Worthing Flash

(Derek McMillan is not eligible to win the contest because he is one of the judges. I just like writing stories.) Friends and neighbours admire our roses. They have lovely colours and they give off a marvellous melange of scents. The secret, Sandy tells me, is that our roses will not thrive unless you deadhead them, chopping off the dead or dying ones so that the new growth has room to develop. It is not a job I particularly like so I was pleased when Sandy said that she was going out into the garden for a spot of deadheading. I thought her very helpful. It was only when the neighbours started complaining about the headless corpses that I smelt a rat.     

St Petersburg, 1919   Enough's enough. Today's the day I leave the elderly couple who've taken care of me the past few months. They've been attentive but kept me too long and seem resistant to my leaving.   I thank them for getting me back to strength, and their offers to find out who I am. I politely prise the old woman's fingers from the door as the old man advances, and i'm off.   The first street is plastered with newspaper, but I'm distracted by shouting and look round. A large group of people slowly bear down on me, joyful and hungry. by Ellie Herda-Grimwood      

I wrote this piece called “the plastic surgeon’s patient” for the sole purpose of having my computer respond to me after I make a few changes to it: do you want to save the changes to the plastic surgeon’s patient? by William Kitcher    

King Charming and Queen Cinderella accepted an invitation from Tsar Nicholas to visit him in Saint Petersburg. They went there by the same coach that Cinderella had used to go to the ball where she met Charming for the first time. Passing through Poland they happened to meet Ludwig Zamenhof. He was an optician but he also possessed very powerful second sight, among other talents. “Your majesty,” he said to the queen. “I perceive that you are not happy and your coach is not what it seems. Come and see me on the way back from Saint Petersburg.” The king and queen passed through Poland again on the way back from Saint Petersburg. They stopped overnight and in the morning their coach was missing. It was nowhere to be found. The tsar's police searched everywhere but eventually the king and queen had to return home by train. Cinderella did not live happily ever after with King Charming. He cheated on her with many girls and boys also, as royals are wont to do. After her divorce she w...

They sat at the kitchen table, listening to the storm raging. She flinched whenever a gust rattled the windows. He gently laid his gnarled hand on hers, enfolding her trembling fingers. “Everything will be fine,” he said. “If that oak had fallen ten feet closer in the Great Storm, we’d have been crushed,” she replied. He caressed the wooden table with his free hand and smiled. “But it didn’t, we weren’t and now we have this lovely table. Don’t worry. We’ll be fine.” An hour later the wind died down. “You were right,” she said.    

 The phenomenon begins with a whir of wind against an ever-increasing purr. Felines drape long limbs of ancient oaks in a strange and unexpected threat outside your windowpane. Persians, Maine Coons, Bengals—hang from branches like gossamer strands of Spanish Moss. Only… these don Morion Helmets as conquistadores of old. Ready for battle, they are ranked, filed—a midnight mass, staring you down. Then, the attack… the break from stationary to stride, fangs baring serrated blades to draw the blood of revenge. Quick, grab the shutters, fasten the hook closures, dampen the burning candle wicks. The clowder is here.   by Keith Hoerner  

The frost-ruby sun creeping over Skull Crag catches Serena serenading the unsullied morning. ‘ Massive anchovy shoals spotted in Biscay Bay,’ father had said. Shin deep in glacial brine, she harvests the razor shells herded into the gaunt shadow of the Devil's Knuckles by the looming daylight. ‘ Calm seas, don't fret.’ Back aching from scooping tightly sealed clams one by one into her calf-skin sack, Serena straightens for a stolen moment to check again for father's missing trawler. Every muscle below Serena's knees is deadened by the out-flowing current, her fingers the same blue as her reddened eyes.