Category Archives: Sept 2022 – The End

The End

Posted on by under 2022, Sept 2022 - The End

Nestling deeper into her bedding Valentina sighed pleasantly tired. It had been a busy day but she was sure the end of her journey was at hand.

She remembered the stories her mother had captivated them with as babies. Ivan the terrible was a folk hero to them. Fighting for the territory around them, often returning bloodied from battle: that was her great grandfather. Romance of how he met his wife in the tunnels they inhabited, love at first sight – so her mother told them. How he fought for her hand, paying a heavy price, losing territory but Ivan was elated to have his beloved Sasha by his side.

Continue reading →

An Unexpected Visitor

Posted on by under 2022, Sept 2022 - The End

Finally, I type them. There’s a feeling of closure, of melancholy, of… what? Is bereftness a word? One for me to look up in the battered dictionary that sits on the shelves upstairs, still preferred over search engines. There’s an immutability to a printed definition, far more difficult for every copy to be edited in one go by one individual. It’s the same reason I still buy paperbacks – for me a story should stand of its time, faults and all.

Speaking of stories, I’ve clearly not finished with the novel I’ve just written; there’s my beta readers to look over it, and doubtless a myriad of corrections. I’ve got to go back and check the timelines and continuity. Make sure that everything adds up.

Continue reading →

And he didn’t live happily ever after

Posted on by under 2022, Sept 2022 - The End

“That’s,” Mrs Lupin said in her soothing tone, “the end.”

Five faces of varying comprehension looked up from their slender copies of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, rewritten for the under fifteens. One kid was interested, two were indifferent, another was confused, and the last was… well…

This classroom was nick-named the Retard Ward, or Spaz Town by the normal kids, and to be sure, some pupils were hopeless. Jake Mears, for instance. Fourteen years old but already in trouble with the police for hot-wiring a motorbike.

Other kids were struggling with Asperger’s or dyslexia, and a few were… not that bright. They’d probably slide through the school system to start work at the local firestone factory because who else would take them?

Continue reading →

a butterfly frolics

Posted on by under 2022, Sept 2022 - The End

THE END 

a tale foretold. ‘The crowd’s on the pitch. They think it’s all over. It is now.’

Touch, a so missing after trauma,  so they tell us, and so I must consider you know don’t you too my mind latched on to but was it ever anything else. and indeed There is something to be said that our contemporary lives invest too much into being ‘happy,, by showering ourselves with happy smiles and emojis that become addictive self smugness of, of well of loony-bin Reality Shows for a start,  making  us believe that is all there is to life. and STOP us imagining alternatives. and well is writing and engaging with it – literary fiction that is –  does this.  So, am I here writing this to resolve and maybe dissolve lies I have told myself.? Can I then ‘face up.’, create my and your better life. Give us integrity, enabling skills, perhaps like literary devices, eh Joe?

Continue reading →

Will It Never End?

Posted on by under 2022, Sept 2022 - The End

I hadn’t meant to do it. I guess I’d just had enough.

Looking back over the years we were married, it’s hard to pinpoint when it all started. He’d always been a bit of a moaner, it’s just that I didn’t know that he would turn into a professional one.

Nothing was ever really good enough for him. That included anything and everybody. He could find fault where there was none.

I really don’t know why I went along with it for all those years. I suppose I thought I could change him, eventually bring him around to my point of view. I was wrong.

Continue reading →

Men Talking Babies

Posted on by under 2022, Sept 2022 - The End

A blur of trees framed his crumpled reflection. Pete turned away from the window as the coach stopped.

“Jamie!”

“Hey Pete.”

 Jamie buffeted along the aisle and crab-walked a lanky frame into seats 4A and B in front.

“A bit iffy at one point. Paypal not going through, Visa card not in the usual place. Found it here.”  With a jagged inhalation he patted his back pocket. “Hadn’t eaten in 10 hours; must have put it back after Pret.  Real fuck of a journey altogether. Still, made it in the end.”

Jamie passed a paper tissue over his dewing brow and dripping end of nose.

Continue reading →

The Art of Growing Wings

Posted on by under 2022, Sept 2022 - The End

It will be a parting gift. Something to remind him of “us.”

Clouds skid across the darkening September sky, nudged along by an insistent wind. “It’s time,” it seems to hiss as it whistles around the rooftops.

The swallows have heard it too. They gather on the telephone line overhead, their slit-throats lined up and their tails criss-crossing in different directions like scissors, ready to cut ties.

It’s a time for bursting out of the summer haze into vivid autumn colour and activity. A time for new starts and sowing seeds. I prepare the soil, loosening and enriching it.

Continue reading →

From the Beginning to the End

Posted on by under 2022, Sept 2022 - The End

Thursday the 21st of April, my 6th birthday. A day indelibly etched on my brain. It was the day that I received 2 tickets to go to the circus with my friend Susan.

On the morning of that momentous day I was bubbling with anticipation at what my gift would be. My curiosity was soon satisfied when I opened my birthday card and discovered the tickets.

That was the beginning of an arduous but long and exciting journey that led me all over the world.

Continue reading →

Burial

Posted on by under 2022, Sept 2022 - The End
Priest with glowing eyes in front of crying children

That time in the quays when his da had gone to the toilet. O’ Flaherty, his smirk as big as the froth on his stout, had put his hand on his knee, then moved it higher to his genitals. Keegan had had the sense to stand up and follow his father.

            ‘Full bladder, son?’

            Keegan told the old man what had happened. The latter’s face became hard, dark like the exterior of Kilmainham jail. ‘And him a priest!’ On returning, he said, ‘There’ll be no more welcome in our house for that bastard.’       

            Now Keegan was the sole mourner at his burial. Why had he come?  

Continue reading →

Love Me Do until The End: In Another Universe

Posted on by under 2022, Sept 2022 - The End

Phil tugged at his beard and grinned at Jim, who sat to his right cradling his Epiphone. “You know, I think I ought to stand up for this.”

“Stand up, stand up for Jebsus,” warbled Jim, “you do what’s right, Phil. Just make it good. INTRODUCING mister Phil McSnorty on the vocal banjo.”

“What’s a vocal banjo, Jim?” Greg – dark eyes and darker demeanour.

“It’s like a Jew’s Harp, only with very little harp and not much Jew.”

“Okay, are we rolling, Graham?”

Graham Jimson gave a thumbs up from the control booth.

Continue reading →
error: Content is protected !!