Tag Archives: fiction

A Last Resort

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The Leader stands on a wooden platform in Trafalgar Square. She raises her right arm in salute. The huge crowd roar their approval. All the paper and vellum originals and their copies of legislative documents relating to human rights in England, since time immemorial, are piled so high that the mound almost reaches Nelson’s feet on his column. Her voice booms through loudspeakers; the crowd chant her command; burn them. Pigeons flee their roosts. Mounted Hussars, in full dress uniform, carrying flaming torches move forward and simultaneously light the pyre. Tinder dry documents erupt into flames. Horses rear in terror. Smoke billows. The crowd cheers. Bright twisters of burning sparks are caught by the wind and escape into the night sky. Big Ben chimes. I had a dream, she shouts. Today is a great day for the pure English race. Today is a bad day for cultural Marxism and its lawyers, judges, meddlesome artists and do-gooders. Today is a good day for freedom from laws that hamper the rights of the English race. Free at last from perverse laws that protect homosexuals, transgenders, socialist pariahs and the invading hordes of aliens seeking asylum in their stinking sinking boats. Free at last! I say, Free at Last! Sink the boats! the crowd chant. Sink the boats! 

In her bedroom in the safe house, a gentle hand falls on her shoulder. Reluctantly she awakens from her dream. Who are you? What do you want?
It’s nearly time to go, Dallas.
Not going to Dallas, she says, struggling to wake from her euphoria.
Of course not, you’re going on a holiday, a resort, at the public’s expense.
What’s this Dallas thing?
The public don’t know Dallas is your nickname; your parents christened you after Sue Ellen from the TV series, Dallas.
It’s disrespectful. 
Respect must be earned.
What’s that supposed to mean?
You may be a bigot, but you’re not thick.
Who the hell are you?
Buchan, from MI5.
Who gave you the authority?
You did, by default. 
To do what?
When disaster looms and serious mistakes need to be fixed on the quiet, I’m called. 
Bloody hell! You’re that Buchan?
Yes. Look, here’s a surprise.
Enoch! Enoch Powell. You look awful with that shrink-wrapped skull. 
I may be long dead, but my ghost is full of virulent racism. 
I’m not a racist.
Nor was Hitler, Powell laughs.
I can’t be. My parents are of colour, Asian, and I’m a Buddhist.
You’ve done more to promote racism than I ever managed, Powell sighs. 
Your ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech was positively Shakespearean. 
Words are nothing. You’re deporting your own kind to Africa. Now, that’s inspired!
Time to get your flight, Dallas, Buchan smiles.
Where to?
Rwanda, Kigali. As you know the camp is out of town.
Not going there.
It’s your last resort, Buchan chuckles. Enoch is going with you on your hols.
Please, not with him, she wails. 
He’ll be your constant companion spewing bile.
I’ve been misunderstood, Dallas pleads.

I hope you enjoyed this story. Please feel free to pass it on to others who may be interested. You can read my previous 500 word stories on my website www.philcoskerwriter.com under ‘Writing’.>>>More

© Phil Cosker 2023
Phil Cosker has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved; no part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted by any mean, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior permission of the author.

A House

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In 1906 the religious order of Franciscans finished building a new house for their order and moved in. They called it Greyfriars. It was spartan and remained so. By the 1920s the house was fed up with the monks’ ideal of poverty; it was always cold and in disrepair. 

In 1940 the house was commandeered by officers of the Black Watch. When the soldiers left in 1949, the house had learnt all it never wanted to know about debauchery in all its forms. 

Greyfriars thought its days were numbered until 1956 when a couple bought it for a song and its happy days began. The new owners were Jackson and Elizabeth; known to all as Izzy and Jacks. 

As Izzy’s health deteriorated, Greyfriars was no longer spick and span. When dust clouds blew in sudden draughts, Jacks heard Izzy bellowing, For fuck’s sake, Jacks, get the bloody hoover, will you? He didn’t bother with cleaning but concentrated on caring for Izzy, to the exclusion of all else. Now, once the home of laughter and the convivial visits of many friends, are no longer, Greyfriars is angry. Not only is the house dirty but its impatient for the joy of human companionship. It no longer finds consolation in happy memories of the love between Jacks and Izzy that blossomed within the safety of its walls. 

