I search the garden, behind every bush and tree trunk, in among the trellises of cascading beans and peas, all the places a precocious six-year-old would deem a magical queendom. She wasn’t in her bedroom or the den, not lurking in the ghostly shadows of the infinite corridor, so the garden is the only place […]
Category: Short Stories and Flash Fiction
Picking Lice from a Troll
When I was born, or so I’ve been told, I was almost handed over to a goblin by the name of Rumpelstiltskin in exchange for a spot of spinning. What my mother didn’t tell me, when we had the ‘woman to woman’ talk, was that her trickery meant I would marry a troll. I blame […]
Tearing down the House
The abandoned building rose out of the snowy scrub, a fungus spreading spores of fear and sorrow. Uninhabited for over fifty years, suicide and murder tainted its walls and floors with faded splashes of red that refused to disappear. It was no mystery who had murdered the family; he had been executed long ago. Everyone […]
Granddad’s Bicycle
When Mark and Pat renovated the family home, they discovered an old bicycle hidden under the porch. “That old thing must have been Granddad’s when he was a kid,” Pat said. Mark stared at his brother. Pat was the DIY expert and he was just there to do the donkey work. “I hope you don’t […]
Christmas Comet
When the comet hit, the town lit up like a Christmas tree. In the darkest hours of morning, there was no one there to see – just a lonely street sweeper, his eyes like slits, too tired to blink. The whole town was asleep, dreaming of better times, of snowflakes and presents under a tree. […]
The Keeper of Time
I know that this is a little late for Halloween but I only just found out that it was unsuccessful in a short story competition, so I thought I’d post it now. She had been walking for just over an hour. Her thighs burned and her calves ached. Blisters had erupted on the little toe […]
Bookworm Holes
My response to Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Tale Weaver #79: Wormhole The librarian had gone off to make himself a coffee. Thursday afternoon was always slow and quiet, with one or two people logged on to computers, booking a holiday or applying for jobs. No kids until well after three. Sitting low in a comfy chair in the […]
Wait for me
Screwing up his face, Simon squinted and fixed his eyes on the fireflies dancing and leaping above the wooden fence at the bottom of the garden. It was a late summer afternoon and he remembered his father telling him that fireflies only came out when it was dark. The six-year-old boy stood on tiptoe a […]
The Smuggler’s Treasure
Happisburgh is a pretty, ancient coastal village, battered by the North Sea at the top of Norfolk, a place where smugglers were known to land their boats and stash their booty. For more than two hundred years, villagers and visitors to the area reported seeing a glowing figure of a man dressed in the clothes […]
Spoon Man
A flicker of flash fiction for a Monday morning. Vicki bounded up the steps, Jez and Connor right behind her, lugging guitar cases. She sat down outside the café. ‘What’s your poison?’ Jez asked. Vicki was about to request a mocha, when she heard a sound like bells. She twisted her body and, in between […]
writing in north norfolk 