― John Berger, Keeping a Rendezvous
Gary Beck’s one act play: I Like Eyck
(A room in an art gallery. Well known reproductions of masterpiece paintings are hung in plain frames, either mounted on the walls, on poles, or on easels. The director is at his desk. enter Mr. Van Emery. The director rises and greets him.) Director Ah. Mr Van Emery. Welcome. I’m so glad you could come.…
Keep readingTapti Bose’s short story: Shyamol Da
Shyamol Da!’ It was the clerk of the law firm Chatterjee and Co. calling the office peon Shyamol Da at the top of his voice. Dalhousie Mansion, the British-era building with its khorhori windows, the address of Chatterjee and Co., stood on the main road of the office para of Kolkata. The Writers Building and…
Keep readingKeith Ludden’s short story: Resurrection
Author’s Note: This story is a work of fiction, containing many fictional and imaginary elements, but it is inspired by the story of Our Lady of Carmel church at Lille, Maine. The church was closed in 1978, after which Don Cyr, a historian at the University of Maine Presque Isle made it his mission to…
Keep readingE. W. Farnsworth’s short story: What a Circus
We are all going to die. All of us. What a circus! – Charles Bukowski Petulia rolled over and stood up as the sawdust hovered and the horse continued circling, oblivious to the human drama. The dancer rubbed a sore spot high on her pelvis where the impact had been. Sure no bones had been…
Keep readingArjun Razdan’s creative piece of fiction: The Abdullah Dynasty of Kashmiri Homaridae
To Chère Mme R. (C.R.), who finally lent me money, as all mothers should to their sons, and allowed the completion of this nouvelle… Regió de Catalunya (C.R.) accueillis Raunak Churangoo (C.R.), who flirts with the Chiquitas Redolendas (C.R.), eats the Cannellini Refridos (C.R.) and bathes on the plage of Ciutadella de Retaguardia (C.R.), who…
Keep readingRathin Bhattacharjee’s short stort: Take Me To Your Heart
School over, Lhemo, the VP, intercepted me on the way. “Mr. Bhattacharjee, I’ve been thinking about your request. Each of our Staff Quarters has four units. You can occupy the ground floor unit of the first building. You'll have to share it with another teacher though. Accommodation is tight here. Come in the evening. I’ll…
Keep readingDeclan Geraghty’s short story: Run Mama Run
Mother died this morning, mother still looks the same. If only I had one more week with mother, just one more week. To settle, just to settle, nothing else. Mother looks different this morning, mother looks so different that even the mirror, the mirror feels it. The mirror in the hall, the one I look…
Keep readingJohn Saunders’ short story: Road Rage
He’s been lying in the ditch for the last hour, waiting. Despite the waterproof coat, the layers of undergarments, the knee-high boots and rubber gloves, he is soaked through to the skin. He’s wearing a balaclava and is stretched out on a groundsheet. Betsy is beside him, tucked in neatly under a blanket, dry as…
Keep readingMarco Etheridge’s short story: One Dollar’s Worth
Pete had time on his hands and, big bonus, he wasn’t bleeding face-down in an alley. Midday sunlight erased the shadows. Traffic rumbled past on the Kennedy Expressway. Saturday, and the Cubbies were playing. All in all, a good morning so far. The deal had gone down with minimum suspicion and zero bloodshed. Unlike some…
Keep readingSushma R Doshi’s short story: My Aunt Meena
She moved in with us in March when I was seven and Ivy was four. Not like a tornado but the aftermath of an unpleasant hailstorm. My Aunt Meena. Papa's sister. Five years elder to him. Childless and therefore, alone, after her husband, Uncle Ravi, passed away, Papa insisted we accommodate her as had no…
Keep readingJibendu Narayan Mazumder’s short story: What If?
