Tag: flash fiction

microfiction7 Comments

Gone

Barry Lee Thompson

One morning he set off on his walk, but when he reached the point where he usually turns back and heads for home, he kept on going. For hours and hours, on he went, and all the while behind him the city was diminishing. Days later, when he remembered to glance back, the skyline had disappeared completely. Each day the road stretched ahead to an unknown horizon, and each day he came upon quiet places to drink and eat. People in these places were thoughtful and generous, taking nothing, talking little, asking no questions. Refreshed, he’d smile and gather himself … Continue reading Gone

Competitions3 Comments

Fundación César Egido Serrano | VI International Flash Fiction Competition

Barry Lee Thompson

“”The César Egido Serrano Foundation was created to propose that the word be the tool of coexistence between cultures and religions and against all violence.” With a first prize of 20,000 dollars up for grabs, the César Egido Serrano Foundation has launched the VI Edition of their International Flash Fiction Competition, under the slogan ”Faced with COVID; Solidarity and Resilience”. The competition is open to writers from anywhere in the world over the age of 14 years. Two entries are allowed per author, maximum 100 words per entry (not including an optional title) in either Spanish, English, Arabic or Hebrew. … Continue reading Fundación César Egido Serrano | VI International Flash Fiction Competition

fiction5 Comments

Nets

Barry Lee Thompson

She puts on one of her favourites. She likes it very much, this song. So much that she listens to it every day. Every single morning, the same song, just to start things off. She sways at her window, in front of the nets. People go by, on the street, and they look towards the window because the music’s loud enough to hear as you pass, but they can’t see in. You can’t see in through nets. Not in the daytime, anyway. She knows this. Her mother told her. And she’s checked it for herself. She’s stood outside her own … Continue reading Nets

fiction6 Comments

Leaves

Barry Lee Thompson

Our afternoons were spent looking through the window onto a driveway covered in wet leaves. It seems now that this is all we did, every day, for the entire time we lived in that house. Surely there must have been more. I suppose we worked, one or both of us, for how else did we make money? And not every day could have had rain, and not every season has leaves on the ground. And yet, however hard I try, I can’t conjure an image other than the two of us at that window. We’re talking, sometimes, but mostly just … Continue reading Leaves

fiction6 Comments

Colours

Barry Lee Thompson

When he’s nostalgic, it’s pale blue like seaside cottages. Circling seagulls in morning harbours, old-fashioned cream cakes, the damp wood of rickety beach-huts. Ease is liquid green, like late summer afternoons. The lazy buzz of insects in settled heat, the sweet anticipation of the evening ahead. Anxious is the colour of commuters in a cold rush of urgency. It’s frantic, the sound of doors closing on a crowded train, the smells and tastes and harsh fabrics of commerce. Continue reading Colours