Silent speculation

Some followers may recognise parts of this story from another context but I decided recently to take it in a different direction. The inevitable intrusion came. Bruce opened the door swiftly, startling the middle-aged man in the high-viz jacket planted on the verandah, bearing a six-pack. He closed the door again, just as swiftly. Mission …

That laugh

"The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there." ― L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between. For me, the 70's were not so much another country as another universe, They officially met in art school, although he’d been admiring her from afar in the college canteen for a while. In his third year of social work, he was allowed …

The Contract – Chapter the 3rd – In which ‘he’ acquires a name.

I think this probably stands alone but if you'd like to read the foreplay, the first two chapters are here. The contract | Six Crooked Highways (wordpress.com) The Contract – What Kate did next | Six Crooked Highways (wordpress.com) Flynn read the letter several times over, climbed on to the ancient TD-18 International Harvester tractor …

Have you seen your mother, baby, standing in the shadow?

Title from the Rolling Stones song. Christopher had been raised to believe that his mother adored him (her pet name for him was Christopher Robin). Every minor milestone was shared with the world at large, whether it be academic, sporting or literary. At any social gathering, she would interrupt anyone crowing about their child’s achievements …

Re-born

‘We grew up together, From the cradle to the grave, We died and were reborn, And then mysteriously saved.’ -  Bob Dylan ‘Oh, Sister’. It was Charles who first noticed it. We were sitting in the back room of the abandoned offices that were our temporary home when he said ‘You know, we could be brothers.’ I …

Grumblebum’s Balls of Fate

This piece was written for Fractured Lit , with the challenge to submit 'stories of ghosts, fables, allegory, and fractured fairy tales in 1,000 words or less ... that investigate the mysteries of being human, the sorrow, and the joy of connecting to the diverse population around us.' With his clumpy red hair, his face …

The Palace of the Silver Screen

Welcome to the Grand Opening of my new cinema, The Palace of the Silver Screen! New in the sense of technology and fit-out but decidedly retro in bringing back the movie theatre experience of the Golden Days of Hollywood. Thrill to the experience of luxurious electrically heated seats, which double as non-lethal electric chairs. Laugh …

Me and you and DSU, unhappy together.

When James woke up, the first thing he saw was Helen sitting in a stiff-backed faux leather hospital armchair and the first thing he heard was her reading a passage from ‘The Grapes of Wrath’, in a passable American accent. He grunted to get her attention. She barely raised her eyes at the noise but …

The final siren

‘Jo’, he said, as they sat, in their ancient re-cycled armchairs on the back verandah, watching dusk descend upon on ‘The Farm’, aka the backyard patch they had labored long and hard to rescue from suburban desertification. Knowing she was listening, he continued, ‘When did you first decide that you loved me?’. She knew this …

Mervyn Martian and Edgar Earthling discuss jobs

Mervyn: Edgar, what is a ‘job’? Edgar: It’s task or a set of tasks that an employer pays you to complete. The money you receive pays for your food, housing, clothing etc. M: But I keep hearing that there aren’t enough jobs, so people have no money. E: Well, they get some money from the …