Category: Short Story
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TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD
The power saw sliced through the panel at the wrong angle. ‘Dammit.’ The latest mishap during the garage renovation. The myna bird laughed. Definitely a laugh this time. Three days it had perched, mocking his every calamity. ‘Funny, is it?’ he asked. The yellow beak cachinnated. He put some seed in his hand. The myna…
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ISN’T IT ALWAYS
Jean-Louis watched the person in the water. He had piloted his small coal barge for thirty years, travelling back and forth along the canal between Arles and For-Sur-Mer on the coast. The canal was straight, had only one lock, and passed through farmland and a nature reserve. It was unusual to see anyone on the paths alongside…
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RETURN TO THE PAST
The heat was relentless. Even under his straw hat, Phillips could feel his scalp burning. The locals stayed indoors during the middle of the day, when the sun was at it’s peak. That was why he chose to take his daily stroll at this time. His cane slipped on the uneven cobbles as he wandered…
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LOVE
‘Fifty-nine dead. Five hundred injured.’ Hannah says it more to herself than anyone else. ‘Terrorists again?’ the young girl playing on the floor asks her. ‘Just a man with a gun.’ ‘It’s never going to stop, is it, Mum?’ ‘It hasn’t stopped since time began. All this violence toward each other,’ she shakes her head.…
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FARMER BARRY
When he was a small boy, Barry loved playing with the toy farm his father made for him. He tended to the small cows, sheep and pigs, drove the tractor, mucked out the stables and fed the horses. Sometimes his father would join him, but after his parents divorce he sat playing on his own.…
Iain Kelly 