Author Archives: swanseawriters

Survivor

Posted on by under 2022, July 2022 - Chance

“Go,” Mother whispers, “you’re our last chance.”

I stand, confused, as she presses an activation key into my right hand, then runs along the corridor towards my father and the mob pressing against the hangar’s blast doors.

*

We’ve been spacers all our lives, living on the margins of existence. Trading goods wherever we can make credits, salvaging wreckage, fighting off pirates and raiders. The Federal Planetary Government doesn’t hold much sway out in the void, even though they’re becoming more authoritarian and imperialistic on the inhabited worlds. Rebellious types from beat poets to guerrilla militias had been crushed mercilessly according to rumour, but Father had dismissed the hearsay with a wave of his hand.

“No matter to us, girlie,” he’d said. “Go help your mother with the hull repairs.”

Continue reading →

Mischance Enhance

Posted on by under 2022, July 2022 - Chance

Errol was reprising the success of the promotional video for the new intake of apprentices.

Marius’s erstwhile line-manager cum PR guru had stagnated whilst he, the star ascendant, rose… and then kept rising. Press releases, talk show interviews, the occasional drip feeding of the “facts” surrounding his new boss’s meteoric elevation, – Neurodiverse Apprentice of the Year to CEO of Brigham Enviro-Solutions, – were worlds Errol appeared supremely comfortable in.

“Premise. Humankind is imprisoned by the physical, physiological, and cognitive limitations of the body – limitations that BES’s programme of human enhancement has overcome, channelled, mastered.” Errol was on a roll.

“Part 1. The application of biomedical engineering principles to the ‘physical’ biology of the nervous system, monitoring the brain’s chatter through micro-electrodes, identifying somebody’s motor intent, then how the brain encodes behaviour. Somebody please identify yourself ” Marius stood to polite applause.

Continue reading →

Serendipity

Posted on by under 2022, July 2022 - Chance

We had a game where we would set up prompts and build stories together, sometimes wild, crazy stories.  ‘It could so easily have been me….’ was one opener and

complicated, fantasy travel plans was another favourite. It made us laugh, and the dafter, the better.  In fact we enjoyed doing most things together and even doing nothing together was better than doing nothing separately.

The ‘easily have been me’ one was a rich vat of story opportunities. We often returned to it.

Continue reading →

Chance

Posted on by under 2022, July 2022 - Chance
Girl facing three interviewers

            Yet another interview, let’s hope I get the job this time. I think this is the eighth or ninth job I’ve gone for. OK, I know I wasn’t qualified for some like the nanny’s job, but they could have given me a chance.

            Why do they always keep you waiting? Sometimes I think they do it on purpose just to make you nervous, but today I’ve taken one of my mother’s diazepam, so I’m not fazed. The other two waiting look very la-di-da but a little nervous. One keeps dashing back and forth to the loo, while the other one is twisting her hands. You’d think she was on her way to the gallows. I think they have realised that I’m the obvious choice.

Continue reading →

Blown It

Posted on by under 2022, July 2022 - Chance

In the stroke ward were a dentist, a heavy-metal bass player, an underwater welder, a politician, and Nat Wharton, bigshot drug dealer, whose bed was surrounded by a posse of gun-toting cops, each of them as large as a truck laden with opium.

            The bass player didn’t know if she was in Carnegie Hall or a hall of mirrors. She listened to the faint boom ba boom of her hapless heart, trying to detect the backbeat and ascertain if the instrument was in four-four time.

Continue reading →

It’s Only a Little One

Posted on by under 2022, July 2022 - Chance

‘Aspen?’ Bill spat out the letter ‘p’ like it was a bitter pill. ‘What sort of name is that?’

I stroked my swollen abdomen and gazed out the window for added wistfulness. ‘Mum would have loved it.’

‘Hazel still rules our lives from beyond the grave,’ he muttered into his tea.

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ I stood up, losing my balance. In an instant he was easing me back onto the sofa, my vulnerability softening him.

Continue reading →

Harry Cashman

Posted on by under 2022, July 2022 - Chance
Man in suit screams into the void. Woman lies dead in pool of blood.

Harry stood in the doorway, his jackdaw black suit hugging him like a second skin, a bunch of flowers dangling from almost limp fingers.

