Ten Short Tales of Unease
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1 People say that opportunities should be grabbed whenever they appear so, with this thought in mind, I jumped aboard the plane. I made myself as comfortable as I could in the small space and as the wheels pulled in next to me and the flap closed I wondered where I'd land. 2 As I turned the page the edge cut my finger. As with any small cut I put it to my mouth to suck it clean but I found that my mouth started to fill with words, not blood. I spat them out but they just kept coming at such a speed that I was soon suffocated by them. 3 It's just one of those really annoying things about ageing. The eyes of needles seem to get smaller and smaller while the lenses of glasses get thicker and thicker. I recently received a wonderful needle threader which means I can now continue to sew loose lips together. 4 It had taken me ages but I finally managed to engineer a meeting which I hoped would look accidental. I knew which restaurant, the table he favoured and his usual dining time so I had booked my table accordingly. Everything went smoothly. I even left a tip near his corpse. 5 We moved into our newly restored house after months of making the place fit for purpose. In the now uncovered and cleaned fireplace we lit the logs and sat back to relax in its glow. The flames grew higher and brighter and we watched shapes start to emerge and come towards us. 6 I fought hard but finally the joystick was forced into my hands and I heard the words that I hoped I would never hear being spoken "you have control now". My body went into panic mode and a cold sweat engulfed me. "What if I crashed?" I thought. The noise in the arcade grew. 7 I continued to wait in the queue even though I doubted I would reach the counter before the place closed. It wasn't hope that sprang eternal but the desperate desire to get the deed done before the day's end. The gun grew heavier in my pocket and the mask sweatier. 8 I crept into the cathedral as the service was ending. I knew he always attended evening mass and so it seemed the perfect opportunity. It also seemed fitting that he would die having confessed his sins and with the holy wine and wafer still dissolving on his tongue. 9 With the family gathered, curtains drawn and all the lights off, she slipped the first slide into the projector. The adults there chuckled when they saw their younger selves and the children asked incredulously "Is that you?" Then a shadow rabbit danced across the screen. 10 The dragon roamed Europe, sometimes discreetly and sometimes creating havoc by belching fire and eating whole villages. He'd lost his mate, slaughtered by bloody George, and generally felt no sympathy for these strange, bald, bipeds. He'd eat every one of them if he could. |
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