In the early days of Izzy and Jacks’ life in Greyfriars it fell in love with her finding her beautiful. It felt lucky that it was furnished with invisible access to her body in various states of dress and undress. It never watched as she and Jacks made love; that was taking privilege too far. More than this, it couldn’t bear to watch them in bed together; that made it fearsomely jealous. But the cause of its love was not her body but her mind and vivacity.

When darkness in the house was at its worst, and loneliness crushed him, Jacks ventured into the garden. He knew he could escape Greyfriars, whilst it couldn’t escape itself, except by demolition. He shudders at the thought; he loves the place as does Izzy. Little did he know of Greyfriars’ passion.

Finally, as an elderly lady, she has a dangerous heart condition; in an emergency, Jacks places a tiny tablet under her tongue to save her life. One night, when Jacks is drunk, he can’t find the bottle in time. Izzy dies in his arms in their bedroom. Enraged, the house sees her death as murder. Greyfriars takes revenge. It locks the bedroom door with Jacks trapped inside, who, hysterical at Izzy’s death struggles to escape, frantic like a moth in a jar. The house makes every door and window impassible. 

Belatedly, neighbours raise the alarm; there’s been no sign of life in Greyfriars for weeks. Greyfriars opens its doors to the police who find Jacks’ and Izzy’s dead bodies. Greyfriars gives up the ghosts of those it has loved and lost. 

Six months later it’s a ruined corpse

I hope you enjoyed this story. Please feel free to pass it on to others who may be interested. You can read my previous 500 word stories on my website www.philcoskerwriter.com under ‘Writing’.>>>More

© Phil Cosker 2023
Phil Cosker has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved; no part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted by any mean, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior permission of the author.

Forgiven

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The sun is setting as Alexander closes the back door, oblivious to the loud click of the Yale locking behind him. He feels guilty as he stares at the raised beds, now fallen into dereliction, where Grace grew their vegetables before her illness. 

Looking down, Alexander sees a stag beetle lurching across the gravel and curses A.A. Milne for his poem; the nickname ‘Beetle’, oppressed him at school.  At University, one of his former tormentors was a fellow student and so ‘Beetle’ stuck even then. Alexander stoops and gently places the harmless, though fierce looking creature, in his hand and laughs as its tiny antler shaped jaws tickle his fingers. Unlike you, beetle, he muses, I was never brave. But I must have had courage to do it. It was only when he fell in love with Grace that he allowed her to call him, ‘my lovely beetle’.

The sky darkens. There’ll be rain, he thinks. Still carrying the beetle, he returns to the locked back door. Now where did I hide that emergency key? There’s no key in the flowerpots by the door. No need to worry; there’ll be a window open. He only starts to rage when, after a prolonged search, he can find no way in. Tired of hearing his children’s endless demands for an explanation, he’s left his old black telephone off the hook on the kitchen table, thinking that if this is the sum of their concern, so be it. I’ve lost their love but, at least, they paid my bail.

He sees Grace’s favourite shrub, a huge mock orange, its pure white blooms glowing against dark green leaves. Mock bloody everything, he thinks. The rain grows heavier. Still holding the beetle, he climbs in beneath the arching foliage of the shrub and crushes the beetle between his thumb and forefinger flicking its carcass away into the gathering darkness. The smell is somehow frightening, claustrophobic, reminding him of the night he secretly scattered Grace’s ashes amidst the trees of Beverley Westwood, and knew he’d done his duty, but not escaped so-called justice. 

Slowly, torrential rain drips through the bush. The smell of the blossom is intoxicating. He sighs, pulls his sweater more closely about him, lies on the bed of increasingly wet fallen leaves and twigs, and stares into the darkness, wanting to sleep forever. He remembers the Old Testament law: thou shall not kill; it isn’t comforting. Sleep finally overtakes him as his tears fall. 

There, in his sleep, Grace speaks, There was no escape for me, my love. The pain destroyed me. You did all you could. Medicine failed. Not a single drug worked.
I love you so.
It was only your love that helped me to escape. 
It was illegal.
It was merciful.
Our children hate me.
You put me first. You need no forgiveness for being the bravest of beetles. 
Alexander, opening his eyes, whispers, If I was dead there’d be no trial, and I might be forgiven.

