and other short stories
October 26, 2019 Father Time looks nothing like you'd expect. He's a skinny kid with a big afro. He's wearing jeans and a white T-shirt with YOLO scrawled across the front. Below that it asks cheekily in smaller text, 'Or do you?' "Ready?" He says to me. "Ready," I say. We are at the bottom … Continue reading Untitled
It started as a slight tickle, as if someone was brushing her ear with a blade of grass. At first Damia wiped at it, then looked at her finger to see what was there. Nothing. At home, when it happened again, she asked Dave to take a look inside her ear, still nothing. The sensation … Continue reading What Damia Heard
Celestine and her friends often whispered to each other across the vast distances. To say they whispered isn't quite accurate, for stars actually don't speak. They shimmer and blink, or as we say, twinkle. They do this in a kind of rhythmic movement, giving off meaning, that if you're a star, you understand perfectly … Continue reading Celestine’s Choice
Image by Kerstin Herrmann from Pixabay Alert: swearing (milder than you'd expect for the characters) ************************* Rush said he would come back to get me. He said he would get a job and find us a place then I could come live with him. He said not to worry, it wouldn't always be like this. … Continue reading Rush
Photo source: Games and Play "Lock up your legs likkle girl." "But how mi go play jacks wid mi legs together?" "Decent girl no sit down so." "But why?" "Chruups! But you ever see any crosses like this though eenh? Mi mother woulda roll inna her grave!" "But why Mammy?" "But what a pickney out … Continue reading A Decent Girl Pickney
"Marble today," announced Kirk. "We play marble yesterday," Mitzy protested. "Mek we play dandy shandy." "Sun too hot fi run up and down," he said. "Dandy shandy." Mitzy held her ground. "Marble." Mitzy drew a line in the dirt. "All who want marble over yah so. All who want dandy shandy over deh so." … Continue reading Lines Drawn
She knew something was wrong the minute she started the climb the steep hill that led to Ma Enid's house. It was too quiet.
The sun bearing down on the aluminium roof, was tempered only by the breeze that came from the sea. Eleven year old Mitzy, tired of playing with the cloth dolly, arranged seashells to form a paisley pattern. She heard her mother groan and shift her weight on the creaking bed. "Mitzy oh!" "Yes Mama!" "Bring … Continue reading The Wait
A smile tugged at the corners of Chang's lips, tentative, trembling at first. Then slowly, gaining confidence, it spread from corner to corner, separated his lips then his teeth and releasing a chuckle that morphed into a wild, manic laugh that wracked his body. It's happened, he thought. She's gone. I'm free. Some wayward spit … Continue reading Chang Reacts to Lizza’s departure
Rum. That's what the last month had been like. A distillation of every emotion she'd ever experienced and some that she didn't even know existed. Ralph excited her, maddened her, calmed her. Her world spun with him in it, like a carousel going full speed, time whizzing by, a kaleidoscope of colour. One morning, they stopped … Continue reading Little Red Ridinghood – Revisted
"I thought I'd find you here," Carol said
"You shouldn't have come." Burt answered.
He’d just botched one job and really couldn’t afford to mess this one up.
Hard to imagine that these same waves that gently wash up to the seashore, an invisible hand pulling them back from the same line (more or less), will ebb and flow, ebb and flow a million times, no less, until they arrive to crash against the rocks in some distant place. I stand watching … Continue reading Seashore
Eccleston wrapped some essentials in a handkerchief and tied it to the end of a stick; a chunk of cheddar, a crouton that smelled of caesar, and his favourite thing - a yellow button. He’d not gone far when he met his cousin. “I hear that Camembert is divine and brie is to die for, I … Continue reading Eccleston Steps Out
He scaled the stairs, two at a time up, to their bedroom. After a frenzied burst of emptying drawers, pockets, bags, shoes, it crossed his mind that the magnet wasn't in the house.
The Stories People Tell 