The weak spot in the ceiling wasn’t there when I moved in. Believe me, I would’ve noticed it. It just appeared, with little parade, benignly, just to the side of my bed, after about three months of living in that apartment. It wasn’t particularly big. I measured it, one day, wobbling on top of my rotating office chair to reach, wielding a ruler. Diameter: around seven centimetres.
Read MoreThe kid unfurls the flag and wears it, cape-like. He jumps and spins, looking over his shoulder at the tail of the flourish.
‘Get it off. This is serious.’
Read MoreI remember spending summer at my grandmother’s house, swinging back and forth in her hammock, the breeze flying through my long hair. Back then there were no doubts, problems or melancholy threatening to cut it short.
Read MoreHe’s twenty-nine now, but you wouldn’t know it. His eyes are sunken and hollow, lines etched into his skin by the afternoon sun. The 95’ Camry rumbles as the key turns in the ignition, its seats scratched by age and weather and too many nights spent asleep in the backseat. Up the driveway, right, then left, onto the I-6 towards Lincoln, where he is just another pair of hands used to put up the new developments.
Read MoreForeword — This short story is based on the radio episode ‘Conscientious Objector’ in the Radio Three series ‘Our Fathers’ War’ written and performed by Michael Goldfarb about his professor Meredith Dallas. The scene which makes up most of this story and information about his professor all come from that episode and I borrow a few phrases from it as well. So if you enjoy this, give it a listen!
Read MoreI’ve been burdened with a terrible secret, and someone must know.
I was with her again last night, getting drinks, discussing Mary Queen of Scots. I guess I didn’t notice how many drinks she’d had, until she leaned over and grabbed my shoulders, and began whispering in my ear. “I have a secret.”
I steadied her and laughed, sure she was about to admit to sympathising with Henry Stuart, when she began the tale which now utterly haunts me.
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