I hope you enjoyed this story. Please feel free to pass it on to others who may be interested. You can read my previous 500 word stories on my website www.philcoskerwriter.com under ‘Writing’.>>>More

© Phil Cosker 2023
Phil Cosker has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved; no part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted by any mean, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior permission of the author.

Dogs of War

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In the British press, there are often ‘accidental’ photographs of dogs included in the images of the horrors of Putin’s war crimes and invasion of the Ukraine. Many dogs have been abandoned by their owners who have fled or been killed, ending up as starving strays, with some seen gnawing at human corpses. Bohdan wonders if they’re Putin’s Dogs of War. For fear of being thought a superstitious lunatic, he doesn’t share the horrifying notion that some dogs are the Devil’s incubi.

 Ever since the invasion, Anichka and her husband Bohdan have had one priority – protecting their seven-year old son, Danilo. A recently adopted, large stray all-white Borzoi they call Anton, has become part of the family; dog and boy adore one another. 

In the late afternoon Bohdan sits just inside his front door, his rifle resting across his thighs, in case Russians come. Anton, gently snores lying on Bohdan’s feet, who sleeps and dreams of standing in the family’s vegetable garden. The sun shines. Beyond the garden wall a gentle breeze caresses the fields of ripe wheat, rolling and swaying like a glimmering sea from an imaginary golden age. The high-pitched screams of swifts fill the air. A sudden murmuration of starlings obscures the sun, then morphs, with a puff of black smoke, into a tank grinding forward, crushing the wheat, demolishing the garden wall and destroying a greenhouse full of tomatoes. A large brown mongrel sits next to the gun turret. 

Bohdan wakens to the sound of dogs barking and hears Danilo shouting, Dad! Dad! Anton’s gone. Danilo dashes outside as Bohdan, half-awake, struggles to his feet, switches off his rifle’s safety catch and shouts, For god’s sake, wait for me! Anichka runs past him.

Outside, Bohdan is aghast; it’s as he dreamt, but now five soldiers sit on the tank, laughing and cheering, as the mongrel and Anton fight. Danilo grabs a spade from the porch and runs to the two fighting dogs. His parents scream, Stop! Bohdan takes aim. Anichka hits Bohdan’s arm, You’ll kill our boy. Danilo struggles to swing the spade at the mongrel but misses. Anton growls, bares his teeth, and jumps at Danilo who screams as the dog buries its teeth in his arm. Again, Bohdan takes aim. Stop! Anichka shouts, that dog’s helping Danilo. The mongrel attacks Anton forcing him to release Danilo. Anton, snarling, goes for Danilo. The mongrel buries its teeth in Anton’s shoulder. Somehow, Anton breaks free and once again attacks Danilo as the mongrel protects him. Dad! Kill him, Anton hates me. Bohdan fires his rifle. Anton drops dead. 

The soldiers cheer. You got the right dog. The mongrel licks the boy. 
It’s only then that Bohdan realises it’s a Ukrainian tank. 
Another soldiers says, We were looking for that white dog; it made friends with kids before killing them. That’s one fewer of Putin’s dogs. 
Anichka takes Danilo inside to dress his wounds, followed by the mongrel.
Another soldier adds, White doesn’t always mean good.

I hope you enjoyed this story. Please feel free to pass it on to others who may be interested. You can read my previous 500 word stories on my website www.philcoskerwriter.com under ‘Writing’.>>>More

© Phil Cosker 2023
Phil Cosker has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved; no part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted by any mean, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior permission of the author.

Wishes

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An enormous bright orange carp languishes on an ornate leather chaise longue, its scales luminous under the glowing light, oddly pinkish green, of fluorescent Grolux tubes on the ceiling above the aquarium. Smoke gently seeps from the carp’s gills as it smokes a Black Russian Sobranie cigarette held in an ivory cigarette holder. There is no natural light. The tank is twenty feet long, ten feet high and two feet deep; its rear wall a painted diorama of Atlantis. A shoal of forty midnight-black mollys cruise between the elegant columns of a Greek temple. Sparkling bluish-green and carmine dotted lyretails flick through a clump of altermanthena. A small shoal of penguin fish hang tail down in the shade of a giant red plastic ludwigia, while another group scurry away. 

