You didn’t go in the thicket. We all knew that. – Dan Layton was the eldest of us, and when he turned 13 he, of course, knew better. We’d heard the stories and we’d seen our mothers out at midsummer, tying ribbons to the spiked branches. We’d looked out of high windows at midwinter when…
Tag: Short Story
After the Wedding
On our first visit to the beach we could see something going on in the water, beyond the cliffs, buggering the view. Local divers and boaters had set up a kind of makeshift no-go zone. Ropes drooped from buoy to buoy in a wobbly oval, and there were small boats with winches and ropes and…
The God of Goosemeadow Lane
Two storeys, upper-level balcony, separate entrances. He might have to do something about that, Harry realized. Bird Palace, the box read. The word palace had caught his attention. Surely this was what he needed. Plus it was only £29.95, which was a good deal. – The cashier grunted as he heaved the heavy cardboard box…
Nights
It is my wife who always gets the phone. When she is not in, I just let it ring until it stops. “It is Paula,” she said as she slapped the receiver into my hand, and then, “Leo, who the fuck is Paula?” * This was nearly four years ago and she was very tense…
Do Something Amazing Today
A blood van has just parked outside. Don’t look surprised; you’ve let the summonses pile up over the past fortnight or so. A man and a woman get out. He checks your house number. She opens the boot and gets the equipment for taking blood and, where necessary, bodily restraint. Whichever one’s knocking, they make…
Nest
Not far from the university campus, an elderly man walking his small dog turns into an underpass and finds a shopping trolley, alone in the tunnel. The sight of it, suddenly there, a skeletal shadow in the empty space, makes him jump. The underpass is a regular route for students returning to campus from the…
With Compliments
We are the hotel of the lost. There are no maps on the front desk, because none of you would read them. There isn’t a street sign on the wall outside. The door has no number. You found us anyway. Welcome. * Sinead has been running. Two minutes late is okay. Five is a problem….
Neon’s 2018 Best Small Fictions Nominations
One of the last things we did in 2018 was send off our nominations for the Best Small Fictions anthology – an annual collection of the best short and hybrid fiction collated by Braddock Avenue Books. In past years a number of stories which which first appeared in Neon have have gone on to grace the pages of a BSF anthology, including Lydia Armstrong’s “The November We Are Fifteen” and Claire Joanne Huxham’s “Correspondence”…
Our Trailer in the Woods
Our trailer in the woods was held up by trailing ivy that fed on the rust. It had a flat roof and slatted panes that trapped droplets of water between them when it got warm. Orange and brown chintz curtains swayed at the windows. The door was always open in the spring so that the…
The History of New Venice
1. Stanley Kubrick, old and mottled, wakes late at night, alone. He envisions a film about Venice, its beginning, its middle, its end. Compelled, he begins. * 2. The year is 2093 and the real Venice is gone. It is the Atlantis of that time. In April, Kubrick starts scripting. He plasters his study with…