Lance and Arthur

Lance sat at the table with a dozen or so of his closest friends. He didn’t actually like any of them, but it was called “networking”. Everyone would get together and pretend they did not detest each other, because each of these people could be of use at some time.

Not on the Menu

This little story takes place in the 1960s, around the beginning of the second wave of feminism in Australia. Not on the Menu Short story by Iris Carden Elsie saw them through the café window.  “Oh not them again,” she groaned. “Not who?” asked Margaret. “Those three, with the excess Brylcreem and the loud ties.”…… Continue reading Not on the Menu

Tangled Web

I’ve seen huntsman spiders bigger than my hand.  I’ve seen bird spiders big enough to hunt and kill birds.  I’ve seen huge redbacks with their dangerous red flash across their huge round abdomens.  I’ve never seen anything like this.  It was at least four metres long.

Talisman

A small wrapped parcel, covered in soot, bounced out of the fireplace. “I’ll put that back for you if you want.: Ali looked from her phone to the package on the floor. “What is it?” she asked.

Scandal

Archibald Clark spat his coffee over the computer screen.His long-suffering wife Marigold went to the kitchen for a dishcloth to clean up the mess.  “It was never a good idea for you to read the newspaper at the breakfast table when it was a paper.  It’s an even worse idea now that it’s on the net,” she said.

A Wish Come True

The little “well” was beautiful, carefully constructed from brightly-painted balsa wood, with ribbons and bows and flowers over it, in a manner only someone as artistic as Martha could have made look so elegant and beautiful. On the side was written, “To Ariana and Jack. May all your wishes come true.”

Lost and Found

People might have called Orsinius Wishlet a keptomaniac, if they had known about him. But nobody did so nobody could call him anything. Orsinius was a wisp, living on the cusp of reality and unreality, not etirely here, but certainly not completely there.