October 2007
11 posts
The Goodbye
‘I’ll give you a minute,’ said the woman in white. She left the room. Claire put her head down on the steel bench. It smelt like hospital grade disinfectant and was cold enough to hurt her ear, but it was worth it to be close to him. Her cat. Her best friend. His grey fur was a matted mess along his back, where he could no longer groom himself, and his eyes were sinking back in his head....
Leg
It was like no meat she had ever tasted. It was the same colour as veal, but with none of the sweetness, the melting mouth feel. She had paid half a million dollars for the privilege of her plate at this exclusive dinner party, but the Pièce de résistance was tough at best. ‘What cut did they say this was again?’ she whispered to the gentleman by her side, a Japanese tycoon. ‘I believe it is part...
Hide and Seek
There was a sound, a loud banging at the bedroom door, as though someone was closing a car door in quick succession, over and over, and screaming, ‘Mary! Mary! Open up you fucking bitch!’ Mary didn’t open the door. She was too busy trying to hide her feet under the skirts of her long evening gowns. It was like hide and seek, only when she was a kid her nose wasn’t pissing out blood, and she...
Based On A True Story
I have nothing to write tonight, Melissah typed. She pressed enter and leaned back against her soft pillows while she stared at the blank word document. In the background, her Adium window flashed. She clicked on it, bringing it to the front. Write about me! Josh had written. ‘Yeah,’ she said out loud. ‘Because that worked last time.’ She typed: I can’t write about people. He asked why; she didn’t...
Megadik
Mikey sat in a corner of his bedroom, surrounded by a moat of his own vomit and covered in Veronica’s blood. In fact, there was hardly a corner of the room that wasn’t smattered with gore or bile or pieces of torn entrails. The bed was the worst, of course. That was where Veronica – what was left of Veronica, lay on either side of the bed. She had been torn in two. Between his legs, Mikey’s...
The Hole
There was a hole in the face of the earth, eight feet across and endless. There had been no crash in the night, no bright lights, no suspicious sounds or sights or smells; just a hole where there had been no hole the night before. Lou and Des peered down into the hole. Lou was shining a light down there, but they couldn’t see the end. They were silent for such a long time, as though they were...
Capturing a Moment
She was teetering on the edge of a cliff, sixty feet above the stony shore. The ocean winds were riding the sharp edge of the cliff, whipping her hair around until it looked like a blonde aura around her face. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. I thought of everything I could write about this. ‘Please, no,’ I said. ‘I’m—’ The wind came up and nearly pushed her off the edge. ‘I’m sorry.’ I saw her step...
Goodnight Teddy
When Teddy’s mother described her son, she used words like ‘sickly’ and ‘not doing well’ and ‘I don’t know how long’. She said them in whispers when she thought he was asleep; she didn’t want him to know she said them. He knew anyway. He was tired and it hurt to breathe. He often woke up gasping for air, like Elizabeth had. She was dead. Mother said Teddy wouldn’t die, but he, at Seven, knew...
Gary's Eyes
She was staring at him, comparing him to Gary. The eyes were the same haunting blue, but that was all. Gary had been dead for nearly two months now, and she still saw his face everywhere. ‘Are you OK?’ He must have seen her staring. ‘I’m fine,’ she said. They introduced themselves. Then she accepted an invitation to dinner. Then they went to her place. Then their mouths were together and she was...
Babies for Breakfast
Katie pushed her breakfast with her spoon, driving the smooth skinned fruit around her plate in wobbly circles, leaving a trail of red, like watery blood, on the shiny white surface. ‘Eat your breakfast, Katie,’ said mummy through a mouthful of toast. ‘It looks like a baby.’ Mummy looked up from her newspaper. She moved her eyes from her daughter’s round face to the blood orange half on the plate....
The Portsmouth Shape
In the grey town of Portsmouth, where a dirty concrete wall kept the dirty sea at bay, was a Shape. It was like a plate metal tail or a horn or a topsy-turvy smoking pipe that had fallen asleep on a Y-shaped pole with its yawning mouth staring down at the saturated ground. Sometimes the Shape would make a mournful sound all on its own, like it was crying for home and murder. The children, who had...
