Worthing Flash

He brings out his new unicycle. The seat, from all the saddle soap, has to be held firmly; he wonders if, when he mounts it, he might slip off. He would rather slip then than in the middle of a ride. He has polished the chrome rim twice, even gleamed the spokes. The pedals have been methodically lubricated. All the metals of the frame have been glistened and the height adjustment trued against his old unicycle, the one now for sale in the front yard, original purchase date and mileage scrawled on a sign beside. Best offer, but it had better be a good, flattering offer. Plenty of miles left in that unicycle, though plenty have already been run. This first outing will be a test. Just a short cycle. Something to prove the balance, see if the new seat has ridge-and-play similar to the old unicycle. A pedal to the corner store, perhaps. Or over to Mina’s house to show off the new conveyance. Backwards, forwards, pinpoint turns, letter-making in loose gravel. A trial run bef...

By Sarah Starr (Inspired by and in memory of Grenfell Tower) Air It snowed the day I wove her golden braids, black ribbons twisting through her luxurious mane of flax. She held her head proudly, but sadness curtained her dark eyes. The sky, still grey from soot and ash, held the further surprise of frosted sugar as I led her prettily from her stall. I remembered the day my sister had leant over the railings above me, her hair the same gilded hue, her laughing eyes obscured from my view. She enjoyed affecting flight, arms outstretched to that same sky, then blue as cornflowers and with the promise of endless summer days. That was when bees had circled the tower in search of nectar and pollen for their hive. Seeds drifted on silent thermals with only the birds for company. She saw me way below her and ran inside to meet me. Fire But soon a dreadful, fateful day exploded. When no rain or snow came forth to quell the burning tongues that mocked and flailed against stone an...

by  Niles Reddick When he was young, his mother told him he was what he ate, and the combination of Little Debbie's along with the Funyuns he inhaled in his university dorm room gave him a midsection innertube that wouldn’t be a lifesaver when swimming in the lake. I had told my class over and over, like a stuck record, they were what they wrote, and I saw him as a giant walking comma slinking the halls of the university because of the overuse and abuse in his papers. I prayed he found a coordinating conjunction coed. His mop hair covered his eyes, and each time he spoke with me, he used the word “like” every three words. Like his inability to communicate, I figured he'd been passed from one grade to the next in his high school and graduated with an inability to write a sentence. He seemed a gentle giant, someone who could play the line on the football team while his struggling family borrowed to pay tuition, dorm costs, and a meal plan combined with added out of s...

-Something funny happened today at work. -Oh? -I taught my class with sunglasses on and didn’t even know it. I just thought it was a cloudy day. -Has that ever happened before? -Once, before my first important talk. I must have told you that. He picks up the sunglasses from the table, peers at her.  -How could you have forgotten? he adds. -It was before my time. How could you have forgotten that?      She gets up to feed their yellow canary. She had wanted a parrot, but he didn’t want something that spoke English.  It would only learn a few phrases at most, she’d cajoled him. You could teach it the ones that amuse you─ you’re a teacher for god’s sake. And it’s not like the bird would argue with you.      He put his foot down and kept it there. Now she has to admit she loves the canary’s sweet song; and he doesn’t mind it. Most of the time he doesn’t really hear it, she thinks.  While she fills its dish, the bird skitters out of the c...

And I thought there was genuinely a dearth of good people in this world!” I learnt about this incident when Rita, the youngest daughter-in-law of my late sister came to our apartment at Dum Dum with her eldest sister. Rita’s eldest sister, Gita Di, was talking to me about her siblings. During the conversation, she mentioned their youngest sister, Mita. “Isn’t she the one who lost her ....?” Going to enquire whether Mita was the sister who lost her husband, I stopped in the middle, having realised that I was crossing boundaries of propriety. A very simple and easy-going woman, Gita Di told me,” Yea, you heard it right. Her husband died some six years ago.” “Your sister must have been quite young then?” I couldn’t help asking. “Correct. She was stepping into her thirties at that time.” She replied. “Didn’t you try to get her married again?” “We did. We pestered her like anything. But she didn’t get married, preferring to stay with her in-laws. She got her husband’s job though....

The Legend of Loof Lirpa Originally published on  April 01, 2021   In 1793 the health ministry of Norway was tasked with measuring the feet of all the citizens. The runaway winner of the contest was a little-known man called Loof Lirpa. His picture, alongside a picture of his feet with a normal-sized pair of feet for comparison, appeared in the newspapers of the day, there were two. The King awarded Loof a thousand Kroner which could be expected to keep him in comfort for the rest of his days. In those days there were no shoe sizes so Loof had to have his shoes specially made. Fortunately his father came from a long line of cobblers. Loof decided to set out exploring.  The first country he discovered was Denmark. Norwegians had heard of Denmark but hitherto they had thought of it as a mythic land inhabited by giants. Danes are similar in size to Norwegians and in fact Loof, with his prodigious feet, was regarded as a giant by them.  He was introduced to the King who ...