Instructions for a Secret Agent by Emma Venables
You must forget: … Biography: Emma Venables’ short and flash fiction has been widely published in magazines and journals. She has a PhD in Creative Writing and has taught at Royal Holloway,…
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Her Big Chance by Lisa Thornton
Mia looked at Sandy’s face in the mirror on the bedroom wall. Sandy held the curling iron for a twenty count on her bangs. Mia could see her friend’s lips silently counting…
The Visit by Geraldine McCarthy
Peggy’s transistor radio stands alone on the high windowsill. The rasping voice of the presenter echoes through the ward. He interviews housewives about the price of groceries, and politicians about the cost…
Chocomel by Kik Lodge
Workington. Fisher Street. Jackson’s sweetshop. Mother of thirteen rolls the fruit drops in powdered sugar, dusts off her fingers, puts in her curlers. Says sweet dreams children. Father of thirteen, at sea,…
A Name Like a Flying Cheesecake by Christy Tending
I like the providence of names. Move a letter here or there, or leave them as they were, and they come to mean a whole new person. The name itself takes on…
Mary Casts a Shadow on the Ground by Maureen O’Leary
Work for enough to live on so that you pass as human. This isn’t a supernatural story. You are a human being. Human is your species. You walk along the streets of…
Crab Funeral by Ruth Powell
Breffni didn’t like the treasure hunt worksheets handed out to children at museums. He preferred to look at the exhibits himself and learn what he could from being close to them. He…
The Couple Next Door by Miranda Steinway
The couple who lives next door to us owns their home, while my boyfriend and I are renting. We pay 2,000 a month for the second floor of a duplex. Their house…
In a Providence Motel by Francine Witte
He told her he had news and let’s get away to Rhode Island. He told her he wanted the news to be separate from the rest of their lives. They took the…
When Jim Looked into a Bowl of Ramen and Saw the Future by Emma Phillips
It was cloudy and he used his chopsticks the proper way, so we believed him; the way you do when someone knows the difference between holding them to separate pickle from broth…
A Piecer’s Tale by Christine Collinson
Mr. Hendrick is watching me. “Work faster, girl!” he bellows over the clack-clack of the looms. I heap loose fibres into the sack, just like every day, and hold my misery tightly…
Orchids by Victoria Stewart
‘What’s he saying?’ ‘He’s telling us to take care where we walk. There are wild orchids in the lawn. See.’ She raised an ironic eyebrow and pointed with the toe of her…