Stories from all categories

walloped
26
I went to have my hearing tested. This became necessary because a man had walloped me across the face: a man I loved. Needless to say, no man has ever hit me before and I'm ...read more
everything in sequins
Yesterday I was reading the paper over coffee in a huge, bleak market hall in Berlin. The place has all the atmosphere of an airplane hangar, it was raining hard outside and had turned bitterly ...read more
three little children
8
I was walking home up our rainy street when a woman popped her head up and spoke to me. She had the doors to her car standing open and was looking put-upon. "Entschuldigung," she said, ...read more
our neighbour grief
4
Coming past the apartment below me I heard from the stairs the unmistakeable noises of grief. Fresh, recent, still shocking grief. It was new, and she was pleading with him. I stood hesitating on the ...read more
Daddy why is your face rectangular
Just walked past a cafe table where both parents had their phones out & were intent on... something, something elsewhere. Meantime the year-old child they had produced in an offline moment gazed at one and ...read more
equinocturnal
7
Today is the Autumn Equinox. As a southern hemispherian I decided to finally find out what that means. In the subtropics we barely notice a difference in the lengths of any days. Turns out 'equinox' ...read more
for the ages
3
I went to see Paul Kelly play Berlin. I was going with my girlfriend and the evening of, she rang to say: I don't feel well. I feel so tired and I just need to ...read more
East German joy
6
Today I was in a tiny bakery in Brandenburg and laid a ten euro note on the counter. The bakery lady picked it up, her face spasming with disapproval, and shifted it 20cm south before ...read more
late summerhaft
4
Across town today I had the impulse to come through an overgrown island of trees that surrounds a church, and went wheeling my bike along its narrow, littered path where, if I tuned out the ...read more