Category: Friday Fictioneers
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HIDDEN GEM
The jagged edge of a smashed decorative glass hangs in the doorway. A gust catches it, sending it swinging into the wall. Another piece of blue shatters. Progress through the dark house, flashlight highlights: furniture upturned, crockery smashed, cupboards ripped open. Had they found it? Move upstairs, lift the floorboard. Still there, safe and sound.…
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GATHERING AT THE CAFE ROUGE
Typical. Hours of practice on facial proportions, angles and shadows wasted. She’d spent so long getting the nose and mouth just right on each person in the scene. She sighed and mixed the colours. Plenty of medical light blue for most. A couple of brighter hues for the more imaginative people. A small rectangle added…
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THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE
He was sweating. His back ached. His arms couldn’t carry the heavy parcel much further along the pedestrianised street. 4300, 4301, 4302… Almost there. He didn’t think about the walk back to the start of the street that awaited. His car was parked outside house No.1. 4376. He had made it. He dropped the parcel…
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EVERYTHING BUT THE KITCHEN SINK
‘How about this… Americans harnessed electricity,…’ ‘Yes, very good, Mr. President.’ ‘…we split the atom…’ ‘Well, sir, technically that was a New Zealander.’ ‘…we gave the world the telephone…’ ‘That was a Scotsman, Sir’ ‘…and the internet…’ ‘Tim Berners-Lee was an Englishman working in Switzerland.’ ‘…we settled the Wild West…’ ‘Maybe don’t highlight our record…
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JUST VISITING
‘What is he doing?’ ‘I have no idea.’ ‘He’s just standing there.’ A small group of onlookers stopped on the sidewalk to stare at the man standing in the middle of the intersection. ‘Did he just come out of the manhole cover?’ ‘Should we ask if he needs help?’ The lights changed. Yellow cabs swerved…
Iain Kelly 