Category: Microfiction

“Hello mate.” “Oh. Hi.”“You ok?” “All good.”“You sure?” “…”“What’s up?” “…”“Dude. Talk.” “She’s gone.”“Who? Erin?” “Who else?”“When? Today?” “No. Sunday.”“Oh. Shit.” “Really shit.”“I’m sorry.” “Me too.”“Another drink?” “God yes.” * “What happened?” “She cheated.”“You sure?” “Pretty sure.”“Because why?” “She changed.”“Changed how?” “Dunno. Secretive.”“Secretive like…?” “Her phone.”“Calls? Messages?” “Both. Lots.”“Oh. Shit.” “Really shit.”“Another drink?” “God yes.” * “Ben.…

She had always been accident prone. As a child she could trip over anything. A kerb. A tree root. Her own feet. She lost teeth, carried bruises like they were pennies and broke the occasional bone. As a young adult the clumsiness didn’t abate. She stubbed toes and dropped cutlery with alarming regularity. She refused…

The three friends sat with their knees almost touching at the too small table in the too crowded pub. The pint glasses in front of them were half full. Or half empty, depending on your outlook. “Why is it that we only do this once a year?” A synchronised mouthful from the glasses. “You know…

“Mummy, how old were you when you got rid of your favourite cuddly toy?” A thoughtful, wistful expression. “I’m not sure. Probably around twenty.” A twinkling laugh, a grey toy rabbit clutched in a small hand. “That’s so old Mummy!” * She was now thirty eight years old, and that grey rabbit with a single plastic…

She was so angry at them. But she was angrier at herself. She had allowed herself to believe the hype. That she would be famous. Perhaps even rich. Everyone was going to know her name, and they were going to remember it for generations. Well that bit would be true at least. As she hurtled…

She never questioned the shape of her seven sided home surrounded by the unusual trees. It was all she knew. She didn’t remember moving into the single storey dwelling. She couldn’t remember if she’d had any homes before it. She couldn’t remember if she’d seen trees brighter than the ones that loomed outside. The earth…

“I’m not afraid of anything.” The snake overheard the boastful man, standing outside his enclosure in too tight trousers and a very silly shirt showing too much of his chest. He saw these people every day, strutting like those arrogant peacocks with their ostentatious plumage. He heard them baying for attention with their gratingly loud…

She envied the starlings and their vantage point, dancing above the earth. The overseers. She envied the whales and their knowledge of the oceans, diving to depths she would never know. The discoverers. She envied the cheetahs and the way they seemed to play with time, sprinting across the ground at impossible speeds. The athletes.…

After everything that had happened, you can’t blame me for day-drinking. Returning home at lunchtime, a bag of clinking glass in my hand, I found a tall woman sprawled inelegantly on the front steps, surrounded by sweet wrappers. She didn’t recognise me. To be fair, I had changed a lot in the last twelve years.…

How can she only be eight? My daughter’s brow is too furrowed for her age. She has already grasped how precious time is but I want her to exist without the threat of it pressing down on to her birdlike shoulders. I want to use my fingers to smooth out those lines on her forehead,…