Literary Fiction - Stories

Aouli 'Blue' Māhoe-Rivers is a high school senior who loves photography. One day, he skips school to snap some pictures, only to find a wall. Now, he wants to know what's behind it.

Each day, Sidney loses more of Arthur. How do you stop the love of your life from slipping away?

In an old, dusty teapot, unfulfilled dreams linger. Faint cracks run across its surface when past promises collide with current realities in a whirl of questions and emotions.

Many people believe that before you die your life flashes before your eyes, does it? Or is it just a part of our life, you know like special memories, I think that's possible. John is lying in hospital, he is at the end of a long life. As he sleeps he dreams for one last time of some of his special memories. About his car, the perfect car, and how it played a part in a long and beautiful relationship.

Being the oldest and growing up in a large family can be hard, especially when you are gay and the family is extremely homophobic. You are constantly being compared to your deceased father. A man whose stature and deeds are always increasing, as time goes by, and are held up as your goals. Anytime you reach those goals, your mother moves the goalpost further away.

You never seem to measure up. You are always being told that you are worthless and will never amount to anything since you cannot measure up to your father. It never mattered that you were a straight "A" student and that you were an athlete.

Sometimes life throws you a curve and makes you rethink things you once highly valued. But can you really be swayed?

Prompt #385 –

Brendan Nelson had a tough week at work. He is a Project Manager at a small software company. Nothing went well on his current project. The last delivery to QA (Quality Assurance) was a total failure, the techs couldn't even install it. Add to that, a serious problem in the development of a new feature arose. Finally, on top of that, the customer was screaming about a bug that hadn't been fixed for months, and now it apparently crashed the system. As if things weren't bad at work, he had to come home to a surprise.

Owain returns to live in his home town, 20 years after leaving when he was disowned his parents for being gay. He needs to rebuild his life following illness and come to terms with his messy family history. There is much to learn and discover, along the way he meets Colin, a builder who has his own family issues. The two explore how to make a life the way that they want, irrespective of the weight of their family experiences.

The story takes place in Cheshire, UK. The main setting, Netherwich, is my invention based on elements of Crewe and Nantwich. The language uses some regional idiom.

Losing a parent is never easy, especially when someone slips away slowly. Family can help or hinder the process. This is one man's perspective of losing his mom.

Charlie and Michael Baxter lost their father at a young age. They have been brought up by a hard-working mother who loved and treasured her boys. Unfortunately, she passed away before they finished college and through no fault of their own, they found themselves homeless. This is their story.

This fictional story is set in Manchester, England. The locations are real and existed in the recent past where this story is set, many of the locations still exist and can be visited. All characters are fictional and do not exist, any similarity to any person living or deceased is purely coincidental.