Cherrypicked stories
For a while …
Her “will” was a “won’t” and her “won’t” was “I want”, but there’s safety in “don’t” and “No”, “Not now”, “Not anyhow” from loving parents with more...
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- 9 comments
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- 72 reads
When Robert Left Helen
Chekhov, he reminded her, was dead at forty!
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- 10 comments
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- 354 reads
Faces
We wear faces, until they wear us. Image created from PD components by author.
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- 1 comment
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- 66 reads
The secrets we keep in the closet
I had successfully memorized the street corners to evade the anxiety of getting lost on my way back from the supermarket. Never mind that it took me...
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- 37 reads
The Anthem of Decay: Prologue – The worship of graves
This is out of sequence with the previous posts, but will help to situate the ones posted.
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- 53 reads
Biddies
Clinging hard to life with shrill knuckles of rosaries, in coats like bruises they prayed through pinched lips and plastic teeth. Hail Mary . The...
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- 46 reads
Song of the Frankengale
'Truly' said Dr W, stroking the Frankengale's breast, 'a wonder of our science.'
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- 26 reads
WebWorld (1.13)
Well, I guess you know this is not the story of how I was jumped and killed – and eaten – by some gum-horror leaping out of the web. It was close...
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- 27 reads
WebWorld (1.12)
Okay, not night exactly. Tail-end dusk with just touches of grey and red and turquoise still soaking into the air. There’s that thing isn’t there,...
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- 39 reads
School Day Memories
'Konichi-wa, serving lady-san'
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- 2 comments
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- 41 reads
The Cellist /Adolphina
THE CELLIST @paulbarrellbooks Am I destined to be alone in my beloved ‘City of Light’? I do not speak these words; they are mere thoughts circling in...
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- 139 reads
A Bad Sport
A Bad Sport Yi should see the motors in the car park – thirs a Bentley, a Porsche and an Aston Martin. Am sittin’ on the wee knee-high wall opposite...
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- 5 comments
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- 331 reads
WebWorld (1.11)
Getting the hell out was well and good. But we needed a plan. And since I’d been thinking about this pretty solidly for weeks on end, I’d started to...
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- 228 reads
Monday Morning in the Rain
Summer slow day and smiles are hard to give, where nothing is said or done. We cannot find new ways to triumph, where joy is staring at us as if an...
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- 54 reads
A Flag of Convenience
...and an unpaid bill. (Flash fiction - 475 words)
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- 4 comments
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- 125 reads
WebWorld (1.10)
The air-drops came. And then the air-drops stopped coming. I used to like this apartment for its view. That view went sideways during the apocalypse...
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- 104 reads
Maria's Diary 33
Chapter 33 What happened to Yeh after the war Both Man and Time have power O'er suffering, dying men; But Death arrives, and in that hour The soul is...
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- 8 comments
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- 64 reads
Disenchantment 34
***** It was hot out, so horrifically hot, and he was sweating. The discomfort reached a level that started to pull him out of the fog, out of the...
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- 9 comments
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- 112 reads