Short Story Sunday: The Space Between [Part One]

“That’s it. That’s all that’s left of him.”

I stared at the faded strip of photo paper which showed my great-aunt Rosa with her husband Fred. It was taken in a booth by the seaside in those lean years after World War I, when people clung to each other because everything else was expendable.

“What happened?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

Short Story Sunday: The Gathering

The first time Thea became aware of the possibility of something more to life than polishing her school shoes on Sunday nights, remembering to feed her goldfish Fred every day and trying to keep up with Mrs Pritchett’s horrid times table quizzes was when she walked into a library. There were large mobiles swaying from the ceiling, each featuring characters and scenes from Roald Dahl books. Her eyes were drawn to the large text dangling below a depiction of The Minpins: “Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.” The quirky lettering seemed to mock Thea, as if to say that she’d never believed, had she? From that moment on, she became determined to find magic by believing in it almost as hard as she believed in Father Christmas, the Tooth Mouse and the Easter Bunny. Except for one small thing: whenever Thea tried to tell anyone about her magical mission, people laughed. They scoffed, called her childish and ridiculous and taunted her for voicing her vision to them. She began to wish she had never set foot in that stupid library and seen that quote, and who was dumb old Dahl anyway? What did he know about magic? He was making it all up. He was a liar.

Saturday Story: To Catch a Killer

He tried to quiet the sound of his breathing. The last thing he wanted was to alert Klement that he was nearby. It was no mean feat. The panic he felt escaped his nostrils in small puffs before disappearing into the night air. A car door slammed in the distance and two cats battled it out in their alley. His good eye was trained on the doorway above the fire escape. The instructions he received told him that at exactly three minutes after the hour, Stuttgart, Hollander and their kingpin Klement would appear before meeting their driver in the unmarked taxi below. His back tensed; his safety catch was off and in forty-five seconds, all would be revealed. It surprised him when he had to dab his brow despite the chill.

Short Story Sunday: The Traitor

“What are we going to do now?”

Elise looked at the tear in her glove.

Friedrich placed a hand on her arm. “You cannot avoid looking at me forever.”

Short Story Sunday: The Mapmaker of Destiny

I was not aware that I had fallen asleep. It took me a moment to adjust to newness of my surroundings. Someone had moved me into the recovery position, and my cheek was resting on my arm. I heard voices; all at once and then distinctly.

Saturday Story: Next Customer Please

With a kind of resolution that was unusual for her on a Saturday night, Louisa decided to visit the local hardware store the next day to replace her desk lamp’s bulb. She refused to spend another week squinting at her paperwork: the crime of the decade was on trial and she couldn’t afford another mishap.

Saturday Story: Two Silver Bullets

You find yourself sidling up to Madelyn’s booth. You’re in a bind and she is the only one on earth who can get you out of it. You take note of the cowboy hat sticking out over the division between the smoking and non-smoking seating area. He has his back to you, so you feel all right, for now. Madelyn is tallying up the day’s takings; her shift is almost at an end, so you clear your throat as you take the seat opposite her.

“What do you want, Marv?”

Short Story Sunday: Fire Inside the Man

Jed watched as a flame swirled around his finger. He could feel its warmth and see the light, but the heat stayed millimetres away from his skin. 

It had taken months to reach this point, and the joy of victory meant he could not stop himself from playing with the flame, letting it jump from finger to finger until he let it die in a puff of white. He could not wait for Percival to return from his travels so that he could show him that the lessons had paid off; that he was finally learning to bend the elements at will. Wind he could summon without much effort, water leapt out of the earth to greet him, but fire... Fire had taken the longest time and been the most painful to master.

Short Story: This is How it Ends

"What's that you're working on? It looks like a test."

Sarah paused before responding. The whole point of having a pile of essays to mark was to avoid talking to anyone on the flight. And, to make things worse, the chatterbox was unperturbed by the aisle space between them.

Short Story Sunday: Ordinary Magic

"How long have you two known each other?"

She cannot help but blush and graze her knuckles against his as she shifts her weight from one foot to the other. On recovering her courage, Anna looks Gem squarely in the eye and says, "I feel like I've known him my whole life."

"Of course you have. Of course you do." Gem adjusts the red frame on her nose. "That much is obvious to everyone."