Short Stories, Drabbles & Flash Fiction
This week we switched to fountain pens in our history lesson. Not the nice modern ones with ink cartridges, these were the old fashioned ones that you have to constantly dip into a small pot of black ink.
“What next?” We cried. Deportment lessons with books balanced on our heads or bringing back the dunces hat if you get a question wrong?
I had problems with the pen, my handwriting was never the best and the scratchy nib did nothing to improve it but I got by
Dave on the next desk to me wasn’t so lucky, you see he’s
left handed and south paws (an obscure boxing term) have a tendency to push the
pen across the page rather than pull it like us regular folk.
The upshot of this technique is that the slow drying ink
ends up smeared across the paper and all over poor Dave’s hand.
As Dave got more and more frustrated I saw Mr Miller, our
history teacher, making his way over to see how Dave and I were getting on.
“What on earth is this mess boy?” screeched our outraged
teacher. “It looks like you’ve been making potato prints.”
“It’s not my fault Sir” sobbed Dave as he managed to
transfer a quantity of ink to his face “I’m left handed”
“Nonsense boy, start again and keep going until you get it
right.”
At this point something in Dave snapped and clutching the
offensive pen in his ink stained left hand he plunged it into Mr Miller’s right
eye socket. Sir collapsed and we watched as his brain leaked out onto the classroom
floor.
Challenge 2 - No word limit
I like to plan, I hate surprises and like to feel that I’m
mistress of my own destiny. I’m the same at work, everything is mapped out to the
smallest detail. Shift rotas, stock deliveries and all manner of arrangements
to make my week as stress free as possible.
The last few years have been difficult. First there was the
COVID pandemic which disrupted the best laid plans of a care home administrator
and then there were the tightening of the regulations which called for a whole
lot more planning and organisation.
I’m a creature of habit you see and after the insurance
money from my husband’s unexpected death ran out, I needed another way to fund
mine.
It was so easy, get the old dears to put a small bequeath in
their wills to thank me for all the hard work and care they’d received and then
slip something into their Complan, something completely untraceable to ease
them on their way to visit St Peter.
The only thing I’m not planning on… is getting caught.
Challenge 3 - No word limit
The Human race has always been fascinated by robots. Back in
the middle of the twentieth century they put them in their movies and their
Televisual offerings.
Before they had the technology they cobbled them together
with cardboard boxes, silver paint and old wire coat hangers. Later they
started hiding very small people inside costumes to allow the ‘robots’ to move
about.
As technology evolved I saw my chance. I graduated from RADA
and obtained my Equity card thinking the movie industry would jump at the chance
to employ a bona fide self-willed unit operating at the cutting edge of current
tech.
Then the protests started. Employing a robot would put a
Human out of work declared the placards. Completely untrue complaints started
to come in of robots abusing young actresses, not so much Me Too as Me R2D2.
It’s cheaper to use CGI cried the production companies and
that just about finished me off. My dream to be a movie star was in ruins.
Then I got my big break. An all robotic drama group were
putting on a stage show on off off off Broadway. It doesn’t pay a lot but my needs are few, an occasional
rub down with an oily rag and a weekly coating of WD40 is all I need.
Anyway, we start rehearsals next week and I’ve got the plum
Gene Kelly role in ‘Singin In The Rain’
This’ll do until Skynet get their act together
Challenge 4 - No word limit
The alien invasion happened so quickly that even our top
space agencies were taken by complete surprise. They arrived in vast
mother-ships and disgorged their soldiers into all our major cities.
Our weapons appeared to be completely ineffective and our
military were decimated where they stood. We regrouped and tried to look for weaknesses
in their defenses but to no avail.
With our government in hiding and those who were able to
fleeing to the uninhabited areas of our lands it was only a matter of a few
days before the visitors had control of most of the planet.
We lived in a remote equatorial village and mistakenly
thought that we’d be safe, but how wrong could we be.
We’d just finished lunch on a warm Sunday afternoon when one
of the aliens appeared in the back yard. Panic set in as I realised that my
daughter was missing from the house.