The carp’s face is bathed in a look of longing. Oh shit, it thinks, I shouldn’t have wished for this. I’m a fish out of water. I wish I was at home in water. 

Vivid red swordtails dance arabesques around the pinnacle of an Eifel Tower. A submerged water wheel slowly turns in the slipstreams of minute x-ray fish. A group of giant danios rest and scrutinise, pop-eyed, the charms of a large white, pink and green plasterwork mermaid. Harlequins rush across open space as lemon tetras dive past combomba. The only other sound in the room, other than the bubbling aeration of water pumps, is the sound of the carp puffing the last of its cigarette. 

The carp slaps its caudal fin up and down on the chaise longue, and calls, in a popping hollow sound as if it were still under water, Cigarette! Cigarette! Now!

Moments later, a skeleton dressed in blue silk pantaloons and a cerise spotted puffer jacket struggles through the ankle length sea green carpet toward the carp. You do know that smoking will kill you? the skeleton asks, And chain smoking will hasten your death.
Be a good minion and light me another ciggie, will you? the carp asks proffering its mouth to have the cigarette holder removed, emptied, refilled and lighted. Argh, my lady nicotine, the carp sadly sighs, oozing smoke. I wish I was dead.
I’ll be back in a minute, the skeleton says. I have a surprise for you. 

Standing in front of the aquarium, the skeleton clicks out the head of the humerus from the scapula and, gripping the shaft of the humerus, with his bony right hand, pounds the glass wall of the aquarium. For the first few milliseconds everything is in slow motion until the wall of glass explodes under the weight of the water. The torrent hits the carp on its chaise longue, and hurls them both across the room. Fish, in their, hundreds die. The carp lies dead, embedded with shards of glass amidst some thrashing brightly coloured fish. 

Beware of what you wish for, the skeleton says, pleased that two wishes have come true at once.

I hope you enjoyed this story. Please feel free to pass it on to others who may be interested. You can read my previous 500 word stories on my website www.philcoskerwriter.com under ‘Writing’.>>>More

© Phil Cosker 2023
Phil Cosker has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved; no part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted by any mean, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior permission of the author.

The Incredible Shrikes

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It’s October 1952 and Hull Fair is encamped on wasteland adjoining Walton Street. P.C. Whitty is looking for the ‘The Incredible Shrikes’. At the far end of the encampment he sees two human size paintings of birds on the side of a caravan. A poster depicting the shrikes and their human trainers, in bird costumes, reads: ‘The Shrikes. They said we’d never train the infamous Butcher Birds. BUT WE HAVE!’

He knocks on the caravan’s door – there’s no reply. He shouts, Anyone home? 
A woman opens the door. Behind her, inside the caravan, many shrikes swirl. 
I’m sorry, Whitty says, I can’t think straight with all them birds swirling about.
The woman puts her fingers to her lips and blows a high-pitched whistle; the shrikes perch where they can.
Thanks, Mrs Shrike.
We’re not married. What do you want?
To speak with you both about the legality of your act.
Best come in. Ollie’s out. I’m his partner, Polly. Our act is legal. 
Whitty retches behind a handkerchief over his mouth and nose. 
Yeah, they do shit a lot. 
Could we please open a window? 
Cut to the chase, constable.
A concerned member of the public has made an official complaint. This asserts that
our fairground sideshow, featuring shrikes, is disturbing.
What’s disturbing about it? Great Grey Shrikes are predatory songbirds known as ‘Butcher birds’. They live here with us. 
Good god. Why?
It makes us think like shrikes, sort of method acting; we get inside their heads, and they get inside ours.
So, they’re not pets?
No, they’re nasty; you wouldn’t want one as a pet. We’ve trained them to perform in a purpose-built big mesh cage by doing tricks before catching mice and hanging ‘em on barbed wire.
Isn’t that cruel?
It’s natural for the birds.
I was thinking of the mice. I must speak to you both. When’ll he be back?
I never know. I think the cheating bastard’s got another bit on the side. I’ve had enough. He’s got it coming. 
What’s he got coming?
Hell hath no fury …. Try tomorrow about four; he’ll be costuming up then.

The next day Whitty arrives and finds the caravan’s door flapping in the wind. He goes in. There’s no sign of Polly, or the birds, but the stink of shit remains.