[The tale of Troy is one of the most enduring and tragic stories in the annals of history. It is a saga of heroism, love, betrayal, and the inexorable march of fate. In the traditional narrative, Hector, the noble defender of Troy, meets his end at the hands of Achilles. With Hector’s death, the Trojan…
Keep readingKen Post’s short story: Cat Face
The Taurus pulled into the driveway, and Mike turned the ignition off. “Home, sweet home, hon.”Callie sighed and squinted in the afternoon sun at the 962-square-foot tract home with grey cedar siding and green trim. Mike’s work van with the gold lettering proclaiming ‘Mike’s Plumbing & Heating’ sat next to them in the driveway. Tired…
Keep readingZeke Jarvis’s short story: Need You Tonight
Michelle was looking out the window when she heard the laughing. That meant her roommate was back, most likely drunk and definitely with her boyfriend. They had to come back early enough to avoid the RA’s checking IDs. Sure enough, after some rustling and more laughing, the dorm room door swung open, and there was…
Keep readingSara Ali’s short story: Tickets to Paradise
As the movie started, and Clooney graced the screen in the first shot itself. But I glanced at him—the man sitting beside me, the one who had been my constant for 25 years. A playful smirk tugged at my lips as I thought back to my younger days, my wild obsession with George Clooney. Oh,…
Keep readingSara Ali’s short story: Nostalgia: The Gentle Whisper of Yesterday
Nostalgia—what a lovely word, especially for softies like us, who carry entire lifetimes in our memories, who feel the ache and warmth of yesterdays not just in our hearts, but in each and every moment, and in the quietness where all thoughts settle. The older we get, the more of it we gather—like autumn leaves…
Keep readingSara Ali’s short story: My White Dress
This white dress reminds me of that day…..!!! Exactly twenty two years today. Twenty-two years since the day I lost my husband—the one I had waited for, dreamed about, stood next to in that chapel with trembling hands and hope in my heart.He was gone before the cake had even been cut, before we had…
Keep readingRathin Bhattacharjee’s short story: Inexpressible Love
Neil didn't seem to care two hoots for his newly-wedded wife. Theirs was an arranged marriage. An advertisement for a bride was run in a local paper prior to his arrival back home in Kolkata for the vacation. Parents of some 120 prospective brides responded immediately. Neil, at the request of her only sister, Rita,…
Keep readingDeclan Geraghty’s short story: The Turk
Even the ruins looked good, on a good morning, if the weather was nice enough, if the sun beat down. You could squint and pretend to yourself it was all under construction, take a beer, smoke, then wait a few hours in tipsy bliss until it all slowly dawned on you how bad things really…
Keep readingIsaac Aju’s short story: The problem with a battered soul
The problem with a battered soul is that when it finds someone who finally picks interest in it, it seems to reveal too much. The problem with a battered soul is that when it finally gives room for love, it tends to love too much. The problem with a battered soul is that in its…
Keep readingSimon Belgard’s short story: The Magic Bottles
Professor Sarah Stenson gazed at the vial with satisfaction. It had taken her almost a decade to reach this point. Her once promising career had stalled as she devoted her time to what her colleagues considered unscientific nonsense. She smiled remembering the reaction of her old boss Professor Irwin Scheffler, practically purple with mirth which…
Keep readingScott Taylor’s short story: Nice Work If You Can Get It
So the scam continued. It had been going on for years now and showed no signs of stopping. They’d bought him a ticket to San Diego, he’d gotten himself on the plane, and about a hundred Scotches later, he was being dragged out of the car, helped up the stairs, and deposited into bed to…
Keep readingGerald Yelle’s short story: Quitting Time
For years, Sheila kept a book of dreams. She’d read somewhere it could help with emotional well-being. She dreamt she was attaching wires to a dead rabbit in a crowded room where nobody seemed to notice she was naked. And though in the dream she knew it wasn’t normal, she didn’t seem too bothered by…
Keep readingR.H. Nicholson’s short story: Lucky Smile
“I don’t wanna serve slop to a bunch of hobos!” Tessa yelled into her mobile phone at her mother. She had pulled her white Lexus—not the Barcelona red she had requested—into a street spot and pounded the steering wheel like a toddler. “Why do I have to do stupid community service anyway!” “First,” her mother…
