Category Archives: 2023

A Prisoner in the Land of Silence and Darkness

Posted on by under 2023, July 2023 - No way out
An immortal king trapped

Unable to move, unable to die.

He couldn’t see, hear, feel, smell or taste.

This was isolation in its purest form. Loneliness inescapable. No rescue, no relief, no companionship, no comfort, and no end.

How long had he been there? A million years, merely a week? Another agony was that in his sightless, soundless state, he could not even measure time.

He would never again know fresh air, a good meal or the touch of a warm hand.

*

“Make me immortal,” he yelled at the Djinn, and it granted his wish.

He gleefully drank down every poison, feeling no ill effects. He had his armed guards charge at him, and even the sharpest blade never pierced his skin.

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Critical Signal Strength

Posted on by under 2023, July 2023 - No way out
Female space pilot in foreground, with a spaceship trapped in gravity wave in the background

Space is at a premium. At least it is when you’re the pilot of a packet-ship.

I am iDen 20786433717/190. One-ninety to you, pilot first-class. It is my job to convey the orders of The Agreement to extra-solar installations on the tether end of the information relay artery. We can only transmit detailed instructions the old-fashioned way. That’s by carrying a tonne of code-embedded crystal through the redlines in a physical ship.

It is all about bandwidth. Out here, on the periphery, bandwidth is narrow. Why not build more routers? Easy. They wouldn’t work. Bandwidth is inversely proportional to the distance from the hub in redline-space.

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Home Sweet Home

Posted on by under 2023, June 2023 - Home Sweet Home

You know there’s something seriously wrong when the police arrive at your door past midnight.  I guessed what it was at once.  He had finally done it.

I’d moved out of the family home when I was seventeen, and haven’t put a foot inside it since.  After years of wanting my father’s attention, I finally had it once I reached puberty.  It was the wrong sort of course, “our little secret” he used to call it.

Poor Mum, the things she had to put up with over the years.  She didn’t deserve any of it. She’d never told anybody of the mental and physical abuse she had been subjected to from ‘HIM.’  Even now I can’t call him ‘Dad’, he’s such a despicable human being.  Why she stood by him all these years I will never understand.

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A refuge in the storm

Posted on by under 2023, June 2023 - Home Sweet Home

Of course, the forest was dark that night, in these sorts of stories it always is. But, even as I stumbled through the undergrowth, the wind whipping razor-sharp branches into my face like an enraged banshee, I couldn’t allow myself to slow.

There it was, by some miracle, a light up ahead. I almost physically stretched toward it, like a dying man in the desert offered a flask of water or, perhaps, to flip the analogy, a drowning man thrown a rope from a passing ship.

What it was, was hope. Lower case, yes, but hope nonetheless.

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Mam’s comforting hand

Posted on by under 2023, June 2023 - Home Sweet Home
dead colliery horse lies in the dust

Dafydd scanned the dirty, black surroundings as he approached the colliery. Clouds of acrid dusty smoke belched from the tall chimney that covered the hillside. The pit head wheel rotated lowering colliers underground at the beginning of each shift. Dada and Dafydd, wearing their worn corduroy trousers and jackets, arrived promptly at the mine entrance.

       They reported to the office where the manager’s voice called out. “Bring him in Dai. Duw Dafydd, you’re starting work today. Are you looking forward to it?” Nervously he replied yes. Dafydd showed his anxiousness. Dada’s firm and comforting hand calmed him. “Steady bach, you’ll be fine”. They entered the cage and the door shutting unnerved Dafydd. The winding wheel clunked into life. His pulse quickened, his stomach churned, his palms and forehead became sweaty. The cage lowered. They were met below by Emlyn, a well-built giant whose face was covered in black dust.  

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Planet Hiraeth

Posted on by under 2023, June 2023 - Home Sweet Home
A hologram of Earth with a willow tree on an alien planet viewed by middle aged Welsh women

Silken fingers tickle my face as they fasten the blindfold behind my head, their animated whispers swelling and popping like bubbles.

“Hold still, Ma!”

Beside me, my sister, Emma, is giggling, receiving the same treatment. What are they up to, these great, great, great grandchildren of ours?

The excitement is contagious. “Gently now, or Auntie and I won’t make it past our two hundredth birthdays.”

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Back Home

Posted on by under 2023, June 2023 - Home Sweet Home
Young man returns home on the bus with his baby and new bride.