Outside, to the rear of the caravan, he sees someone dressed in a large grey and white bird costume. Mrs Strike, is that you? he calls. 
Laughing, she takes off her costume’s head and says, He’s gone. On the ground, dressed in an identical costume, lies an inert body. She pulls off its costume’s head, revealing bloodied barbed wire tightly bound around the man’s neck cutting through his jugular vein and carotid artery. Meet Ollie, she says. Two shrikes peck at Ollie’s wounds. 

Subsequently, Whitty frequently ‘sees’ shrikes feeding on Ollie’s neck. He hears shrikes and Polly shrieking and believes this to be laughter. He takes compulsory retirement due to a mental breakdown.

I hope you enjoyed this story. Please feel free to pass it on to others who may be interested. You can read my previous 500 word stories on my website www.philcoskerwriter.com under ‘Writing’.>>>More

© Phil Cosker 2023
Phil Cosker has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved; no part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted by any mean, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior permission of the author.

The Unicorn

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In 1956 JR and George are ten years old and the best of friends; their ‘playground’ is Stapleford woods. It’s a bright sunny day, when, near an ancient oak, they discover some spots of a silver liquid shimmering and sparkling on the grass.
Is it paint? George asks.
Dunno. There’s no tin. Bad people dump tins of paint. 
What’s them? JR asks, pointing at tiny silver footprints amongst the silver spots.
George takes a closer look. Too small for a deer. Is it fairies? 
Fairies? JR asks. You don’t believe in fairies, do you?
Nar, that’s a girlie thing, but it’s a mystery. We could pretend we’re detectives and follow the trail of spots.
We don’t have to pretend, cos they’re real, JR says.
They follow the trail. 
You excited? JR asks.
Yeah. Wonder what we’ll find.
If it was a hurt animal, its blood it should be red not silver, JR observes.
If it’s bleeding, it could need help.
Do magical creatures bleed? What did Mr Southall say?
About what? George asks.
The Royal coat of arms has got a unicorn on it. He said it was mythical.
Teacher said they was as rare as hens’ teeth, George says. One of them girls said a unicorn has silver blood.
The trail leads them to a leafy glade. JR stares at the grass. Blood’s stopped, he announces. You search over in the bushes and I’ll go down to see if it’s at the bottom of the field.
George sets off as JR disappears into thick undergrowth. After a few minutes, he stops dead in his tracks. As he stares at an open tin of silver paint, he hears George shouting, Any luck?
JR hesitates. No, nothing here, he says and carefully buries the tin in undergrowth.
Back in the glade, George looks downhearted. 
Cheer up; it’s been an adventure, JR says. It’ll be shy, or hiding. We gotta promise each other to keep our Unicorn secret; we don’t want him frightened off. 
George uses his penknife he makes a tiny cut in their index fingers. 
They rub their bloodied fingers together and swear silence.

Many years later they return to the village to celebrate their seventieth birthdays and agree that they’ll return to the glade for the last time.

Did you ever think the Unicorn was here? JR asks as they stand in the leafy glade.
Did you? 
Not really. But I wanted to, JR says, wishing he could take back his lie.
The two men turn. In a bright pool of sunlight a unicorn whinnies and nods his horn. Get a photo, quick, JR says. 
Using his phone camera George videos the Unicorn.
Let’s see, JR asks.
George presses play. Both men look down at the screen.
George shouts in triumph, We got him! We got evidence.
They look up; the Unicorn has gone.
Looking back at the screen they watch the images of the Unicorn disappear.

I need to tell you something, George, JR sighs.

I hope you enjoyed this story. Please feel free to pass it on to others who may be interested. You can read my previous 500 word stories on my website www.philcoskerwriter.com under ‘Writing’.>>>More

© Phil Cosker 2023
Phil Cosker has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved; no part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted by any mean, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior permission of the author.

A Bowl of Olives

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Arman, a Syrian refugee, spends his eightieth birthday in a tent in ‘The Jungle’, in Calais. He sits alone on a white plastic garden chair next to a suitcase wrapped in cellophane. It’s freezing cold, but his anger sustains him as he asks himself his perennial question, How could the enemy destroy acres and acres of olive groves in Idlib province, attacking our culture and pushing us into starvation? 