Two nights away. A conference in Bournemouth. Thirty blokes getting drunk and talking about writing down expenses. From day one, he just wanted to get home to his wife, Sarah. He spoke to her last night in the casual terms of long familiarity.

“Love you.”

“Love you, three.”

Continue reading →

You were always telling me to take a chance!

Posted on by under 2022, July 2022 - Chance

“I’ve got a surprise for you,” Martha laughed “but first, close your eyes.”

What was this little surprise? Martha would probably hold up a deformed jumper, which she had knitted over many nights, and Chris would force herself to wear the itchy ill-fitting thing with a “Oh it’s just what I wanted!” kind of smile. That was typical Martha. A trait Chris still found rather charming.

Her birthday surprise as it turned out was much more alarming, for as Chris sat cross legged upon her lavender sofa, she felt the warm sensation of something soft pressing against her lips. Her eyes bolted open to find Martha, her BFF, kissing her.

Continue reading →

A Rush Through Time

Posted on by under 2021
Old Father Time in his office.

Sitting at his desk Father Time, opening his journal, gave vent to his frustration. Why, oh why, couldn’t people be happy with their lives? Time after time they try to hold back time, or pelt through, as in a race against it.

            Mothers wanting their babies to arrive quickly; at months old they wanted them to be walking and talking, and to know what ails them at three in the morning. And once in school wanting them to little again, holding back the natural rhythm of time.

Continue reading →

Thyme

Posted on by under 2021

The quaint and characteristic muddle of smells has stayed with me since the earliest of days. I can look back down the years and remember visits to great aunt Violet (my grandmother’s sister): first as duty visits with my mother and then more eager and self-willed visits on my own. I can well recall her face and details of the tiny cottage and surrounding garden, but it is the smells stay in my memory.

Each beam and hook and cupboard handle in the kitchen held drying herbs and flowers. These were later crumbled into jars and packets and used in cooking or medicinal remedies. Herbs were kept perky in jars of water, ready to be freshly chopped into oils, alcohols or distilled into tinctures. Soaps and lotions, vinegars and essential oils filled cupboards and shelves. Sometimes Violet sold her wares to local shops, and she also had postal enquiries and word-of -mouth recommendations.

Continue reading →

I can travel through time

Posted on by under 2022, June 2022 - Time

“I can travel through time,” the murderer explained.

Ah, of course. PC Milo, the officer tasked with the interrogation, pondered if Roger Sheen had a brain tumour or was perhaps banking on an insanity plea.

Sheen had no history of violence or aggression, was an honours student at college as a matter of fact and hadn’t as far as anyone knew even met Luke Moore before.

Continue reading →

Nine Times

Posted on by under 2022, June 2022 - Time

Mam was in a jumpy phase. Carl had been hoping her new boyfriend would bring her some calmness. After all, Astro had been patient with him. He’d taught him songs, and school stuff like showing him how to remember his tables.

            ‘If you feel that way about me, you can go!’ Mam was saying. Her face was red, her eyes wild like that panicking horse he’d see on tv, and which he kept thinking about in bed when the light was off.

            There were days when Mam seemed to be in a hurry like a racing car round a circuit. Other days she was quiet, didn’t want to go out, was touchy. She took medication to help her condition, but she was still a different person from one week to the next. Was her medicine worsening things? He worried about that sometimes.

Continue reading →

The Hall of Ancestors

Posted on by under 2022, June 2022 - Time

Memories of the past ebb and flow around me like a fast-running stream. Here and there, I pick out snatches of melody, laughter or tears, heartache or guilt. Occasionally, small groups clump together in eddies, circling round, threatening to drag me into the whirlpool of emotion of a particular moment; a birth, a death, singing with joy until my voice is hoarse. I linger at each of these, but the need for closure presses me onward.

This is my personal Hall of Ancestors and, as I walk its length, portraits on the wall show each reincarnation; the twenty-first century social media star, the patent office clerk, the eighteenth-century Swiss craftsman. Here, a rural Italian mother garnishes a steaming pasta dish, and there a mediaeval herbalist offers a concoction of their own devising that claims to be a panacea for any illness from a sore throat to parasitic infections.