September 2007
22 posts
Delilah and the 1100 Coins
By day, Samson wore his hair in seven thick braids, oiled dark and slick and hung with bells and smelling strongly of fat and jasmine. Come the night, when he sat down upon the thick straw mattress, Delilah came to rest behind him and untangled his braids with her fingers. She washed the fragrances and oils from his hair and dried it between two lengths of clean muslin. ‘What is the secret to your...
The Way of Things
Once upon a time there was a young man with big dreams. When he was small he wanted to be a football player, and then a fireman. When he grew a little older he became interested in computers and astrophysics, then a husband. When he met Nicola, he wanted to be a husband most of all. And so he married her, and worked, moving from cubical to office to bigger office to partnership. Then Nicola left...
Penny, Elephant Extraordinaire
Penny struggled to climb the ladder. Her cumbersome feet kept getting caught in the hemp rungs, and her weight caused her to sway. When she nearly toppled over backwards, but she wrapped her legs around the rough rope and shut her eyes and held on for life. She did not look down as she disentangled herself from the ladder and stepped on to the platform, but she knew that hundreds of faces would be...
The Hero
Eli squinted against the sun. Thunder roared in the near distance; dust obscured the horizon. Shadowy shapes arose from the centre of the cloud: dark, formless beasts with lightening in their feet. One of the beasts whinnied. Horses. Eli rested against his shovel and watched the procession: eight horses, white and tan and dapple grey, each carrying a rider. In the centre, on a stallion as black as...
The Raja's Concubine
Go quietly to her room. Knock three times on the door – one, two, pause, then three, as you agreed – and wait. Be patient: she will come. She is no liar. Hear the whisper of her heavy silk skirts; bare feet against the ground. Hear the silvery laughter of the bells around her ankles. Hear her open the door. See her face, that dusky, cinnamon shade, and her dark eyes. Smell her (all gardenias and...
Is It Art Yet?
A lump of greyish clay, misshapen and ugly and drying at the edges, lay neglected on the dented art table, as it had for over three hours now. And for three hours Melody had been staring at it, uninspired, wishing that it would become art. The exhibition was on Tuesday, and she had a lump of clay. ‘Wow.’ Melody looked towards the door and the source of the voice. It was Sascha: groveller, poseur...
The Last Panacea
He was small and frail, a pale shadow that barely made an indent on the hard hospital mattress. White blankets were pulled up to his waist, white on white. The glare was almost painful to my eyes. His family, gathered around him, awaited the inevitable. They couldn’t see me. The sight of me is the end of things. The room was heavy with the heady aroma of sweat and near-death. He was gasping for...
Could Have
They destroyed all heartache with a single touch, all pain with a kiss. They reformed the world on technology and the greater good, and taught us to be free of hatred and viciousness. It was good while it lasted, but it didn’t last long. Men are cruel, and we hunger for bloody glory. They, so kind, didn’t stand a chance. We fought, our guns against their gentle hands, and slaughtered them and ate...
If You Were Stuck On A Desert Island...
There is one banana left, and it’s sitting in the centre of the long, oddly-angled rock we’re using as a table. Daniel caught the bananas, so he kind of figures that he should have it. Christine says that, because she’s a girl, she should have priority. Lu thinks we should split it in equal parts and all have a bit. Brian and Daniel go to fists over it, because Brian thinks he’s worked just as...
The Secret
Helena kept the secret to life in a wooden ring worn on a gold chain around her neck. The chain was so long that she could tuck that battered ring under her clothes, but she did not do so out of caution; she simply did not know. But Nathaniel knew what it was. It was what drew him to her that night; lured his hand towards the ring while she lay sleeping. Twice he nearly tore it from her neck, but...
First Love
I created My world in anticipation of you. I gave you everything you needed; goodness, love, the kindness of strangers, wickedness, and Me in my divine glory; your Creator, your God. I perfected My world and placed you in it, into the loving arms of a firm mother and a father that worked late but loved you. You were free of providence, but did not suffer from a lack of higher purpose. Quite the...
