Archive

Pumpkin

The pumpkin wouldn't rot. We had promised Benjamin that it could stay on the step until it started to smell, but it looked better than ever. The scuffs I made trying to get the top off had healed up. It must have been the cold weather. One day,

Probationary period

A week into the job, I still hadn't met a person. I was working my way through the induction training: uncanny voiceovers about health and safety and data protection, backed up by questions a block of wood could answer. Automated emails delivered accounts, reassurances, and promises of tasks

Alarm bells

The alarm had been ringing for twenty minutes, but nobody knew what it was for. "It has the rhythm of catastrophe," opined Jeremy, "but not the timbre." Jenny closed her eyes and raised a finger for quiet. "I heard something like this once before,"

Ghost hunter

The ghost-hunter had a battered buzzing gadget, a metal thing from the seventies with a chunky handle to support the weight of its huge batteries, and a wand on a coiled wire. He said the tricky thing was calibrating it. The dead are everywhere, you see, so it takes just

A disappearance

A nail half in. A board primed and unpainted. A window open, just to let the air in, with the snow blowing through. Pencil marks on walls and a dust sheet on the floor. A glass, empty but for the fine white residue that clings to it. A radio still

Christmas Shopping at the Non-Euclidean Argos

Sometimes, the stories we tell reveal something in us we weren't even aware of; other times, we walk two circuits of the Arndale Centre in Manchester looking for the Argos and we just want to gently vent about that experience. Fear not: I have since made my escape,

Continental breakfast

The continental buffet breakfast was truly unlimited. You turned, or blinked, or just shifted your attention, and all the bread and cheese and meat and pastry was back in place like you had got up early for once. We did what we could, filling bags and touring the city to

Goldfish

I didn't think school fairs gave goldfish as prizes any more, but apparently this one did. All the parents were holding a fish in a bag, most of them pulling a face to say I don't really agree with this, but the kids were so excited.

Birthday present

Jenny gave Dave his birthday present in an intricate puzzle box, knowing he would never get around to solving it. But Dave knew how she was: he knew there would be nothing inside. So he solved it the day he got it, ready to fill with treasure and give back

Storm-tossed

I went out in the storm in all the old clothes I'd shrunk out of, and my big hat tied tight to my head, and I let it blow me away. Once the wind takes you, everything feels calm: the air and the wind and your little body

Scattering #2: Melting Point

This week, a silly story about putting ice cream in the food bank donation point. You may think, 'what a stupid premise, nobody would do that', but friends, I have seen a tub of ice cream in the food bank donation point. There are more things in heaven

Scattering #1: Three Portraits

Welcome to the first weekly edition of Scattering. I'm really looking forward to sharing my stories with you in this new space. As well as my daily microfiction from this week, you'll find a little something about what I've been reading, and a short

Welcome to Scattering

Welcome to Scattering, a new fiction website/newsletter by Mark Taylor. I'll be publishing daily microfiction, then on a Sunday I'll collect the week's stories together, along with a longer piece and some notes on what I've been reading, and put it