Storries
By paborama
I suppose I have a definable style, it is not for me to define
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- 2369 reads
Apples
His hair was unruly, I liked that. It warmed me to know that people can forget about their hair when they’re happy.
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- 518 reads
Sir Reality and the Washpot Kingdom of Snoll
Snoll was, and still is as far as I’m probably concerned, a small fishing tackle on the outer isle of the Inner Hebrides.
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- 566 reads
Belle de Fou Rire
Belle de Fou Rire. Tortured franchises of confessional love, the grave- robber set upon his task, that found him moving in above of all that went
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- 731 reads
Hosforth - part 1
...we got on the Hosforth Murky Mile ride and the carriage took us into the cliff. Inside the long caves we'd just reached the fossil of a fearsome sea dragon when...
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- 644 reads
Marburg International
Alright boss, the detective growled from across the desk at me, we want your story and we don’t want it to be no story, if you catch my drift? He stank, I stank, we all stank together.
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- 2 comments
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- 477 reads
Dr M'Kolo
Ever since Dr M’kolo had done that thing with maths that had astonished everyone and proved that wave and line functions were interchangeable in every situation bar none, science had lost its way so
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- 1 comment
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- 1086 reads
Tinder
In a land of angels there lived once a sun-god called Amerius. He was a good and kindly god, the son of the Universe and brother to the Moon, King of the Heavens he lit..
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- 3 comments
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- 1100 reads
Stupid Gnomes
Written in the forgotten key of A minor miner The stupid gnome(s)
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- 683 reads
The Smacked Donkey
Living in the driving rain, dragged by humanity into unending toil, the little donkey dreamt of grass and hay and of sun on his back. Only, he did not know what these things were.
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- 2 comments
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- 902 reads
Infinite Sky
...he's been stretching his mind to think up ways of adding and multiplying to make an invisible abacus of entrailed structures in the Ebon stink.
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- 2 comments
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- 893 reads
Donneray
We do not know whether the Sun will rise
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- 4 comments
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- 1387 reads
Jungle Warfare
...I am justification to be pulled-out and paraded lest judicial review ever become a priority and need to be produced. Better that I was just a paper-tick...
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- 544 reads
The Temple
In India, when I was young, a laced-up collar and a new-spiced bun were the things I treasured most. Not Karole, my half-sister whom I despised; nor...
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- 13 comments
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- 3307 reads
Sleepy Time
There are times when sleep is regarded with contempt, usually by those who don't require it. 'Lazybones', 'bone idle', etcetera. What's it got to do...
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- 2 comments
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- 787 reads
Stacey on the Lunch
Decelerated positron emissions born a thousand centuries earlier bathed her face in the warmth of a late Spring morning. This time was ours and no...
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- 7 comments
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- 2703 reads
Wibsey
Wibsey means "Wibba's island", from my Granpappy Wibba. An alternative derivation is that wib is a corruption of Old English wibwob, meaning witheys...
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- 530 reads
Emma with the Back Pocket that Stretches to Fit
Zam! The taxi door slammed shut and the cab ascended into the air. Emma, cool to within a nanometre of godesslike, stretched her legs, breathed in...
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- 4 comments
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- 1127 reads
A Wake for Barney
The tree tops blew in the wild storm, the swish of the branches painting a picture in the mind that the eye could not see. Paul called out somewhere...
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- 2 comments
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- 1117 reads
Red Love
Pale as the moon she strolls through the streets of Avignon the sun burnishing the red hair yet somehow it don't eat at all the pale skin upon her...
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- 482 reads
Like Kings
The tree tops blew in the wild storm, the swish of the branches painting a picture in the mind that the eye could not see. Paul called out somewhere...
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- 534 reads
My inspiration point
When I was fifteen my mum got me a tutor to help me through exams. He was amazing, he got me to appreciate what I was doing in a new light. He got me...
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- 544 reads
Clean Smelling Sheets
On stage the set had changed to roses on the old castle walls, presumably the matured plants put there to honour the young king's grandmother all...
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- 1 comment
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- 589 reads
The Fissure King
You've heard scratchings. You'll have heard unusual... goings on. Have you ever stayed up too late or woken in the night to feel there's someone.....
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- 497 reads
Hamish
Hamish sat quizzically just beyond the small puddle slowly growing wider. At no point had Alice told him not to sit there, in the cool bowl of fresh...
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- 401 reads
Cardamom Hills (extract)
I screamed in the night and there was no-one there to hear me. Upon returning to my native St Catherine's from such travels in Provence as can be...
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- 2 comments
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- 888 reads
Glam - Part One
'Nice, ain't she?' I looked away from the object of my distraction to find an older gent, in his sixties perhaps, long hair greasy and greying...
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- 497 reads
Glam - Part Two
Inside, a step allows those entering more headroom than I had expected. I notice the light from outside still streaming in so I turn to find he had...
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- 469 reads
Modern Tête
Orange, celery, parsley blancmange in pastry cups; brown thin baskets that contrasted primly with their delicious modern fillings creating luscious...
