Braving the Crowds by Jon Kemsley
The sales were still running and the streets were packed. All along the one side it was final reductions, half price or less and all along the other side it…
The sales were still running and the streets were packed. All along the one side it was final reductions, half price or less and all along the other side it…
They arrived at first light, tying up their horses to wait beneath a drizzling sky. The Prime bell had just rung, but Brother Paul and the other monks were hastening…
Good for the garden, my father says. His skin prickles, raindrops on the window reflecting his anxiety. Good for your father, my mother says. Behind his back, whispering it to…
It’s him. He’s lifting weights, wearing that red football shirt he always wore. It can’t be the same shirt he used to wear to school under his sweater, but it’s…
House shivers when Witch Malina kick-slams the scullery door behind her. In her cloak, she hauls a copious harvest of swamp nightshade, snakeroot, and wolfbane, which she dumps into the…
When you get to be a woman of a certain age you become invisible, so it really doesn’t matter what you eat. So I can eat what I like. I…
So, you’ll go to the Benefits Office this afternoon? I ask and he says Yeah. I’ve said I’ll go, haven’t I? After I’ve been to the surgery. You know I…
There are one hundred and fifty students in the room, seven to a body. Unsure where and how to stand, they keep a cautious distance. In time, they will cleave…
The BART train was empty when it wheezed to a stop and the doors slid open. Gina had never been in a completely empty car before. The air smelled stale,…
‘Tell me why you’re here’ said the doctor, from behind half moon spectacles and a jackdaw fringe. Tabitha shifted uncomfortably in her chair. She didn’t know how to answer and…
Granny dropped dead in our kitchen when I was thirteen and Mother buried her in the back garden. In the sunny spot where they both liked to sit, Mother always…
[TW: This flash deals with an emotive topic.] Jet-lagged and dirty, he races, breathless, down the hospital corridor, skidding to a stop outside the delivery room. Then he melts against…