Martin Kettle, formally of Stoneyclough but now resident of Penn Beacon, was stood on a table in the Eight Kings. He was taping the fourth corner of a large poster of Bob Dylan's face to the wall at the end of the bar. "No, no, Sam," he was saying. "It's ‘uff’, not ‘ow’. Stoneyclough." He … Continue reading The Bristol Arm.
Category: Short fiction
Twelve Shitty Acres.
1 Time passed like what it does waiting for dinner to cook and then PING, one day, a Tuesday or a Monday or something, the ugly folk of Twelve Shitty Acres got a break. One of them, an orange coloured dolly who went by the name of Lil-Let, came home with a little stapled book. … Continue reading Twelve Shitty Acres.
As Thin As Holy Bible Paper.
1 He came back this time as a monkey: a macaque with a vague longing; an ache for a mate, for a cloud-capped, snowy mountain to retreat to, for the hot water springs there to bathe in. He hummed, as best he could remember them, the birdsongs from the ever-after. He came back. And, for … Continue reading As Thin As Holy Bible Paper.
Long Gone.
They say their goodbyes and the lad climbs up into the kitchen sink, putting the books on the washboard. He steps out through the slatted panel onto the sill, turns, the Fish Man hands him the belted stack of books and, in one minute, he's on Pentonville Road. The road is bathed in street light … Continue reading Long Gone.
Slow Fade.
Her father vanished when the world was Kodak. She barely remembers him. She has this photo of him that she has kept; though god knows how she's managed this. He sits in a deck chair in a back garden, bank of roses, timber shed, flannel trousers, a white shirt unbuttoned at the throat, at the … Continue reading Slow Fade.
Aces, Fruits & Ingots.
Louella looking out the no-one-can-look-in glass. Everything inside the car defined. Everything outside blurring. Towns appear and disappear. Endless dual-carriage and fields. There is motion. There is none. There is heat. Burning Spear on repeat. There is no sickness. No one spoke as they drove west. They stayed the night at a clean hotel in Meredith. … Continue reading Aces, Fruits & Ingots.