Archive

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

Snowmen

After that Christmas our snowmen stopped coming to life. Coincidence, I said. You can't fall out so hard it kills the snowmen. It was probably pollution, like every other thing: the changing climate, or the dust from the new road, or the way the LED streetlights flatten the

Target fixation

On the way to work your bike skids on the flattened corpse of a pigeon. You saw it in plenty of time, but that didn't save you: your eyes snagged on the hollow bones, and your wheels followed. As the world flips on its side and you slide

The mouldywarp king

Danny said a mouldywarp was different to a mole: they were clever like people, and if you left them food they would dig up treasure for you. He was always saying things like that, and always leaving food for vermin, too. And now he's rich, and he says

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