile is a blind spot on a blue retina. We arc our actions, our thoughts, like missiles; sing praise, hope the heavens make us better; behold the sky and hold it high, careful not to see the cracks that let the light in – or the umbra, itsContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Graves Above’”
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: ‘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: ‘The Old Woman and the Bear’
The bear wandered far and wide until it came to the hut of an old woman, which was raised off the ground by a single chicken claw. The old woman hit the bear about its head then bade it sleep. The next day an eagle descended and the bear tore it apart. The old womanContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Old Woman and the Bear’”
MW Bewick 