Keep readingArch Ramesh’s short story: Great Distances
Latha peers closer into the iPad to observe her great-granddaughter’s smile, the way she effortlessly jokes with the world. “Grandma, move back a bit. All I can see is your forehead on the screen!” Her grandson puts his face into view. “Sorry, kanna. Just so happy to see Maya.” Latha admits, adjusting the iPad. She…
Keep readingThomas M. McDade’s short story: Fishing with Anabel
I got hired at Jack’s Organic Gardens, working inside. That’s where Anabel the doppelgänger bull rider recognised me. I hadn’t seen her since the night English 101 ended. I often invited her to stop for a drink after class at the Bison Bar but she always found an excuse not to. All I knew about…
Keep readingNelly Shulman’s short story: Final Exit
“Fucking animal,” she snapped, and the cigarette fell from her mouth, scattering a cascade of glowing embers. “Get away from me.” The rain hissed behind the shutters, watering the tiny jungle of plants on her crumbling balcony. Clothes, strewn across the wooden floor, exploded from an open suitcase. “Get away.” She rose from the bed,…
Keep readingWilliam Mulder’s short story: Crème de la Crème
It was Little Mickey’s birthday and usually his mother, ‘Sad’ Ellen, would have bought him an apple turnover from the luxury tea-room at the bottom of Dale Street. The high-class cake shop was on the ground floor of the last block of flats for the Russell Trust estate in Chelsea. Mickey had his face pressed…
Keep readingAakash Sagar Chouhan’s fiction: Graveyard, Where She Writes
It was a new moon December night, another ornate sky blushed like a newlywed bride. Stray dogs were restlessly barking and aimlessly whining. The gentle cold breeze caressed her face, although wrapped in a torn blanket, she was heading through the muddy lanes of Girblaung, a small village. Briskly, as if she was going to…
Keep readingJeff Wilson’s fictional piece: Boing Boeing Boing
Author’s note: “Boing Boeing Boing” is the last chapter of The Shape of the Earth, a novel I’ve written but not yet published, although some of the chapters have appeared in literary journals. I’m now eager to have people read this chapter in particular because, although it was written in early 2021 and reflected some issues…
Keep readingGary Beck’s one act play: Art Is Long
An art gallery with modern masters and contemporaries. A spring day. The general atmosphere will intimidate the insecure. Enter Tony and Evie Piscotta, who have recently inherited a large sum of money. Evie is introducing them to culture.) Tony : You sure it's all right to just walk in? Evie : Of course, silly. It's…
Keep readingNahar Trina’s short story: Dilemma
"I want to live. Please, don't kill me." He was astonished by this unexpected plea. He did not enjoy killing. If it wasn't absolutely necessary, he didn't want to walk that path. But he had shown that necessity. He had no choice. Again, he was taken aback- "If you want, can you kill me?" "Yes,…
Keep readingChidiebere Enyia’s short story: The Legendary Tale of A Warrior
The children of Umuike kingdom gathered at the Oziobi. The night moon was bright. The Oziobi palace was illuminated by the moonlight. The glowing hurricane lanterns that lit the huts were shining with impeccable gusto. Logs of fire were made to keep the Oziobi warm. Roasted corns and pears were kept beside the fire place.…
Keep readingCharmila M Sankar’s short story: Words Left Unsaid
My mother theatrically dropped the coffee tumbler when my sister declared, “Chithappa called. It seems Vivek is dead.” My sister’s icy, cold words echoed off our walls. The idlis I was packing for my lunchbox burned into my fingers as I froze in disbelief. The coffee splattered onto the ground, creating a pattern all over our…
Keep readingRebecca Klassen’s short story: Weed Walk
Jamie found the tour as he scrolled on his phone and smoked a spliff behind his dad’s shed. Weed identification and sampling with ecologist, Verity Piper. Come on this walking tour to explore the hidden gems growing in London’s infrastructure! There were a lot of big words that followed, like culminating and ecological that Jamie…
Keep readingChristian Barragan’s short story: Querencia
It was sometime in the difficult summer of 1824 that I first spotted the vessel. It started small—a glimmer on the beach of Querencia on Mexico’s West coast. However it came to our shores, nobody paid much mind at first. We had other concerns. Famine and empty waters had persisted for months, with no end…
Keep readingRenz Chester R. Gumaru’s flash fiction: Parallel Lines
