Short Stories

My stories have featured in the UK and in the USA. As members of a maligned genre they cluster together on my website for solidarity and comfort.

They hope one day to be misconstrued as a novel, a Jennifer Egan style, ‘Goon Squad’ arrangement.

SOMETHING HAPPENED IN THE HEART OF THE FOREST IN THE HEART OF THE NIGHT

Jerome, Jerome, you shout into the cold darkness, please answer. You get no reply from your oldest somewhere in this vast forest shrouded in night mist. Jerome, in his impulsive twenties, is an occasional wilderness lover. After the day’s online work meetings, he releases frustration and energy on the rugged trails we have here in the Blue Mountains. Jerome! Your head torch beam lances the trees, searches the nooks. The forest drops steeply away...

BEYOND THE PAIL

     After the sudden clanging noise Harley begs the night to subside. Nothing doing. A light flicks on in the Goldstein living room and the door to the deck rumbles on its tracks. 
     Candy Goldstein’s voice breaks into the night, ‘Hey, who’s there?’

PASSOVER

     I’m taking a stroll before the sun goes down and our Passover guests arrive. I stop and lean on the railing by the sea cliffs. Warning signs, black on yellow, show a tiny figure tilting off a high edge, arms clutching at space. Way below, jagged triangles and crests suggest rocks and surf.

SAY A PRAYER

     Walter Bronsky kicked in his half sleep before opening one eyelid. The ochre skin of his little tent drew him towards the dim-dawning day. He sat up in his sleeping bag, cast around and groaned – he could make out the cash desk, display racks, ceiling fans.

THE LAST MATINEE

He lay on the road under the lights, green, orange, red, green, orange, his cheek on the warm 
tarmac, his limbs hinged at weird angles, akin to the shop attendant showing the mannequin 
who is in charge.  
     Pain coursed through him and he sensed a shifting.