The Justice Box – full story

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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Baby Bird

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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Dog Day

The bumble bee, a young drone, dipped towards the pond, took on ballast and made its way over to the clump of dandelions by the fence. The other drone, Alice’s husband Frank, watched lazily and aimed a desultory flick at a hoverfly positioned just above his head, and buzzing as it appeared to give the person in the lounger a multifaceted once-over. Middle aged, over weight (not obese, he would argue when challenged), and thinning on top, Frank was in the process of decommissioning his youth and taking on an identity loosely recognisable as early-onset decrepit geezer. Redundancy had stolen … Continue reading Dog Day

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Cat Nav

Suzanne Conboy-Hill ‘Now you’ll come in at night,’ Joe told Roscoe, the big, orange, cantankerous-looking tabby he was trying to stuff into a carrier. Not flippin’ likely, said Roscoe, although of course he didn’t because he was a cat. Instead, he arched his back, flipped his bottom over Joe’s arm, and catapulted himself onto the dresser, the top of which was crammed with Joe’s mother’s precious ornaments. He skipped across the figurine with the peach crinoline and skidded the china egg full of earrings and little gold studs into the framed picture of Joe’s mother smiling at the glazed face … Continue reading Cat Nav

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Drop Dead Gorgeous

Friday Fiction Halloween Special! I first met Dillon when my dead Gran tripped me up in front of him. There was me, meandering along the sea front watching small dogs on extending leads crochet themselves into yapping compounds each time they encountered others of their ilk; and there was he, arrowing through them, the sleek lycra-ed warp to their woof. I was ok but he landed up in hospital with several broken bones and his bike was a write-off. Gran beamed like it was her birthday and she’d knocked back her celebratory bottle of whisky all in one go. I … Continue reading Drop Dead Gorgeous

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The Problem with Temporal Asynchronicity By Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Continued from Facebook: Every so often we get a chance to pull the plug on some puny species that has far too much to say for itself, gets into scraps over its parochial borders, and then starts to leak out of its playpen to bother everybody else. This job was a gift.We dropped the first spout into the middle of the Atlantic and left it there, like a bracket with lightning at one end and spray at the other. It got no attention at all the first couple of days, but when it was still there at the end of … Continue reading The Problem with Temporal Asynchronicity By Suzanne Conboy-Hill

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Art from words/words from art – liminality

Here the Magic Must Be The river was almost at its zenith, that tipping point between the heaving press of the sea from the coast and the thundering weight of dark, fresh water draining from the hills. It glittered and sparkled along its banks as if strung with fairy lights. The woman twiddled her handkerchief until it knotted and then pushed it into her pocket. Twice a day, every day, all of heaven and earth balanced here on this point, she thought. For reassurance, she felt for the handle of the knife that sat quiet next to the handkerchief and … Continue reading Art from words/words from art – liminality

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Be A Lady They Said

Originally posted on Writings of a Furious Woman:
Be a lady they said. Your skirt is too short. Your shirt is too low. Your pants are too tight. Don’t show so much skin. Don’t show your thighs. Don’t show your breasts. Don’t show your midriff. Don’t show your cleavage. Don’t show your underwear. Don’t show your shoulders. Cover up. Leave something to the imagination. Dress modestly. Don’t be a temptress. Men can’t control themselves. Men have needs. You look frumpy. Loosen up. Show some skin. Look sexy. Look hot. Don’t be so provocative. You’re asking for it. Wear black. Wear… Continue reading Be A Lady They Said

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