Kiko stood by the window, his hand pressed against the cool glass. The city below was a blur of lights, each one flickering like a memory he could not reach. Mars sat on the couch, her head tilted back against the cushions, staring at the ceiling. Neither of them spoke, but both of them knew…
Keep readingDeclan Geraghty’s short story: Around The Edges
His hands had lines, hundreds of intricate lines, lines and folds of rough skin. Above his head floated streaks of blue, sometimes green but mostly blue. Floating like spirals of dust that never left. The man across from him had hands like a woman, they looked soft, even beautiful hands, maybe hands like a pianist.…
Keep readingGary Beck’s one act play: The Clown Show
(Mr. Barker leads in two performers to do a clown show.) Mr. Barker:You can get ready here, but put make up on in the bathroom. No smoking. Koko:We don’t smoke. Mr. Barker:No drinking. Pipi:We don’t drink. We’re clowns! (Barker shrugs.) Like in the circus. Mr. Barker:There’s no circus anymore. Koko:Of course there is. Mr. Barker:It…
Keep readingJayant Neogy’s short story: Dunes of Destiny
Lakhpat topped the dune, leading his camel. His heart leapt as he pictured Rukmini on the opposite side of the Kakini River. He was about to yell out, when he realized that the river bank opposite was empty. “Perhaps she is hiding to tease me”, he thought. He called out, “Rukmini, Rukmini, where are you?”…
Keep readingCharlotte Cordwell’s short story: That Wednesday
‘Wednesday today, Mum… it’s Wednesday.’ I sat at the end of her bed smiling down at her, gently stroking her delicate left cheek over and over. I’d gotten used to the terrible lifelessness of the ward she’s been staying in – perhaps rather I’d created an imaginary sense of sentience subconsciously throughout my Wednesdays spent…
Keep readingKen Poyner’s six new drabbles
The Threat A man brandishes a calculator, raising it in one hand, incapable of doing sums with the device in the position he selects. Everyone in the room draws back. I am there only to keep the horses calm enough to get in and out of the door. Since, at the moment, the danger the…
Keep readingRenz Chester R. Gumaru’s short story: Who Are You?
Ralph froze as the shadow moved again, its silhouette sharper than the lamplight should allow. It had been weeks of this; shapes shifting at the edges of his vision, a voice he could not place murmuring in his dreams. He was used to dismissing it, chalking it up to his overactive imagination or the loneliness…
Keep readingTasnim Naz’s short story: The Company
It has been 237 days since I had taken off my hijab. From the time when the new government had stepped up, all those months ago, covering of the head and face were strictly prohibited. During the winter times, women could not wear scarves around their heads and faces. So, we lunged our fabric around…
Keep readingMainak Ganguly’s short story: Have You Seen Bincy
Have you seen Bincy? She was not there in the garden hunting frogs. Nor was she catching butterflies. I couldn't find her at Didoo's- the shoddy attic up north. I asked Bahadur. The reply came almost instantly in the form of a finger pointing towards the red clay path that meandered into the pine woods.…
Keep readingR.H. Nicholson’s short story: Inner Loop, Outer Loop
He plopped a handwritten note on the breakfast bar rather than send a text because, honestly, she couldn’t reply to the note and ask him to pick up the drycleaning or look at the loose board at the top of the stairs or request he pour over their financial records one more time before meeting…
Keep readingDeclan Geraghty’s short story: Just A Sip
It stood there in front of me, on the table. It was pure black with a white creamy top. It looked like it would taste sweet, and would quench your thirst but it didn’t. It was bitter and drier than most drinks. I suppose it was like an acquired taste. You had to keep trying…
Keep readingE. C. Traganas’ short story: Loose Ends
New York City The diminutive woman, carrying the full weight of her imposing dowager’s hump, slowly, cautiously picked her way across the slick city street still shimmering from the afternoon’s downpour. As she neared the bus stop, she would glance back anxiously at the thin, stick-like shadow of her husband who shuffled behind distractedly. “What…
Keep readingSanil M Neelakandan’s short story: A Short Bio
The Professor (I must ask him whether using “the” before “professor” is correct) does not believe in caste or religion (anti-Brahmanic and secular are his favourite words). He has a problem with his name as well. He argues that his surname is the tail of the caste. At the same time, the Professor dreams about…
Keep readingNeil Brosnan’s short story: Street Angel
