Author: Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Shoreham, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Ducks in a row

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Ducks in a row The ducks are in rows three across and four deep, waiting for the lights to change. The young man glances to his right and lightly depresses the accelerator; he will race away if the glance is returned and the vehicle worthy. But the driver is old and the car sedate so he waits, softens the engine, checks his mirror and waves back to friends in the car behind. They’re going to the same place and they’re travelling in a laddish two-car convoy aiming to get there at the same time.The old man smiles to himself; he … Continue reading Ducks in a row

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fiction, social realismLeave a comment

Walter

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Walter patted his top pocket, his flat fingers finding the cylinders of the pens that poked out above. He patted his two jacket pockets – pat (left) handkerchief, pat (right) wallet folded flat with one five pound note in it, no more no less. Next the left upper quadrant of his jacket where his inside pocket would bear the square ridged outline of his bus pass. But there was nothing. He stopped, hand in mid-air while the anomaly sank in.He began again. Top pocket. Jacket pockets. Inside pocket. Still no bus pass. He started on his trouser pockets even though … Continue reading Walter

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speculative fictionLeave a comment

Not blue, not fresh, not ever free

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

The sea had embroidery at its edges. It cast a frill of pretty ruffles over the pebbles and sank like fine silk in between them before the giant in the deep ocean turned over in his sleep and drew it back. Sometimes, the sea came in as light and instead of weaving threads in and out amongst the grains of sand and bits of shell, it picked out clefts and promontories, little islands in miniature and brightened them out of the shade. When it did this, Josie looked for the inhabitants of the islands, crouching close and lifting small stones … Continue reading Not blue, not fresh, not ever free

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sci fi, science fact and fiction, speculative fictionLeave a comment

All Creatures

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

All creatures … As the snow began to fall on her upturned face, Addie remembered those winters when it had been possible to think of spring. Not now though. Not since the impact. How many megatonnes had gone up? She couldn’t recall, and anyway, what did it matter? Addie pulled the perspex snow screen down over her eyes and the connecting buff up over her nose, clipped the two together with a solid clack. She tapped at the thermometer gauge on her wrist – minus 40oC; balmy, she thought, trying to raise a frosted eyebrow in an ironic arch. ‘Mush! … Continue reading All Creatures

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UncategorizedLeave a comment

The Justice Box – full story

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Winter 1969 Emmy is singing as I try to get her supper into her. I’m singing too, but she’s singing for Jesus in a cutesy, trit-trotty kind of way. I hover the spoon in the air, and wait for her to take a breath. Pop it in/swallow it down/good girl. I wipe her mouth with my pinny. Shouldn’t really but it saves time. All those doors to lock and unlock just for a flannel. ‘Jesus loves her, Jesus loves her, Jesus loves the murdering bitch.’ Emmy chuckles to herself in that private way only people whose heads are somewhere else … Continue reading The Justice Box – full story

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Uncategorized2 Comments

Baby Bird

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Full story. I keep thinking we should have left it to die, you know, rather than do what we did. Seal it back up, let it go wherever it was going, let someone else find it, not us. What wouldn’t I give for it not to have been us. But there we were, limping back from a SNAFU’d mission that had almost bankrupted the government, when up pops ET in a leaky can that needs fixing. From global embarrassments to galactic heroes in one go; we could see the ticker tape and the medals, the books, the films of the … Continue reading Baby Bird

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