Tag: short stories
-
The Wish
“You shouldn’t encourage her,” her mother pontificated. “Me? I thought it must have been you.” “I never said a word. She made it all up. By herself.” “She has some imagination, I’ll grant her that. But she’s only a child. She’ll get over it. In time,” her dad said patiently. “Reality catches up with us […]
-
Daddy Tick Tock
3:06am. He’s crying. The father groggily wakes and looks at the digital clock on the bedside table. The shrouded corpse far across the bed doesn’t move. He hears the seconds dripping.
Andrew Whalan
-
The Last Selfie
The last moments are the scariest, he thought. As he had been told. Apparently you first bob like a cork. Then you are swamped. Then you stretch your arms out to push yourself out of the water. And giving up, your arms and legs climb upward. Then downward. Thus overloaded you sink to the bottom […]
-
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, […]
-
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 […]
-
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 […]
-
The Longest Match
I saw white. I’m supposed to see stars. Not me! Not now! White light, sound and impact merged into a wall of noise and pain. I didn’t feel myself fall. No, I feel myself float. I saw myself glide to safety. And there in the calm and silence I slept. I then woke up and […]
-
Thanks for the Non-Advice
“Been a while. What’s happenin’?” Long pause while I rummage through my thoughts and find the right answer. “Errrm… Not real good.” “Not real good. You mean not real bad?” “Errrm…Nup.” Another safe answer. “How’s Josie J?” Everyone asks after her. Not really safe now. “She’s not.” One faltering step down the path. “Not what?” […]
Andrew James Whalan 