It’s a miracle she hasn’t frozen to death, or at least succumbed to double pneumonia! The burly inspector mused, eyeing the scantily-clad lady-of-the-night turn her back to the biting east wind in a fruitless attempt to light a cigarette. “I hate this job.” The young detective Garda muttered from the driver’s seat of the unmarked…
Keep readingEwa Gerald Onyebuchi’s short story: The Beginning Of The End
This was our third time summoned to the principal's office since the beginning of the week. The first time, we, Okwudili and I, had stood in front of Mr. Ifesinachi, the principal, Mrs. Olakunle, the vice principal and Mallam Yunusa, the Physics teacher for the senior classes. Each person spoke at length, offering their own…
Keep readingC.J. Anderson-Wu’s short story: Winter Counteroffensive
Autumn begins, and the leaves of birches, oaks, and elms turn the colour of sunset glow, vibrating in the wind. In several weeks, they will fall and form a carpet of gold, orange, and red—soft but brittle—covering the dried soil, waiting for the first autumn rainfall. Walking over the vast fields and gentle hills, our…
Keep readingPeter Cordwell’s short story: Bumping Into Christopher Hadley
Of all the people to bump into totally out of the blue, Christopher Hadley would have been up there, even though it had been all of 15 years. We’d been in the same fourth year class at primary school, as it was in those days, so at the Watford Gap Services we must have both…
Keep readingTasneem Azim’s short story: Blood On The Dance Floor
You really don’t like the pleading tone your mom speaks at you about how you need to be betrothed to the prince by the end of the nocturne. But what she doesn’t know is you’ve joined a group of rebels who plots to overthrow the now orphan prince, needing to be king and marry a…
Keep readingCarleigh Beverly’s short story: Angel Girl
She wears her hair in pigtails most days, a devotion to her favourite YouTube character, a pink-haired amusement meant to teach its young watchers to read and find shapes in everyday life. She often carries a smile that appears at the mere mention of her name, a small infatuation. She has grown and become mighty…
Keep readingPritha Banerjee Chattopadhyay’s creative piece: Like strangers again
We might not meet again – or so I hope we never will. Yet if for some reason we will, let it be on one Saturday evening, at the old colonial road, thronged with ancient restaurants, just like we always did. Please don’t ask where we’ve gone wrong. Do not try to utter words that…
Keep readingSimon Belgard’ short story: Gary’s Day
‘THESE ruddy stairs don’t get any easier.’ Garry reached the bottom and composed himself for a second. He raised his voice to be heard upstairs: ‘I’ll fall down the bloody things one day and be found in a crumpled heap.’ Still shaking his head, he walked into the kitchen and straight to the back door.…
Keep readingGary Duehr’s short story: Target
In the cramped office above Returns, Tony, an Assistant Manager, squints at a bank of CCTV monitors. He stubs out an unfiltered Pall Mall and scribbles with a golf pencil on a notepad. The office reeks like stale laundry but he can't smell it anymore. The outside line rings, and he picks up. "Yessir, roger…
Keep readingPeace Nkeiruka Maduako’s short story: Invitation to Dinner
It felt like blood, the red stain on the knife I mean. I touched it and smeared it between my thumb and index finger and it felt very much like blood. I felt someone watching and I turned to find her standing at the kitchen door. "Grape juice," she said smiling. "Made it myself last…
Keep readingSherzod Artikov’s short story: Apartment on the fourth floor
Editor’s Note: This is a translated story, translated by Muslimakhon Makhmudova. This is the first instance of a translated work published in the fiction section as the original was not submitted. DoubleSpeak duly acknowledges the work of the translator. As I didn’t have surgery, I got free earlier today. After an evening shift at the…
Keep readingDeclan Geraghty’s short story: The Detective story
I looked out at the rain, the blinds cast black lines through thick grey. This place never got much sun. All I could ever see on this street were prostitutes and drug addicts, there was always some place in the city that made the hair on your neck stand up, and I happen to be…
Keep readingSusan Smith’s short story: Red Platform
1997 The phone is ringing. It is 2 PM on a Wednesday afternoon and I have just put my two-year-old daughter in her bed for her afternoon nap. She still has these which I have been told is quite unusual at her age. Most other mothers I know have commented that their toddlers have dropped…
Keep readingZary Fekete’s short story: Bread of Life