We were cock-a-hoop when our Billy said he was coming home.  His Mam’s been up all hours polishing the copper and she’s scrubbed the front step until it’s gleaming.  She’s busy baking enough to feed Billy, his lass, the bairn, and the entire street I reckon. It’s not as if Billy will even notice, he just wants to see us. 

It seems like yesterday he was a babe in arms.  He was hardly as big as a bag of sugar when he was born.  Wouldn’t have given tuppence for his chances.  His mam gave him sips of milk on her finger until he was strong enough to take a bottle.  He soon got a taste for it, mind. Used to yell blue murder till he was fed.  When she shoved the bottle in Billy’s gob and the yelling stopped, I used to think I’d gone deaf. You wouldn’t think he’d started off like that to look at him now.  He’s grown into a fine lad.

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Festival of fun!!!

Posted on by under 2023, June 2023 - Home Sweet Home
Rock festival sufffers downpour - two people - male and female stand in the rain under an unbrella

Putting up the tent, Sam and Evie smiled at each other. They felt like naughty teenagers. It was to be their first music festival. Both in their forties, they had always wanted to go but life had always got in the way. With the twins off on a school trip for a week their time had come. The Hadfield music festival happened to fall at that time.

            They had booked a quiet field that overlooked the stage area and had showers and toilets. The weather looked fine, so excitement was bubbling. Wandering around the main area a cacophony of sound and smells assaulted their senses; so much choice and so many people. Although they did notice that a majority of the crowd were quite young, they were determined to enjoy the experience.

            The bands started playing, they wandered around getting a taste for each brand of music; some they enjoyed, others not so much. One of their favourite bands was due to play the next night, so they settled for a takeaway and returned to their tent for a reasonably early night.

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Shelter

Posted on by under 2023, June 2023 - Home Sweet Home
Old house by a river with a big family outside

The house had never been through the local estate agents’ books because it had never been sold. It had been built, over a hundred years ago, by a young couple who gathered local wood and stone and slowly, lovingly made themselves a house of many rooms in which to raise their family. Who knew where the deeds and land registry papers were? Certainly, none of the present occupants who paid the bills and maintained the fruitful gardens.

Many people had called the house home.  Family, friends, and people in need of refuge had shared love and hospitality there as well as some of life’s tragedies. No one ever wanted to leave, but inevitably work, marriage, death, or the desire to travel had torn some away, always with the hope of return.

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Beyond The Home Frontier

Posted on by under 2023, June 2023 - Home Sweet Home
a surreal landscape populated by termites, with their mounds appearing as towering cities in the background

“And your point is……?” Weeny, named for his diminutive size, gazed enquiringly from unseeing ocelli at his half-brother.

            “My point is obvious,” Marshal replied, jaws bristling. “We always build sharp sides North South along magnetic lines, broad sides East to West.” He released an acidic cloud of pheromones to indicate his exasperation. “The colony has flourished, expanded, and order has been maintained. That’s reason good enough to stick with traditional architectural plans.”

But with success had come drawbacks. The colony had expanded to its geophysical limit; it was time to either build the city higher, much higher, or explore new frontiers. 

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Cross

Posted on by under 2023, June 2023 - Home Sweet Home

The summer city riots had spread to the rural north. The news eventually filtered through to the isolated mining village of Brookover. Its pit had long been closed, a sportswear assembly unit squatting on its corpse. It was the main employer for miles, the owners having brought in scores of Eastern Europeans on the minimum wage to toil there.

            The presence of the ‘foreigners’ was a grievance: Polish shops, strange languages in the market square. Their healthy diet marked out the incomers too. They were thin and fit, not paunchy and panting like some locals.

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Hear me out! Here’s a pitch!

Posted on by under June 2023 - Home Sweet Home

Okay, there’s certain stories you really dig. Sometimes it’s high art that you feel smart for liking. An approving conscience says well done, yada-yada.

Sometimes you like silly fluff for reasons you can’t justify but it was Crimson Camel who said a good paperback is preferable to bad literature.

Think about it, what would you rather eat, a fresh big mac or mouldy caviar?

So, this story, penned by the always entertaining Arizona Davies, takes us to a modest house. It’s during lockdown and two people are fucking.

They’re roleplaying with the guy doing a hearty pirate voice: “Yer be my kidnapped wrench ha-ha” but the gal decides to dial up the romance instead.

“I love you,” she states with puppy eyes “My heart aches for you.”

He frowns somewhat puzzled.

