“How many people do you think have ever lived?” he asks.
My story “How to Find a Prehistoric Ghost” is published on Milk Candy Review.
Tag: creative writing
The Physical Exertion of Human Flight
“Thirty years ago, his brother flew off a cliff.”
My story “The Physical Exertion of Human Flight” is published today over at The Phare.
Memory is now a thing of the past
Memory is now a thing of the past. I will teach this during home schooling. How you find facts at your fingertips. How your past is on social media, places on timelines. How software corrects your spelling as you type. I will explain there is no need for mental storage. Instead of this curriculum, I will teach you analysis, validation, interpretation. We will begin immediately, as soon as I remember where I put my phone.
***
A version of this story recently appeared on Paragraph Planet.
Inspired by recent events and home schooling.
Ninety-five percent of my anxieties are unfounded
Ninety-five percent of my anxieties are unfounded. She tells me at our weekly breakfast. To focus on the genuine five percent. The following week I do so, spending ninety-five percent of my time on it. When we meet again, I know ninety-five percent of my anxieties are founded. Focus on the new five percent, she says. And so it goes on, worrying about worrying, and how to tell her I no longer enjoy our breakfasts.
***
This 75-word story first appeared on Paragraph Planet
Obscured Under a Low Sun
The sun is low, obscuring figures on the pedestrian crossing.
You look up from your phone as they come into focus, slam the brakes hard.
Bam.
You open your eyes at the wheel. A sensation of waking up.
Is this a dream?
Your phone bleeps, answering your question. You approach the same crossing. Everything replays. You slam the brakes hard.
Bam.
Towards the crossing once more, into the low sun.
To wake is to escape this loop, but in the safety of the dream car, no one gets hurt, and everyone gets to keep their limbs.
***
This 100 word story first appeared on the The Drabble
In The Shadow of the Sound Tower
“The sound tower is silent, abandoned in the dunes, windswept and dated. Conditions are calm, nullifying its function. On still days like these, the tower finds itself a relic.”
My story, “In The Shadow of the Sound Tower” can be found over at The Cabinet Of Heed.
A list of things I cannot hear
A list of things I cannot hear. All because of the tinnitus, the high frequency noise that whistles in my ears. I am oblivious to crickets in the wildflower. The hiss of our central heating. Dripping taps in other rooms. The hum of anything electrical. Chinese whispers passed on by children. Interference on the radio. The early signs of a storm. And late at night, consumed by these lists, I can barely hear myself think.
***
This 75-word story first appeared on Paragraph Planet
Off the Rails
“The next lady has so many questions. She reads them from a notepad, in perfect handwriting that could be a font.
Describe me in a single word, she says.”
I have something new on Spelk today. It’s called ‘Off the Rails’
https://spelkfiction.com/2019/03/20/off-the-rails/
Here Come The Gulls
“Fifty-seven missed calls, all from his daughter.”
My story ‘Here Come The Gulls’ is published over at Spelk today. Hope you enjoy.
Monsters in the Closet
We spend our days playing in the closet.
In our imagination it is a spaceship, a doorway to other worlds, a portal that can travel through time. In the darkness we act out our fantasies, constructing the characters of our narrative. We play with the treasures that surround us – costumes in boxes, paperwork on shelves, trinkets that remind us of our parents.
We play all day in the closet, waiting for the door to be unlocked once more.
Paul Thompson 