You’re driving fast, faster than you should. You stuff your hand into the bag of communion wafers next to you. You stuff them into your mouth, almost choking. The car veers dangerously close to a telephone pole. You pull into the parking lot and brake sharply across three open spaces. The façade of the big…
Keep readingThomas M. McDade’s short story: All Rolled Up
Jess slipped me instructions after an American Lit class. “Dear Accessory” is how it opened. She has plans for a Norman Rockwell illustration that’s on display in the Oak Room. I show up at 1 P.M. A door has been slightly propped open with a twig. I’m quickly under the stage where Jess and I…
Keep readingSayari Ghosh’s short story: Bridges of Time
Around the middle of November the Pacific Northwest descends under a blanket of gloom. With its early evenings and dark gray cloud cover, it looks like the days are merely waiting to be over. Oishani stood next to the window in her home office and looked at the constant drizzle swaying the dark green treetops…
Keep readingKeith Ludden’s short story: The Tide Comes In, The Tide Goes Out
All week, Reena listened for the whistle that told her the sardine boat had come in and packers would be needed at the cannery. Reena worked at the cannery for fifty years, and she was the fastest. Snip, flip, and intro the can! Nobody could pack more sardines in an hour than she could. “It’s…
Keep readingSara Ali’s short story: Time
2000. She ran behind the tram, oblivious of the rushing traffic around her, obviously hindered by the laptop bag, the bulky bind of her P.Hd synopsis, and the lovingly packed, mom cooked snack pack, and her phone, with only one thought in her mind, as to how to reach the university for her final submission…
Keep readingStevie Reeves’ short story: 15:47
[Quicksand is a non-Newtownian liquid…] You. Not the stupid woman in the Costa queue and not the damn seagull. Choosing is all I’ve left to do now. Got to get this right. Kelp coloured eyes and fingers that gyre my hair like currents. Just that. You. Breakwater sand. Flat and membrane tight. I set my…
Keep readingKen Poyner’s collection of drabbles
Fecklessness Quibble loves the sound of glass bottles shattering after a good throw. He revels in rubbish fires as much as any citizen. A fearsome chant takes his soul to a comforting place, angular and primal. He has been known to scream bellicose nothings into the air surrounding a crowd. He is as committed and…
Keep readingGerald Yelle’s short story: Engagement with Contributing Input
Yogi came down the street taking a bite out of a sandwich. I said, hey, this is the third time this week. He said it was the first ham and pickle he’d had in months. I said I mean our running into one another like this. Oh, he said. Actually, he did have to run…
Keep readingUrmi Chakravorty’s short story: Harnessed to Hope
Noakhali, East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh), December 1946 The time-worn clock on the wall showed ten. Today, the evening seemed interminably long. And now, the night was dragging its feet. The last sliver of the etiolated moon struggled for space amidst the dense clouds. The charcoal chunks in the clay oven crackled and sputtered as the…
Keep readingDeclan Geraghty’s short story: Marina
She had hair on her coat but I didn’t mind, she was so attractive she got away with it. I suppose she could get away with anything within reason. She said that when she was a kid she used to come to this beach, that she sometimes wished she was a seagull. She took a…
Keep readingMaria Justa T. Polotan’s short story: Miss Villar’s Bench
The couple was seated on her bench – her bench! She saw them as soon as she emerged from the corner of the paved walkway that was partially covered by a large molave tree. It was, of course, a public bench, in a public park, but Miss Villar had always considered that particular bench hers,…
Keep readingNick Garlick’s short story: The Lady Who Dressed For Death
Late in the afternoon, as the breeze was picking up and the sun was beginning to set, Arathea Scott stepped out of her house, locked the front door and made her way carefully down the path to her front gate. She was dressed in a powder blue frock with white gloves and a matching white…
Keep readingAngela Patera’s short story: The Obstacle
There’s a nightmare I used to have. In my dream, I found myself traversing along a narrow, serpentine road, barely wider than my car. Sometimes, a tempest raged around me, rain lashing down and wind howling, while other times a dense fog obscured everything beyond the car’s headlights. Occasionally, my journey of uncertainty commenced just…
Keep readingDeepti Nalavade Mahule’s short story: The Ring
