In a Sentence

“I don’t like you…”  he says and she is pummeled and pricked by honesty, rolling one hundred miles an hour back through their last year, re-evaluating every touch, every flicker of attraction, wondering how the hell she could have misinterpreted her instincts so badly and almost flees, “…I love you.”

My Family and the Years

I knew he’d grown up when the questions stopped. He knew what all the words meant, where the dead went, why mummy left.

Then he left home too. No tears, just farewell.

So, I sit by the window asking myself – where did they both go? My family and the years.

From Rosewood Cottage

Turn back! The doors are bolted and boarded up. Stay away! Smeared, filth-encrusted rotten windows are half-disguised by tea-brown moth-gnarled net curtains. Don’t approach! The pathway is jagged. That’s not an anguished wan child’s face at the attic window. No! Turn back. Help us. Run away! There’s no story here.

The Ice-Breaker

“There’s no ‘I’ in ‘team’ ”.

“But there’s a ‘me’, ” I pointed out.

“You’re on thin ice,” he barked.

“If the ice is indeed thin, then this company is seriously breaching health and safety regulations.”

He fired me. Shards of metaphorical ice splintered beneath my non-metaphorical brogues. And it felt beautiful.

Hector Heard God

Hector heard God. When least expected… but most needed. The unmistakable voice dripping intravenously into his brainspace, booming, “Stop! Don’t end your life!”

Hector stepped back, flabbergasted, dizzy with adrenaline and rapturous bafflement as the unexpected unbalancing cocked him over the edge of CityPoint. He fell; weeping, laughing, screaming, praying.

The Trip

Forced into spirals of my own undoing, I rented a room and waited. They arrived, with no intention of leaving empty-handed. I played hard to get for, like, minutes, then handed it over. When they said I had to die, I muttered, “Sure. You too.” I trip the switch…. KABOOOOOOOM.

The Legend of Paddy (Molotov) Mollinson Jnr

Paddy lived by the sword. He had a girl in every airport and six kids from four chicks. His best friends were his enemies’ enemies. Paddy would never negotiate. His face was thunder, his body was lightning but there was no eye of the storm.

Paddy died by the sword.

Blinking

In a blink, I’m middle-aged and you retort with the very scathing glaze I had for my parents. My time lapsed outnumbers my time remaining. My humour and ambition is dissolving and my face is falling. In a blink. So, don’t waste your precious days, my sons. And never blink.

The Break-In

My toddler locked himself in, so I smashed the bathroom window and squeezed in. The police showed and arrested me. I explained the misunderstanding and thought to present some documents. But I had none. Then my wife said she didn’t know who I was.

I shall try another house tonight.

Raggy and chums

Sure, it was her childish ragdoll, but I hated those black eyes and the flippant way it lounged in the small half-open cupboard staring/smiling. I couldn’t move from poor Maisy’s room now, the house was sleeping. When the doll stopped smiling, I knew I had very little time left.