Posters were plastered all over town, filling us with expectation: ‘OGDEN’S EXTRAORDINARY OBSERVATORY – ONE NIGHT ONLY’. We had to go. It’s in an abandoned factory that was closed when we were children, the year my best friend Rachel discovered astronomy. I’m glad I remembered to bring a torch. Ogden is a creepy man, clown-like […]
Category: Prose
After the Smog Came
Nobody listened to the warnings, so when it came, it was a shock. The atmosphere was so badly poisoned by toxic smog from burning forests, exhaust fumes and waste, it leaked into space and discoloured the face of the moon. It just disappeared. After a number of years, older children had forgotten about it and […]
A Pocketful of Time
Their childhood pockets were always full of stuff: fluff-covered sweets, stubs of pencils, rubber bands, and tiny plastic figures from breakfast cereal, their currency to trade and play with on a rainy afternoon. That afternoon, when it is over, said and done, it was a time – and there was never enough of it […]
Ghost Cats and Magpies
Will’s eyes followed the shadow while his fingers untwisted the last ribbon. He took off after it, swiftly but stealthily, slipping behind tree trunks and bushes, not once looking behind him to check if everything was as it should be. The shadow was moving away from the green, towards the other end of the village, […]
Luna and the Blood Moon
Luna was hunting. She had left the house before twilight and was waiting for her namesake to give her a sign. She had already feasted on a vole and a field mouse. Magic was in the air. Grandmother’s grimoire had promised freedom from her feline form. The words were indelibly burnt in her memory: When […]
After the Virus
Megan closed the Chat Window, replacing it with the World Window, and sighed. The daily chat with her mother was becoming a chore and she felt ashamed to feel that way. None of her Friends seemed to have a problem with their mothers, but then hers had been much older when she ‘gave birth’. There […]
To Unravel a Maypole
From his hiding place behind the throne, Will watched until every villager had dropped off to sleep, including the May Queen and her attendants. Silence fell like a curtain on a theatrical performance. He wasn’t sure what to do: stay and keep watch over Willa’s sleeping neighbours or return to the cottage to help her. […]
Meeting Myself in a Dream
Last night, I dreamed about the city, the noise and clamour of traffic, masses of commuters streaming from the gaping mouths of the underground, heels tip-tapping, bags swinging, steaming plastic cups of coffee proffered like torches leading the way to work with their bitter aroma. Buses rumbled, horns blared, and exhaust fumes discombobulated rays of […]
Honeymoon
After years of living alone, he believed he’d found happiness. The wedding had been low-key – registry office and the local pub for a meal with friends. They’d spent a bit more on the honeymoon. Now they stood on a beach that stretched before them, a swathe of ochre against an ocean of blue, while […]
Only a Dream
She gets into bed accompanied by a whisper of rain like a tentative apology, lulling her into a fitful sleep. It drips through her dreams, punctuating them with watery full stops. So many dreams, like the flicker books she loved as a child, only the pictures change too quickly, from the first day of lockdown, […]