Mithila is walking home from her university after her graduate teaching degree final exam when a series of text messages from Vinay stop her in her tracks. I’m sorry. Can’t be with you anymore. Doesn’t feel like love. Can’t stop thinking of last week’s fight. We’re clearly very different people. Keep the ring. Mithila reads…
Keep readingPeter Cordwell’s short story: The Two Neros
We eventually got chatting as two regulars at the Caffe Nero in Chislehurst High Street, just up the road from Sainsbury’s and dead handy for the big and bulky 160 bus wending its tricky way around-the-houses from Lee. I’m chatty to a fault in places like supermarket queues, hoping to brighten up a life or two…
Keep readingMrigakshi Mazumder’s short story: Where the Violets Bloom
It was one of the coldest November mornings in Helmand. The stars of the night sky started to disappear in almost no time as the orange light radiated from the horizon. On this chilly, cold winter morning, the town of Grishk seemed to be tucked inside a thin blanket of snow. This time snowing started…
Keep readingCharmila M Sankar’s short story: The Pink Envelope
“Uhm, she goes back to work today da. So that’s why I decided to arrive two days early,” I said as I switched the phone to speaker so that I could whisk the eggs. “So you've decided to babysit while she’s working towards her promotion, huh? Great work, da. Wish you all the best.” He sniggered…
Keep readingGary Beck’s one act play: The Chess Match
Scene: A chess club. A man enters. Man: (to Proprietor)I'd like to play a strong player Prop: Nobody here right now. Man: (gesturing to the audience) What about them? Prop: You said you wanted a strong player. Man: Yeah. I'm an expert. Prop: Well, you could hang out till someone comes in, or you could…
Keep readingNarelle Noppert’s short story: The Secret of School House Paddock
Julia stood ram-rod straight, eyes fiery as if facing an enemy. She ignored the slight wobble of her walking stick and pulled herself up to her full height; that is the height any frail elderly lady could muster. Julia had asked her daughter to bring her here; a place she hadn’t returned to since she…
Keep readingNarelle Noppert’s short story: Song of the Sisters
Anzac Day is dawning. Brian, an ageing Vietnam veteran lies unsettled in a hospital bed. His mind is tormented by memories, foreign songs from a lifetime ago; from another county and a city with two names, Saigon and Ho Chi Minh City. In Australia, from 1965 and the next seven years, many 20 year old…
Keep readingPeace Nkeiruka Maduako’s short story: The Distant Call
The tires screeched as Yerima drove into the garage of his home in the quiet neighbourhood. He rolled down the drivers window before he turned off the car radio and turned off the engine. He stayed in the car a bit looking through the magazine he had bought on his way home. After sitting in…
Keep readingMitalee Sagar Gathe’s short story: Dear Young Tara
I was rushing with my pen and diary to the shores. Sara, wear your sandals and go and come soon. Paa, you know I don’t like to wear my sandals on the shore. Let the sand deliver my arrival to the mightywaves of the ocean. I ran out of the house laughing at the reaction…
Keep readingDeclan Geraghty’s short story: The Wet House
The man has six cans of Clink in an old stinking haversack, he finally sits down by the plant pot after stumbling around drunkenly, dropping his contents on the cracked coffee table. A purple bag inflated and deflated beside him. And behind the bag was a head. Bobbing with the shakes, green fingernail ends gripping…
Keep readingJulian Gallo’s short story: Night Game
Although Victor is a dyed-in-the wool Mets fan, his father doesn’t want to hoof it all the way into Flushing to Shea Stadium, so he has to settle for his team’s rival. It is to be the first baseball game he will ever see in person, and at the very end of the season no less. He…
Keep readingIan C Smith’s short story: Times
Pernickety about symmetry he even balanced pictures, photographs, in others’ homes when they weren’t looking. His kitchen clock hung from a framed calendar, a double dose of days disappearing. Unable to resist, he corrected horizontality once too often instead of plunging guilty hands into pockets. His repair job was pathetic for a fussy man, off-centre,…
Keep readingIan C Smith’s short story: Minimalist
The last time he sees his guilty mother she goads him into snarling back, calls him mad, meaning insane, focusing him on the gene pool. At his married daughter’s house he sees her mother years after they separated, not recognising her, thinks, initially nervous, of a neighbour woman with grey hair quietly knitting, imagines a…
Keep readingEric Lande’s short story: Venus aka Adonis