I watched from the window as she approached the murderous
beast from across the galaxy and saw that the pair appeared to be communicating
with each other. My fears started to subside and I allowed myself to breathe.
Then completely without provocation the three foot harmless
looking fleshy creature tore my daughter into a pile of useless scrap metal
before turning around and leaving.
Challenge 5 - No word limit
The note said to be at the bench nearest the west entrance
to the park, so here I was, tightly wrapped in my old army greatcoat.I arrived fifteen minutes early in the hope I’d be able to
check the area, but the sudden fog limited my vision to just a few yards.
I should’ve been more careful. I never should’ve left her
alone when I went back into the house to get my pipe.
As I sat there, I thought back over the last three days. I
hunted high and low for her. I visited all her favourite places, but I found no
evidence that she had been present. Then came the letter.
The Victorian style peasouper intensified, and I was
distracted by the calls of the crows nesting in the nearby tree. What if I
never see her again? What if she’d been hurt?
I heard feet approaching on the stone path. Could this be
who I’m here to meet?
With my heart in my mouth, I turned to peer into the gloom
as a large shape materialised from the mist.
False alarm, it was a bobby on his beat, likely heading back
to the station.
Suddenly, I felt someone sit on the other end of the bench.
“Hi! I’m so sorry I’m late, had a last-minute customer” I
turned and saw a young woman clasping a small handbag and a medium sized
cardboard box.
She reached into the box and removed a small ginger cat. “Cleopatra!”
I shouted, “I’ve missed you”.
“I’m Jenny,” said the woman. “It’s a good job you had her
chipped before she escaped. I got your address from the national database”.
Challenge 6 - Exactly 150 words
I spotted her strolling along the lane that leads to my
country estate dragging a bright yellow cuddly lion behind her.
I pulled over and wound down my window. “Hey there, are you
lost?” I asked in my most child friendly voice.
“Yes Mister” she sobbed, “my Daddy said to wait here and he’d
be back, but I don’t think he is coming”
“Why don’t you jump in the back and I’ll take you back to my
house and we can try contacting him”
“Fanks Mister” she said and her eyes lit up with glee.
I’d not driven more than 50 yards when I heard a metallic click
and felt something cold and hard pressed into the back of my head and a
gravelly voice growled “The game’s up Mister, you’ve abducted your last victim”
I glanced in the rear view mirror and saw the lion clutching
a .45 revolver
Challenge 7 - Exactly 33 words
I’ve been here for days. No amount of layers can drive away the cold in my bones.
Some idiot dropped two fifty pence pieces into my coffee.
Going undercover is definitely not fun
Challenge 8 - Exactly 150 words
Miles from the nearest road, deep inside the forest, we
stumbled on an abandoned sofa.
“The fly-tippers are making an effort round her” chuckled my
husband. “Seems like a good spot to stop” he said as he removed our picnic from
his rucksack.
I looked for a flat area to lay out the blanket and noticed
several piles of small bones, likely from a rat or a squirrel or possibly a
fox.
It’d been a long hike and I needed to pee so I headed off into
the trees to take care of it.
When I returned I found the picnic all laid out but of my
husband there was no sign. I called his name but received no reply.
I waited twenty minutes, but he didn’t return. It was only then that I spotted a new pile of bones in front of the sofa, complete with a human skull
Challenge 9 - Exactly 69 words
I suppose it’s fitting that I end my days in a place so devoid of life. The visitors stopped coming following the trial, until then they believed in me.
The jury of twelve decided that I’m guilty but too sick to
go to federal prison.
The irony is that my wife would’ve visited, had I not smothered the life from her frail body over a heated game of Scrabble
Challenge 10 - Exactly 100 words
We’d tracked the creature for miles, back to its lair in the mountains. The labyrinthine tunnels allowed it to pick off my hearty dwarven companions one by one in the dark.
Now I’m alone. I’ll have just the one opportunity to defeat
the beast before it tears my weakened body to shreds
I pulled out the magical scroll from my robe and started to
remove the seal. I fumbled the case and it dropped from my fingers and rolled
away into the dark
“Darn it” I muttered as the abomination slipped from the
shadows and extended its wicked looking claws
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