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Prison. Bloody Prison.

Posted on by under 2023, June 2023 - Home Sweet Home

On the 23rd of March 2020, the Prime Minister announced the UK’s first national lockdown.

“I tell you, Polly,” Alan glared at the slate plaque above his cooker inscribed with ‘Home Sweet Home’ in decorative text. “It’s more like Prison Bloody Prison.”

Polly the parrot remained mute.

Picking up his cup, he stood, tripped, and fell violently against his large ceramic sink. His hand struck the edge, shattering three carpal bones and dislocating his ulna. Bouncing off, he crumpled heavily, fracturing his fibula as he fell, and dislocating his other leg’s knee. He passed out.

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A Darker Side of Life

Posted on by under 2023, May 2023 - Commitment

‘Do you swear to never rat on any of us?’

‘I do.’

‘Do you swear on your mother’s life, you’re committed to the gang?’

‘I do’.

Harry just played along and said what was expected of him, it had all seemed like proper boy’s stuff until Adam pulled out his knife.

Harry’s lower lip started to tremble.

‘We won’t have any cry-babies,’ Adam stated as he used his penknife to initiate Harry into his gang.

Harry winced.

‘We’re blood brothers now, there’s no turning back,’ announced Adam.

Harry had thought that it would be fun to be accepted into a gang at his new school.  Now, after seeing the pleasure that inflicting pain gave Adam, he was beginning to have some doubts. 

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The Contract – Special Causes and Conditions

Posted on by under 2023, May 2023 - Commitment

I have reached the age where wraiths of the dearly departed,-siblings, parents, babies lost before birth, partners, friends,- slip unbidden into the monochrome days and restless nights. They dart and hide at vision’s edge, ever eluding the spotlight of full consciousness. Yet as the procedure progresses, notwithstanding this lack of clarity, they appear more substantial, more tangible, than the creature standing beside me on hind legs.

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Cards on the table

Posted on by under 2023, May 2023 - Commitment

It wasn’t so much that things had gone wrong, more that they were never right. So it was a great relief to get the metaphorical cards out and lay them, face down, on the table. Let us take a seat at this table, the better to understand the situation.

The first card to be turned up was Tom’s:  ‘ I’m so afraid of hurting you that I  tiptoe around things. I mean, I’d really love to play 5-a-side on a Saturday and have a few jars with the team afterwards. But it wouldn’t be fair to you, leaving you alone at the weekend.’

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Smoke Rings

Posted on by under 2023, May 2023 - Commitment

I take a drag, the nicotine hit combined with the rush of seeing you again proving a heady concoction. My legs twitch with such an urgency to run that I fear they’ll carry me down the hill, unbidden, towards you. I force myself to remain seated, hidden from view.

You’re smoking now too, leaning against our tree, our connection as natural as thunder and lightning. I can’t believe you’re there. In the place we said we’d meet in twenty years’ time if things hadn’t worked out.

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Together

Posted on by under 2023, May 2023 - Commitment

Back from the hospital Noel sipped tea hurriedly and Zoe said, ‘What about our anniversary?’

            ‘A couple of hours. Tonight’s a given.’

            ‘Doesn’t his solicitor have people who empty property?’

            ‘I’m not emptying it. Don’t you listen!’

            Why was he raising his voice? Today was be nice day. The death had spooked him, that was what it was. He noticed a solitary blade of silver in her fair hair. Thirty years together, through thick and thin, it seemed to say.

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Only six minutes late

Posted on by under 2023, May 2023 - Commitment

“Where the hell is he?” growled Mike, as Lenny’s phone pinged with a message.

“It’s ‘im, it’s Dave,” Lenny said, unlocking the screen. “Says Be there in a minute, had another commitment to deal with.”

“Another BLOODY commitment?” Mike yelled. “Who’s ‘e fink ‘e is?”

“Itchy,” moaned Two. He’d also been christened Dave, and the group didn’t have much imagination.

“Oh, bloody shut up,” Graham snapped. “Don’t you think we’ve got better things to worry about than your sodding skincare regime at the moment?”

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A mother’s love

Posted on by under 2023, May 2023 - Commitment

My love for her echoes the unconditional love she has for me. She has watched me laugh and cry from the day I was born and made sure she raised me as a sensitive, loving person.  There has always been respect for decisions I have made in life and she has corrected many mistakes I have made.  Her guidance has made me a more rounded person. The commitment I have for her will always be there.

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