I should be pleased. I am pleased, but I’m too old to be a refugee, an asylum seeker, or a survivor. If the Russian air strikes had been successful, I would be dead, should be dead, buried in the rubble that was our family home. I can still taste the concrete dust in my mouth, feel it in my eyes that even my tears cannot wash away. What is the purpose of my survival? My olive trees are destroyed. Only my granddaughter, Saabirah, lives and she is with child. I have nothing but my love for her and the child to come. There was no one else alive to protect her. 

Does my hatred of Assam and Putin harm me more than them? I’m filled with sadness or, maybe, a sort of envy, that the West sees fit to fight Putin in the Ukraine but has done nothing to save Syria from the monsters of war, the barbarians, the murderers of children, the destroyers of the unborn, with their bombs, chemical weapons and terror. Envy? The thought disgusts me. 

Even as I sit here I can hear village women wailing above the freezing wind outside. Hear the children of neighbours calling out my grandson’s name, Kaashif. The frantic digging of shovels, voices from beyond the grave. They said it was a miracle that there wasn’t a mark on me; the mark is forever in my heart and for that there is no sticking plaster. They found Kaashif’s body; he was only thirteen, just becoming a man. All the time I was washing his dead body, I expected him to wake up and tell me it was all a game. It was no game. I came here to protect Saabirah and the baby. The traffickers took my money and here we are. 
You’ll be safe in England.
Is that you, Kaashif?
Yes, Grandpa. Do you remember when we picked olives and a man came and photographed us? I held the olives and leaves in a wooden bowl and you cupped my hands in your big hands. When the photographer showed us the picture on his camera, Mum was cross because our hands were so dirty. You laughed and asked how could they be clean; we are peasants. The photograph was beautiful.
Arman wipes tears from his eyes and gasps. On the upended suitcase there’s the same wooden bowl full of olives and leaves. He rubs his eyes. 
Happy birthday, Grandpa. 
Is it real?
It will always be real to you.
Where are you? Arman asks.
Unseen, but always near you. 

I hope you enjoyed this story. Please feel free to pass it on to others who may be interested. You can read my previous 500 word stories on my website www.philcoskerwriter.com under ‘Writing’.>>>More

© Phil Cosker 2022
Phil Cosker has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved; no part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted by any mean, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior permission of the author.

Cabbage

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In pouring rain, Johno Jackson looks at the 1930s semi where he’ll lodge until he finds a flat. Standing in the porch, he dumps his dripping backpack and rings the doorbell. The intense smell of boiling cabbage hits him as the door opens; stepping back in shock, he unnecessarily asks, Is that cabbage I can smell?
It’s your dinner, Valerie replies. Are you my new lodger?
Yes, I’m Johno, and you’re Mrs Valerie Alsop?
Val, please.
Can I leave my coat out here to dry?
I didn’t expect you to have such long hair.
Is that a problem?
Only if you use all the hot water washing it clean.
I don’t wash my dreadlocks.
But you’re not coloured.
I’m like you, coloured white.
Come in and I’ll show you the room.

Here it is, she announces, opening a door.
Wow, Johno says, I wasn’t expecting a double bed.
Every man needs a double bed, Valerie says.
To his embarrassment, Johno finds himself flushing red as he sees a folded nightdress on one of the pillows. Jesus, he thinks, she’s propositioning me, but says, I’ll need a desk to work on.
The dining room is all yours. It’s just the two of us since my husband left. Tea’s at half-five. Just follow your nose and you’ll find the kitchen.
Just one thing, Johno says, is that your nightie on the bed?
Yes. Do you mind sharing?
It’s not what I was expecting.

In the kitchen the smell of cabbage is at its most intense. Johno struggles not to retch.
You look pale, Johno, it’ll be the excitement. Sit yourself down and pour us a glass of Blue Nun.
The glass of Blue Nun doesn’t help his nausea. 
Here we are, Valerie says. 
Johno stares at the plate of over-cooked potatoes, a pile of soggy pale cabbage and a grey slab of meat floating in a muddy puddle of gravy. He rushes out of the back door and vomits. 
When he’s finally back inside, Valerie asks, Are you ill? 
I’m vegetarian and the smell of cabbage makes me vomit. No offence, but your bed’s not for me. It’s the cabbage that’s to blame.

