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Weekly Contest #356
The Perfume Laboratory It never occurred to me that, after 40, I would no longer be noticed or fancied by young, attractive people. I just thought life would go on indefinitely, jumping from one young man to another. How was I to know what old age would bring? When I reached middle age, Mike left me for the loving arms of a much younger woman. At the time, I was almost excited, wondering who my next sexual encounter would be. I needn’t have bothered, because there wasn’t one. From then until my 74th year, my life had simply existed as a si...
Weekly Contest #352
As she forced her eyes open, she encountered the day’s oppressive greyness. The alarm had sounded, signalling the call to work. Standing, she attempted a half-hearted stretch and glanced around her flat, noting the slight lumpiness of her recently vacated single bed. That familiar depression settled over her. It was a flat large enough for her needs, but only because her needs were so limited. Technically, it was one large room, with various screens dividing it into sections—the bedroom, really only consisting of the bed, a small closet, a h...
Weekly Contest #351
The Last Text Simone had not long returned from a satisfying holiday in Malaysia. She’d been with her long-standing friend Sven, who lived in a part of China that, despite China’s rapid modernisation, still lacked the shops Sven favoured. Apart from Shanghai, the large high-end malls beloved of Sven simply didn’t exist.Over the years, Simone and Sven had come to find posh shopping malls irresistible, often planning their holidays around browsing, even when they bought nothing.Kuala Lumpur delivered. They’d chosen their hotel carefully and se...
Weekly Contest #337
The Rewind I learned to pause time on Tuesdays because that was when he called. Not the world — just myself. I would hold my breath, keep my face still, and preserve my life exactly as it was while his voice crossed three countries and a poor internet connection to reach me. I couldn’t prevent his words from arriving, nor my responses from forming, but I could sit within the moment and decide which version of myself he was permitted to hear. By the time I pressed play again, I was certain he believed I had simply been thinking.He never notic...
Weekly Contest #334
The WolfOnce upon a time — grrrr — he hated these stories. But sitting around the open fire in the cosy cottage, surrounded by the family of choice he loved, he found he didn’t mind them at all — especially when the children asked for the forest story.“Tell us again,” they begged. “Tell us about the forest. Tell us when you met Grandma and Mama — tell us, tell us.”The old male wolf remembered the time when the weather had begun to change, when the forest floor was turning wet and slippery, and the first snowflakes were not far away. Some for...
Weekly Contest #329
It was a dark and stormy night, the kind that made shadows flicker and cupboards groan. Bea was quite sure the power cut had nothing to do with the weather and everything to do with her landlord forgetting to pay the bill again. Still, the wind howling around her block wasn’t helping her nerves. She sat at the kitchen table, clutching a mug of rapidly cooling tea, when she heard a sound. Not a moan. Not rattling chains. Just... someone clearing their throat politely. “Absolutely not,” she muttered. “I am not being haunted during a blackout....
Weekly Contest #324
I’d imagined the sea air would heal everything. A few days alone by the coast, I told myself, would clear my mind and leave me calm — perhaps even glowing. Instead, I arrived at a “boutique guesthouse” that smelled of air freshener and regret, and was shown to a room described online as sea-view adjacent — meaning that if I stood on the bed and leaned left, I could glimpse about an inch of water between two wheelie bins. Down on the beach, bronzed families were already out — squealing, slathered in sun cream, confident in their purpose. I sp...
Weekly Contest #320
Joyce’s retirement had not gone at all as she expected. In truth, it had gone better. Those first weeks in the log cabin had been dreadful: alone, anxious, and shadowed by the forest pressing in on every side. She barely dared step beyond the porch. Then a half-starved bobcat appeared one morning, bold as brass, demanding food. She named him Ginger, and through him found not only Robert, the vet next door, but a circle of neighbours who walked their dogs each day beneath the ponderosa pines. By the time Ginger was strong enough to return to ...
Weekly Contest #319
The Ginger Cat Joyce sat gazing at the blinking cursor, each flash marking another second gone without words. It taunted her: Retirement, and still you can’t start! She had run out of excuses. For years, her full-time job had been the barrier between her and the novel she’d promised she would write one day. It had all been excuses. Now there was nothing but time — and nothing in her mind. She had written three dreadful sentences that morning, erased the last, and shut the laptop with a snap. No more excuses. No deadlines. No boss. Just you,”...
Weekly Contest #314
CW: Mentions animal abuse. My first family consisted of two older adults and, I believe, three children. I loved the youngest one dearly — she was adorable. But the others? They weren’t kind, and I didn’t like them very much.I was born on the streets to a lovely mother. I had three siblings, and I never imagined we’d be separated. But I was wrong. One day, a tall man shoved his coarse hands into our warm den and ripped us all away from Mum. They crammed us into a cardboard box, then into cages at a noisy market — no food, no water, nowhere t...
Weekly Contest #310
He hadn’t written for years and now led a quiet, somewhat grumpy life in Chiang Mai. Once mildly famous for a debut novel in the ‘80s, he’d since produced nothing but half-finished drafts and the occasional smug email. As a 68-year-old (but only ever admitting to 55), he lived in Chiang Mai, a small city in northern Thailand. Popular with tourists, there was something exciting happening nearly every night of the week. So, his limited writing skills, such as they were, didn’t bother him - as long as his royalty cheque kept arriving. Whenever ...
Winner of Weekly Contest #307 🏆
Mavis was now in her second year of retirement. Most days, she found things to do, but to be honest, she felt bored. Money was tight; it always had been. For decades, she’d worked for a large cleaning company that serviced offices, shopping malls, and municipal buildings. The staffroom was always full of women, but they weren’t exceptionally social. They exchanged greetings, asked after each other’s families, then hurried home to husbands and children who needed feeding and fussing. After Clive’s early death, Mavis simply got on with it — to...
Weekly Contest #302
I’ve always had the gift of the gab—able to talk to anyone, anytime, anywhere, as long as it was in English.Before arriving in China, I hadn’t seriously considered the possibility of a language barrier. I assumed everyone spoke at least a little English and that I, brimming with confidence, could talk my way around the world—until China defeated me.In Malaysia, I worked at a zoo placement arranged by an English charity. My supervisor spoke English, taxi drivers could hold their own, and the glossy malls were a breeze. I even befriended Awan...
Weekly Contest #299
Mild, comic reference to sex. It all began with a suspicious little limp in my right leg — the kind that whispers, ‘Hello, ageing’. In 2016, newly retired and full of misplaced confidence, I landed in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand — a new country, a new city, a new culture, and a new currency that, thanks to my hopeless numeracy, made every purchase feel like spinning a roulette wheel. Exploring new surroundings on foot has never seemed a problem. Initially, I walked everywhere, rarely bothering to learn any of the foreign names of the roads...
Weekly Contest #298
The Sloth Sanctuary Social Club Neil, Natty’s husband, left her for a much younger woman, and at the time, she failed to recognise what a colossal favour he had done her. Lonely and distressed, Natty left the city that had been her marital home and moved to London. Despite still spending her working days in a mundane office job, she began to be offered life opportunities beyond her wildest dreams. As part of a new marketing initiative at her finance company, she applied to represent it in Borneo, working alongside a well-known animal chari...
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