Venus Every spring José and I say the same to one another, “I think we should try for more hens.” And every spring we try … and more often than not, we end up with more roosters. It’s not that we dislike roosters. Actually, one of our favourites — hen or rooster — was Tucker.…
Keep readingCathy LaForge Tonkin’s short story: Killing Them Softly
Michael O’Rourke was a well-respected doctor back in the late 1800s. Little did anyone know where his career would take him. He came to the U.S. in 1890 from Ireland and eventually settled in Saginaw, Michigan. The following year, Michael had a patient who was 84 years old and suffering from a bad case of…
Keep readingIshana Roy’s short story: Amelia’s Friend
Amelia, a young girl from a wealthy family, had everything she wanted – a large house beside a lush, green forest, complete with every luxury. However, she was an orphan who lived with her guardian uncle and she longed for her parents and the warmth of a close-knit family. Amelia needed a friend who would…
Keep readingGary Beck’s short play: Date Rape
Scene 1 (Sunday morning. The living room of the Bennett family. Enter Jennifer. Distraught. Megan enters.) Megan “What’s wrong with you? You’ve been walking around this morning like death warmed over. Are you sick?” Jennifer “I’m not sick.” Megan “Then what is it?” Jennifer (She looks around to be sure no one can hear her)…
Keep readingKris Green’s short story: Tulip Hill
Lightning illuminated the clouds, still in soft glow from the sun that had just pulled the horizon above its head like a blanket. Though the thunder could not be heard, anyone in the small town who saw it, knew it was coming. Distant on the horizon, the storm as inevitable in the summertime as the…
Keep readingRadhika Lata Murthy’s short story: The Terrible Three
As a child, Saira only ran everywhere; never walked. She ran to school, ran errands, ran to her friends' houses, ran to dance class and once, ran away from home too. Saira was a perpetual blur against the green trees that lined their lane. The only time she could be seen in clear focus was…
Keep readingNick Romeo’s short story: The Drink
He walks into the living room wearing a bright orange button-down shirt with a matching tie emblazoned with a vast array of colors arranged in a fractal pattern. He holds two small glass vessels of drink. His green eyes gleam, meeting hers as she returns the look of appreciation. “An elixir for your cupid's bow…
Keep readingMeenakshi Gogoi’s short story: Memories of a River
On a fine spring morning, Priyoma entered her college and saw her friend Payal clicking selfies, carefully covering the majestic college building at the backdrop. The beautiful heritage college building looked radiant under the bright morning sunshine. Payal took selfies with Priyoma amidst the blossoming spring flowers. While walking towards their lecture hall, Payal excitedly…
Keep readingThomas M. McDade’s short story: Freshman English at Joyce’s
I figured and feared English 100 Instructor; Miss Hogan would visit Joyce’s Supermarket sooner or later and sooner won. She wore hiking boots, jeans, and a red and black flannel shirt. Her hair was topped by a Greek fisherman’s cap. I sacked her groceries, wild rice, avocados, Quaker Oats and trail mix fixings. We made…
Keep readingDeclan Geraghty’s short story: Mother
Mother died this morning. And now I sit in a cafe. So strange the world. This dreary cafe. The spoons look the same as last week, I expected the spoons to look different for some reason. Probably because mother died. And the waitress keeps tapping on her phone, tip tapping. Her nails are different colours…
Keep readingMichael Chin’s short story: Sense of Direction
While they set up camp in the morning, Mike tried to tell Uncle Jerry he had no sense of direction. He meant to explain how often he got lost in unfamiliar places, thinking his uncle might take precautions. Uncle Jerry misunderstood. “How old are you again?” It was the summer of 1996 and he was…
Keep readingAnannya Dasgupta‘s short story: The Point-of-View that Makes Everyone Chubby
“Hi Renuka hope u r well. Really gr8 that u write po8ry 😄 My daughter is in the 11th grade at SPS, like v were, nd aslo writes. Will u tke a luk at it?” The FB inbox message ping brought my already distracted mind to the pop-up box that had opened up on the side of…
Keep readingDeclan Geraghty‘s short story: Purple Pandas Club
You had to feel for her, if you didn’t you were most likely a bastard. And it was harder to be a bastard when you got older, at least it was for me, me own family didn’t bring me up like that, not to have empathy, even though a lot of them are bastards as…
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