Category: Stories
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Catless
It’s been at least another fifty years, how many now, in truth, I’ve lost count. Nowadays each anniversary starts the same way. Someone gently shakes me awake. All becomes white. At their words, I nod in answer, although sometimes I shake my head just to be perverse. But it is all the same now. I […]
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Invasion 101
Prepare the invasion fleet. Black space sparkled, gleamed and glistened as our ships came to life. Sleeping soldiers woke, stretched, uncoiled their tendrils, weapons at the ready. I sighed and shook my head.
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Short Run
Again. I drew my hand close, splayed my fingers wide and pressed down hard. On my shoulder. I pivoted and turned left, facing the scorers. “Short run, ” I intoned, making sure my voice carried off field.
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Apocalypse Postponed
“Comrade Colonel Stanislaw Petrov had to go. KAL007 had been shot down. NATO began Exercise Able Archer. We thought it was the end.
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Bemused
My fingers close around the remote. One finger starts…And before I reach the on button, it happens. Her voice is in my ear. Thick as honey, she begins…
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Resigned to Staying
The mobile purred. A sleepy finger reached out and pressed answer. “Thought I’d phone in this week’s postcard from afar.” “Lee, I can barely hear you. You sound like you’re croaking it in a drainpipe.” “Only line in town, boss.”
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After the Wedding
Their fingers kept fumbling at my tie. And I kept trying to wave them away. Are you finished? I asked. They shook their heads. Over, under then thread the two between: Windsor knot finally done. It was then I lost it. One lifted my feet, the other my arms and lowered me in.
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The Beckoning
“I don’t know why I’m even telling you this,” she says. To the stranger over the phone. At last it has begun for her. Though of course it is over for me.
Andrew James Whalan 