Honeysuckle
Robert and Julie met in the summer. It was love in a rush; every stolen kiss, every heartbeat was another second lost. If they were aware of it, neither made mention. They promised to keep their memories in a star, to look at it and think of each other. Later, Robert laid Julie down and, with trembling fingers, made clumsy love to her. Summer’s end left them sick with love and mad with each...
Heartsong
Nesta gathered hearts. They came to her as little balls of shimmering yellow light, surrounded by an aura of gilded colours, riding on the winds of change and anticipation. They’d hover above her cauldron, drawn to the lucent liquid that filled it: consecrated water, rosehip, and the beat of his heart. She had never returned it. She caught them in jars, like fireflies, and lined them up on the...
Finding Home
Were she back in London, Natalie would never have had the guts to go through with this. Were she there — home — instead of here in Burkina Faso, the new wife of a tyrannical prince, she would not have had to. In London, little girls left uncircumcised weren’t anathema. ‘This will only tickle,’ said the Elder woman, in a language that was more flowery than clicking and whistling. The Elder pushed...
Happily Ever After
‘So,’ said Prince Liam. ‘Yes?’ said the Princess. ‘Er.’ He suddenly felt very warm. ‘Your tower is very…clean.’ The Princess lifted her lukewarm tea to her lips, but failed to stifle her disappointed sigh. ‘Oh.’ She spoke into the rim of her china teacup. ‘Thank you.’ Unfortunately, their’s wasn’t really a fairytale relationship. The Prince had been assured finding his true love was as...
...And Dolly Makes Three
Cooper had stumbled across the mad vampire Blight’s dolly by accident, and had kept it for ransom; her precious toy in exchange for immortality. Bitch. He had told her how to find him and now he was a busted mess on the warehouse floor. ‘Take it…,’ wheezed Cooper. He offered the threadbare doll by its floppy foot. Blight, pissed and trembling, snatched the doll from his hands and turned on her...
Little Boy Lost
A cry caught their attention. David pried open the Venetian blinds with two fingers and searched the hostile street. The midnight world was dirty and broken. Street lamps cast a flickering light over the filthy streets, revealing the true horror in stuttering snapshots: corpses, thousands of them, every one of them threatening to reanimate. ‘Mummy!’ Halfway up the street, a boy stumbled through...
Dear Callie
The road ahead of me stretches over the sand dunes then disappears over the horizon; miles of hard, bubbling tarmac becoming a tiny dot. For a minute I almost let myself believe that you’re just over the horizon, waiting. Whatever. Facts are you’re still out there. I could walk this road for a billion years and never reach you. It’s hard, you know? Like, I wonder if I’m making this up in my head,...
Making Amends
Paul was everything she had ever wanted. He was the embodiment of every cliché quality she had desired, like personality, a great body, success, a killer smile. Perfect. Now he was there, naked pressed against her, his arm cradling her against his chest. Now she knew why Lucy kept him around. Guilt formed into a fist and ground into her insides until she had to disentangle herself and stand, had...
Fingertips
The young American is only the silhouette of his shadow on the white-grey ceiling. His colleagues, convinced that I am addle-minded, are always candid in my presence. They claim that he stays here in London for me alone. Odd, when I am no different from any catatonic in any other lunatic asylum. Though he is silent as he inspects me, it comes as no surprise when he brushes my cheek with his...
Traitor's Edge
Forever ago, Molly and I would go down to Traitor’s Edge. The name was Molly’s idea, but search me where it came from. For me, Traitor’s Edge was just a seaside cave carved into a cliff face. Molly would drag me down there to watch the tide fill the cave. The time we missed it, she decided it would be fun to watch it come in from inside. I was scared; Molly didn’t tease me for leaving. Now I never...
Do Over
The sky was a purple bruise, the lightning white lacerations against the sickly surface. The land was as ill as the sky; a dry, chapped memory of a better place. Perched on the gentle slope of a tall hill, hidden from view by stubby remnants of a forest, Red surveyed the dead world. She had been walking for hours, and now her calloused feet were crying for respite and her back was burning from...