Continue reading →

Stop the Clocks

Posted on by under 2022, June 2022 - Time
stop the clocks. boy diving into ocean as asteroid crashes with clock foreground

My heart races against the clock. As 17:59 becomes 18:00, it looks like the word ‘Boo.’ Mum says a swear-word and I jump. My swimming lesson starts now but we haven’t even parked the car.

On the radio, the newsreader says an asteroid will narrowly miss Earth tonight. I picture myself riding it, flames shooting behind me, and diving into the pool just in time.

Mum stops the car so suddenly that I jolt forward. ‘Jump out here, Thomas!’

My bag is wedged in the space in front of my seat. I tug while another clock inside my head counts down until Mum explodes. Beside me, she inflates like a balloon. Three, two, one…

Continue reading →

The Nexterday Pot Affair etm.

Posted on by under 2022, June 2022 - Time

Inspector Camden Ironbell glared through the taxi window. He sighed and stroked his long beard. It would have been quicker to walk, he thought. He turned to his sergeant, who had her head stuck in a magazine.

“What are you reading, Lightwarble?”

Umros Lightwarble held up the magazine so he could see the cover. “Scientific Gnomus.”

“I see.” He raised an eyebrow. In his opinion, young Gnomes spent far too much time on human science and not enough on old-fashioned magic. “And WHAT is the article about?”

Continue reading →

The Black-footed Hero

Posted on by under 2022, May 2022 - Hero

Trowel in hand Felix bends down over the charcoal. It’s dark down here. Orange-filtered head torches are the chosen form of illumination; more authentic at replicating the flickering firelight of old and less harmful than arc lights for the delicate surfaces of excavated artefacts.

“Enough! Eight hours running! We’re off for a jar. You coming?”

“No, must dust Him off first. Catch you later”

Continue reading →

Hero Wanted

Posted on by under 2022, May 2022 - Hero

Are you:-

  • Heroic
  • Energetic
  • Robust
  • Organised

If you can answer yes to all of the above and have a superpower, we want to meet you!  Interviews here, commencing at 9.00 a.m. on Tuesday, 3rd May.

Henry and George were both seated in front of the stage.

“Are you sure this is going to work?” asked George.

“Yes, a Superhero will be someone the common people can look up to, someone they can believe in, it is exactly what we need right now.  We need a big distraction to stop them focusing on us.”

“Can’t you just bribe them? That’s worked well in the past.”

Continue reading →

The Hero’s Revelation

Posted on by under 2022, March 2022 - Things aren't what they seem

“This is all of the candidates?” I heard him ask his advisors, sotto voce.

His gaze swept me dismissively, no more interested than had I been a speck of lint on his finely tailored collar. I took no offence; clients who have underestimated and tried to double cross me in the past have regretted it, albeit very briefly.

“This is most irregular.” An acolyte was addressing me directly now.

Continue reading →

When You Scratch the Surface

Posted on by under 2022, May 2022 - Hero

An obituary published in the local paper caught Martha’s eye.

“Poor Mr. Aldridge has passed away.”

Martha’s husband hid behind his Times, “Humph” his reply.

“Do you think we should attend his funeral. He doesn’t have any friends that I know of.”

“Humph.”

Martha knew Mr. Aldridge enough to say hello, him not being very social or active in the neighbourhood. The thought of his funeral being unattended was unthinkable. On a chilly but bright morning Martha wandered down to the church with a bouquet of flowers from her garden. Walking up the path of the churchyard, she noticed a crowd of military men all in full-dress uniform. She hesitated slightly, and a gentleman behind her urged her on. Walking into the church, she marvelled at the beautiful flowers; half the pews were full of military men. Sidling into the back pews, she watched the ceremony.

Continue reading →

Define Hero

Posted on by under 2022, May 2022 - Hero

“Woe to the warrior, woe to the woman of the street, and woe most all of all he who hears but does not believe!”

The braying, bleating voice was once again calling out in the square. People came to trade and gossip, often from ten miles away and the last thing anyone needed was the shaming voice of a pious preacher.

So, Herndon, retired but still a respected war hero, decided to talk some sense into the young Christian, and if not sense, perhaps a little muscle.

Continue reading →
error: Content is protected !!