Unidentified Phenomena Sam really didn’t know why she had been rostered on for Father’s Day. It wasn’t as if anyone had ever thought she had creative talent. Even her kindergarten teacher, Mrs Phobos, had seemed unenthusiastic as she stamped the corner of her stick figure drawings with a perfunctory ‘good work’. The plastic tables were… Continue reading

Smoke in the House The rocks did not mind if you stayed still. At the far edge of the yard, where the grass gave up and the ground remembered itself, they rose in a loose circle beneath a thorn tree. The largest one curved inward like a bowl, warm even in the early morning, shaped… Continue reading

A Friend in Need I skipped uni Friday and rocked-up at Lettie’s office without phoning. If I phoned she’d only say no. And I had to talk to someone or I’d burst. Journaling wasn’t cutting it. My only option was the pop-in. Her office is on the second floor in an art-deco building on William… Continue reading

Silent Watchers Dark clouds gathered in the sky, an ominous promise of another storm, as Orlaigh sat silently in the carriage, continuing the journey to her new placement. She had enjoyed her previous position as nurse and personal maid to the elder Mrs McFarlane, an 85-year-old woman whose feistiness and wicked sense of humour still… Continue reading

On Trial Ali had been holding his breath for forty years. Maybe that’s why he had come to the tribunal that day. To exhale. Why had he come? He was happier at home, where his evening ritual of falling asleep in his favourite grey armchair watching YouTube kept him clear of other people. It was… Continue reading

Hobart Bled Sundays were our favourite. It was the one day of the week that could always be relied upon for a family sighting. All that was required were a set of firm elbows and a spot on a pew at Saint David’s Cathedral in Hobart. The first requirement usually helped with the latter, so… Continue reading

Smoko Pat says his missus is acting strange. Nev is relieved. He can’t put his finger on what’s happening with his missus either. Nev finds himself relying more and more on Pat to keep his sense of reality in check. A good mate is essential.   Nev and Pat were mechanics at Henley’s garage and… Continue reading

Uvular fricatives [ʁ] Paris [paʁi] – Paris This is how you build an incendiary bomb in a day; go down a cold street in the Latin Quarter with a dying phone. You should have charged it in the hotel, but you leave early, very early, after sleeping in the bathtub with the door locked. The… Continue reading

The Largest Herbivore of the Holocene In the oldest museum in Sweden, Annaliese keeps her little ones close. Her boys, Kåre and Matthais, weave around pointed protruding rocks while they squabble in whispers about the difference between stalactites and stalagmites. The rocks in question aren’t rocks, but plaster painted in oranges, reds and blacks to… Continue reading

Spilled Milk Daisy Hamilton spent her life on the verge of tears. Any event, major or minor, had the potential to send her over the edge. When she was younger, she cried whenever her usually-gentle father tried to discipline her. She cried when she was called into the principal’s office for skipping school to avoid… Continue reading