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- 568 reads
Connect 4
In twelve months I believe I will have consolidated power over these people. Look at them. Maire sitting by the biscuits when she should've risen to...
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- 486 reads
Buzz Driver
The drilling from upstairs began at eleven last night. A bit late, thought Graham, but maybe it's an emergency or a short job that they want to get...
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- 478 reads
Hire Purchase
Sunshine beats upon a rain soaked street, somewhere outside the conference centre on the Western Approach. The weather contradicts itself as it has...
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- 4 comments
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- 1426 reads
Alithos Anesti.
"Hello?" "Hello?!" "Hello!... Can you hear me?" Echoes. Echoes. Glassy hard sounds, like drips on solid sheening marble rock. A drop, a pause, a drop...
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- 524 reads
LAX to Catalina, via Northridge
Standing on the sidewalk as the flyover achieves almost fifteen degrees on its rise over the central freeway, waiting on a bus to take us to Long...
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- 4 comments
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- 1211 reads
Dansin' in the Stalls
"Do I get a concession? I'm 96 and my friend's 84." "Well she's a spring chicken then." "Och I know, son, I wish I was 84 again. But I've had a good...
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- 2 comments
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- 753 reads
In The Stair: 1
They moved in towards Winter a couple of years ago. Neither of them from round here, no one is these days. It's not like when we first moved here and...
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- 1 comment
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- 765 reads
Jack
March, we headed off to a resort on the Riviera mummy had been told about by a Spanish oil baron that New Year. The very idea of a Spanish oil baron...
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- 475 reads
Stareman to Queen Bitch
Why are you reading this story? Did you think, 'ooh redhead!' Your eyes flicking casually across the screen looking for something different. Not the...
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- 572 reads
A Seagull Paused
On a misty morning when the wind cooled my brow, I walked to the bus stop to see what time my bus would come. The bin lorries, two abreast, went up...
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- 2 comments
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- 875 reads
Silver Daughter
Talk had it she was from the island. There weren’t supposed to be folk living there, apart from the lighthouse men. She was a foundling. Dr Innes had...
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- 6 comments
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- 1668 reads
A Life of Cryin' - part 1
It was an early wish of mine to bring entertainment to the streets. Growing up in the city of Dundee, this was both a need sore-lacking, and a...
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- 5 comments
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- 1194 reads
Mace
Blunt, tacit grunt alerts them, diverts them from the Gothic tracery they're engrossed in. Standing 5 feet tall, he blocks the hall from wall to wall...
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- 379 reads
The Night Air
Calling us, from the frosty boats adrift on the nightened waters, softly the voices of children drifted across our encampment. Alice cooried-in...
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- 2 comments
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- 983 reads
The Night Air II
Alice had melted away as if the mist had wrapped her up in cotton wool and popped her in a box for safe keeping. I felt that warmth too, as if packed...
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- 375 reads
Lady Jaguarundi
The laughing girl catches me ogling her from across the bar. I'm set in stone momentarily yet manage to bring my eyes back around to Frances, who's...
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- 395 reads
Natalie
A good-for-nothing, gormless, sprot!' had been her school report card's most memorable quote at fourteen. Her mother taking her to task over her...
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- 6 comments
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- 1233 reads
Mille Feuilles (Lunch Crunch)
Curled leaves, dried leaves, dead and dying as the trees change their diet for Winter. A breeze, not freezing, blows on the base of my skull. My feet...
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- 3 comments
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- 702 reads
Bike Thieves
Marissa was a tomboy, her curly black shin hairs and skills at football on the playing field making her the talk of Primary Five. Early on in our...
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- 4 comments
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- 928 reads
Marzipan Expressway
In 1948, Pablo invented 'Marzipan Expressway', a new form of competitive racing experience that blended many people's favourite thing about Simnel...
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- 369 reads
The Fallen (excerpt)
A wheel spins on the horizontal, slowing to stillness in the frigid hall. Books lie scattered. His fingertips trace the outline of a decorative...
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- 2 comments
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- 511 reads
Snorri Sturluson*
Götterdämmerung - 79 His breath has rapidly slowed. Two weeks ago I first visited. He has lain here pretty much ever since. Or sat in the chair next...
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- 4 comments
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- 850 reads
The Corner Library
At the age of nine, my world revolved around books. I had not yet gotten into hard science fiction or whimsical fantasy; I liked Westerns, I liked...
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- 8 comments
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- 1561 reads
The Greatest Feast Day of them All
‘And he’s going to have his first Christmas. I don’t know if I should get him something, or something by proxy for James and Marie, since Adam might...
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- 1 comment
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- 437 reads
Athena
On Saturn’s green and marschy land, the Goddess Athena did land. Adrift from home and hope and fate, she’d had a lot upon her plate. So, settled in...
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- 3 comments
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- 406 reads
The Knights at Camelot in Christmas
Fitt I Right then! Time to start the story. The Knights of the Round Table we shall meet, via the tale of one of them: Noble Sir Gawain. And when we...
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- 2 comments
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- 494 reads