Category: Stories
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The Happiest Dental Patient Ever
Was this the last one? I went to the surgery door and called his name. He looked up at once. And his eyes twinkled at me. And he smiled as if he had been in last week! He walked in arms swinging by his sides as if it was too easy. Tall, thin and vaguely familiar.…
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Captured By An Audience
You never really wanted to go out there. You’re outnumbered for one thing. You know that any false move in front of them will be the last and final one.
Andrew Whalan
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The Glass Slipper (4) : She Met Me First
It was too dark to film in the pre-dawn twilight. And too hazardous to set up cameras and lights. Or send over their dumb drone in case it crashed and couldn’t be retrieved. Occasionally, rarely, reality TV did have its benefits and now was one of them. Lonely at last, I thought. But, of course,…
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Three Steps Too Many
Everything seemed perfect. Nothing had changed in years. So much so I forgot where I’d put my wallet and keys. But only momentarily. Everything was as it was. The carpet, that dull dirt brown, with sickly flecks of grey. Brighter than I remembered. No fading, no wear, no patches yet needing repair. The walls too,…
Andrew Whalan
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I Can Talk To Strangers
I like to talk to strangers. It’s fun. But my mum and dad don’t like it. They told me not to. When I asked why, they said bad things could happen to me. When I asked what the bad things they wouldn’t tell me. I didn’t like that. I kept doing it. They kept stopping me.…
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Lost Underfoot
I looked up. All I could see were legs. Masses of moving legs. I looked down. I saw shoes and thongs and skirts and legs and trousers. But were they attached to anything? I didn’t know. I felt even smaller. It was like a centipede that’s been shopping was walking over me!! I couldn’t see faces…
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The Glass Slipper (3)
Celebrities, I now realise, live in a perpetual fog. And nowhere more so than on the red carpet. This night I’m slow prancing through a warming mist of light. Camera flashes and phone selfie stick shots leave me blinking rapidly and staring dumbly. Further along, the spotlights surround me like a hot cloud. I’m suited…
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Talking Pizza
If it wasn’t for the windchime, I would’ve made the pickup and left. I’d made the order just after a day’s snorkelling. Diving and swimming makes me thirsty, hungry and distracted. Once dried off and packed up, I jumped into the 4WD : my global explorer. I desperately needed to return to civilisation. I had…
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The Glass Slipper (2)
The TV screen went black. For three seconds. A sliver of white light appeared. It flickered, flashed and exploded, filling the screen. It was a white out. For three seconds. The screen panned back. The torch started searching the room. Spotlights painted the walls, shadows wavered and stopped. It found two shiny high-heeled shoes floating…
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The Glass Slipper (1)
“You broke the fucking glass slipper.” “I didn’t hear that. She didn’t say that. I’m still asleep. I’m in a better dream right now and can’t be disturbed. Leave a message and I’ll talk to you later.” Her hand on my shoulder. I sigh. The loving touch of my bride. I relax. I start to…
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The Poet and His Muse : Prelude to a Nightmare
It was the crushing that woke her. She opened her eyes. She couldn’t breathe. She pushed out against the weight but in vain. She tried to wriggle out from underneath it. But this time she couldn’t. For the dark matched her every move silently and carefully. She opened her eyes wider. She tried to look…
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If the world was this way
There are swings, a slide, see-saws, a lop-sided spinner, a playhouse, a sandpit and a rope climbing frame. All covered by a rainbow coloured sun shade which looks like a circus tent that’s been slashed. And bark chips for bedding. A child’s oasis in an adult’s grassy park. The sun is clear bright yellow. The…