Barely Casting A Shadow
Reflex Fiction is a quarterly international flash fiction competition for stories between 180 and 360 words. In May 2018 Reflex Fiction published their first anthology titled “Barely Casting a Shadow”…
The Jump
“Why don’t you take the kite out?” says dad. I look at my brother, who shrugs. Outside, trees bend in the wind. We have been moping around the house all…
A Slack Rope
I travel from place to place. I settle for a while. I am settled, for the moment. I think about travelling to new places and also places I have been.…
Fairy Bridge
For a quiet moment the bridge stands empty, its stone untouched by curious little fingers, its moss unpicked…
Bonhomie
A few days after Felix Baumgartner calmly plummeted to Earth at 843 mph, in Carrick it seemed like the rain was determined to out-plummet him in a race to oblivion.…
Keshcorran
Our house sits a few miles south-east of the mountain, Keshcorran. Viewed from this direction the mountain is a lopsided mass, like an over-ripe pear or a scoop of ice-cream…
Landmarks
These streets are familiar, the cobblestone patterns and manicured roundabouts, and the people zipping past on bikes, chatting and quarreling like birds…
The Wire Fence
You move less. You hover by the wire fence. The other children maul and romp. You watch the ground, scuff gravel, step a little dance between the pieces of flattened…
A Hard Goodbye
I parked the car and got out. The road wound farther down, dark and empty, to a small town. Clouds brooded overhead, and a cold wind flicked across the barren…
Apricots
Alan hands out apricots from a sticky plastic bag. We jaw them for a while, pulling sour faces in the fire light. When we…
Field of Play
Our neighbour lives in a beige two-storey house ringed with sheds at the far side of an L-shaped field. Our garden sits in the crook of the field, a square…
Igor
Igor had been on television, on a talk-show. He had sat beside his mother who translated for the talk show host. The audience had seemed amused. Soon afterward…
King David
David reached under the bed and pulled out a wooden box. It was small and plain, a cheap little box with a cheap little clasp that had been opened so…
Mirror
She excused herself and hurried upstairs. For a moment conversation waned, as the diners adjusted to one less opinion, but someone quickly plugged the gap and…
The Crow
As soon as the crow arrived the little birds fled, flitting on jagged trajectories out over the fields beyond the garden. The crow seemed not to notice this flurry of…
Late for a Wedding
Ruth reached into the glove box and pulled out the wedding invitation. “It definitely says three o’ clock,” she said, offering it to Abe. He took…
Ladies Brae
We skip and scrabble over the rocks that pile up in the bend of the river. My younger brother leads the way. He finds all the best footholds and…
The Red Curtain
Billy took Nelson to see the old haunted house. It stood on a hill on the outskirts of town. They jogged up the street but slowed near the top. The…
Agoraphobia
I caught the fly between my finger and thumb and immediately wished that someone had been looking, for I do not often move so deftly. I watched it wriggle, between…
Beach Day
The beach was a shimmering golden crescent gilding a mile or so of bushy wild-land through which a dozen narrow tracks threaded criss-cross down to the sand…
Autumn Leaves
Squeezed between the gable ends of two separate but similar estates, the forgotten and untouched patch of grass slopes down to a bend in the river…
A Nice Surprise
The pony picked its way carefully down the valley’s far slope, grazing tufts of grass as it passed. Felipe and I stood perfectly still, almost holding our breaths…
The Hare
The hare broke cover and scampered across the road, passing in front of Damien’s bike. He braked hard. Alice braked too. She lost her balance and toppled sideweays into her…
Park Moment
I sat opposite the swing sets, watching the kids from the terraced houses behind the park make like monkeys, bawling, hitting out at each other as they pounded circles on…
A Long Walk
It’s our first walk of the new year so I decide to take the long way: a six mile track curving up through the hazel wood, the lake spread like…
Boys
Daylight lingered around the wood, as if kept in place by a spell, but between the trees the light quickly faded. The boys felt alone. Not free and independent as…
Stranded Flesh
The first report came in at 5 a.m. The second, ten minutes later. And the third just as the harbourmaster hung up on the second. Something was crossing the shipping…
Pastry
‘You never look where you’re going,’ said the mother to her little boy. He had tripped over the kerb, and she picked him up and slapped the dust out of…
Mother
I had wanted to knock like a friend, with a take-it or leave-it nonchalance, but of course I knocked like a mother, my fist swaddled in thick concern…
Being Good
Daniel is sick. For as long as she can remember. He walks with a limp and coughs at night. It keeps her awake. Although it has only recently begun…
