Newbie

“… confounded me with his disturbing narrative…”

To explain a little in case this wasn’t clear: Four Ling leaves 🙂

Thanks, Janette. I’ve taken the opportunity to post a possible opening of the as yet untitled Luke #5. 362 words.

Prologue?

Lucy Longland, who had only gone to check her hair, emerged from the Ladies in Leith’s Registry Office too prematurely for Dylan Richards to successfully make himself invisible. Her smile a blend of pleasure and warning, s…[Read more]

Well done, J!
Apologies, John. I actually wrote something for this but never got round to tidying it up 🙁

Well done, Jeanette – super piece. Great comp, John!

Congratulations, Janette – nice work! And thanks John for the prompt.

Congratulations Jeanette. It is a stunning piece of writing. And thanks John for provoking such a great collection of stories!

Well done, Janette, and thank you John for releasing words I’d not anticipated writing. Thanks also for some brilliantly enjoyable reads.

Well, I’ve read your entries with great enjoyment. Jeanette gave a beautiful allegorical rendition of the passing seasons, Athers made me laugh with his tale of Norman, the folium-phobiac hoist by his own petard, Sandra found a silver lining and Barney completely confounded me with this disturbing narrative – I’m still asking myself, what the h…[Read more]

Untitled
I sit on the park bench under the pines whose needles clog the spaces between its wooden rungs and whose scent mingles with the faint smell of urine and of the sweet green mould that covers the wood.

Children race around me, chasing after the leaves that whirl on the wind. I look for you in their faces. I look for me too. But we are not…[Read more]

Captive No More

Immovable behind a wide table, the five children sat strangely motionless. From tallest on the right to smallest on the left, they patiently faced an audience seated on ten rows of scarlet-topped hotel ballroom chairs.

The tallest child spoke first. “My name is One,” he said quietly, but loud enough. “I am the oldest. I am…[Read more]

Patience undoubtedly a virtue (308 words)

In the same way that Christmas cards seem each year to embrace a different theme – last year it was robins, the year before gold-embossed letters and musical notes – this year’s trend in ‘In sympathy’ cards appeared to be fallen leaves. Drifts of them, beneath trees, along kerb edges, gold and yellow sc…[Read more]

Steps of passing ghosts

‘Trees are at their best when they’re turned into timber,’ said Norman as he picked the large golden leaf from his decking, crushing it in his hand. He had searched for ages to find this house with no trees in sight. There had been a spruce in the garden when he moved in, that the previous owner said had been a Chris…[Read more]

And thank you Ath for setting the competition and giving us all helpful feedback. Apologies for not mentioning this before.