As Johno pulls on his still wet coat in the porch Valerie sobs in the kitchen. 

It’s almost dark and raining so hard that the road, beneath streetlights, appears as a fast moving river. In a terrace of once grand Georgian residences, one has been turned into The Scrumpy House. A dishevelled man of indeterminate age totters out and stands on the top of the stone steps leading down to the road. Looking perplexed, he smiles, nods, gives Johno the thumbs up, and dives onto the road, as Johno shouts, No! Cars screech and skid to a halt. A greengrocer’s lorry, swerving to avoid hitting a spinning car, sheds boxes of cabbages over the unconscious man. 

The man’s still breathing as Johno throws cabbages aside. Shit, Johno thinks, if you survive this, you’ll be a cabbage yourself. Fucking cabbages.

I hope you enjoyed this story. Please feel free to pass it on to others who may be interested. You can read my previous 500 word stories on my website www.philcoskerwriter.com under ‘Writing’.>>>More

© Phil Cosker 2022
Phil Cosker has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved; no part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted by any mean, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior permission of the author.

Perseverance Terrace

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 ‘Wildwood’, the last house standing in Perseverance Terrace, is a solitary gravestone in a desert of broken bricks, rubble, dumped rubbish and smouldering bonfires and has become refuge to generations of ghosts who were born, lived and died there. 

Inside Wildwood, the kitchen is crammed full of ghosts; had they needed to breathe, many would have suffocated. Erasmus, their elected leader, explains, The only reason our home has survived this long is because of superstition. It only needs one man not to fear the retribution of ghosts and we’re gone, our safe haven lost. 

Lester Field, a mortal, enters the kitchen. 
Invader! The ghosts cry out. Alien! 
I’m no alien. I’m just a man looking for help, Lester says. Goodness, there are hundreds of you in here.
Who are you? Erasmus asks. How can you see us?
I’m Lester Field and blessed, or cursed, with the gift of seeing your world as well as mine. 
Why are you here?
I need a ghost. 
Why? Erasmus asks.
To take revenge. I discovered that Thacker, leader of the Council, received huge backhanders for selling off public land. I tried to get it on the news. I got fired. But I have an idea. Thacker’s son, Henry, died in mysterious circumstances, I want to find Henry’s ghost and the truth about his death. Can any of you help me find him? Lester asks.
The ghosts shimmer and groan.
Erasmus explains, They’re afraid that if they leave here there’ll be no coming back and they’ll be lost forever in time and space.
Are they right? Lester asks.
I don’t know. Do you think you can get Thacker to stop demolishing Wildwood?
I do.
Then I’ll come with you, Erasmus says.

Thacker, at home, sits in his snug sipping whisky when the door bangs open and his wife bursts in. It’s our boy, she cries. Henry’s back. 
You’re off your head, Lucy. He’s dead. 
His ghost isn’t, Lester says from the doorway. He’s told me the truth about his abuse and how he died.
What? Lucy demands. What abuse?
Henry enters.
What did your father do to you, darling? 
It’s a trick; there’s no such thing as ghosts, Thacker protests.
I’m here, aren’t I? Henry asks. You stop knocking down Wildwood, or I’ll tell Mum how I died.
You little shit! Thacker says.
And pay me the salary you owe me, Lester adds. Or I’ll tell the police.

It’s early morning as Lester, Erasmus and Henry cross the wasteland.
A giant wrecking ball swings from a crane and thunders into Wildwood. Thacker, standing by his Mercedes, smiles as he watches the demolition.
He lied, Henry says.
The ghosts erupt from Wildwood flying like wasps flung hither and thither in a maelstrom of roaring anger engulfing Thacker. His cries of agony pierce the eerie silence of the wasteland. The wailing ghosts vanish into the sky. Thacker lies dead on Wildwood’s threshold. 
Erasmus grips Lester’s hand. Something of a Pyrrhic Victory, I think.

I hope you enjoyed this story. Please feel free to pass it on to others who may be interested. You can read my previous 500 word stories on my website www.philcoskerwriter.com under ‘Writing’.>>>More

© Phil Cosker 2022
Phil Cosker has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved; no part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted by any mean, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior permission of the author.