A Story For You

Contents

Introduction............................................................................................................5

About the Author...................................................................................................6

Desolation.................................................................................................................7

The Snowman..............................................................................................................8

Adventures of Inspector Drood ...................................................................9

Memory........................................................................................................................10

The Black Widow...................................................................................................11

Lying Low.................................................................................................................12

Regret .....................................................................................................................13

Off to the Mountains........................................................................................14

Ghost Town..............................................................................................................15

The Red Apple........................................................................................................17

Revelation..............................................................................................................19

Rejection.................................................................................................................20

The Monster Returns..........................................................................................21

The Ferryman..........................................................................................................22

WLTM............................................................................................................................24

Wake-Up Call..........................................................................................................25

Undead (six word story).................................................................................26

This is Coach F...................................................................................................27

Russian Roulette.................................................................................................28

The One.....................................................................................................................29

Wraithhunter..........................................................................................................30

What is Love?........................................................................................................31

The Opal King........................................................................................................34

The Crow Princess...............................................................................................37

The Hand...................................................................................................................40

The Island..............................................................................................................41

The Alien.................................................................................................................43

The Package............................................................................................................45

The Killing Moon.................................................................................................49

Losing the Plot...................................................................................................51

The Event.................................................................................................................54

The Last Woman on Earth.................................................................................56

Emblem........................................................................................................................57

Lester Kane............................................................................................................62

Someone Like Me...................................................................................................65

Phoenix.....................................................................................................................68

Breakdown (six word story)..........................................................................70

Santa's Back (six word story)...................................................................71

The Goblin King...................................................................................................72

Obsession.................................................................................................................74

The Princess & The Beggar............................................................................75

Perry & I.................................................................................................................77

Nigel..........................................................................................................................83

Leaper........................................................................................................................89

Featherhead............................................................................................................91

What is Love?........................................................................................................94

Pyro ..........................................................................................................................96

The Old Man by the Sea.................................................................................102

The Collector.....................................................................................................105

The Hollow............................................................................................................108

Memories.................................................................................................................110

The Copse..............................................................................................................111

You Want More?...................................................................................................119

Introduction

It was supposed to be easy...

When I started a newsletter service for my website danmetcalf.co.uk I had the crazy idea of sending out flash fiction every Friday. I had a few pieces stored up, and it wouldn’t be too difficult to write a few more to fill the end of the week...would it?

It soon became my pastime, thinking up little tales on the bus and jotting them down quickly. I began to think in flash fiction – short, dynamic stories which peaked the reader’s interest and left them hanging just as quickly.

It was fun, but I always had Friday on my mind, hoping inspiration would strike in time for the end of the week.

This collection is a years’ worth of newsletters, and it has been a delight to write.

Dan Metcalf

About the Author

Dan Metcalf is a writer living and working in Devon, UK. Born in Torquay, he went on to gain a degree in Scriptwriting for Film and Television from Bournemouth University. After a career in the film industry in London, Dan returned to the Westcountry and embarked on a career in libraries, all the while continuing to write stories for publication. He now writes children's books under his own name and a handful of pseudonyms.

Writing Exercises

If you enjoy writing or want to use this collection of stories in an educational setting, please feel free to use the tales within to inspire and stimulate creative minds.

Here are some ideas of how you could use the stories:

Write your own six word story (harder than it looks!)

Use a story as a jumping off point for your own writing. Decide what happens to the characters after you finish reading the story.

Re-tell a story from a different character's point of view.

Use the story as inspiration to write something similar.

Draw your own interpretation of the story.

Turn the story into a play and act it out.

Compose a piece of music based on the story.

Use the central concept of a story and develop your own tale.

Let me know how it goes!

Desolation

The sky hung heavy with the threat of rain, whilst below, on grey November streets, a pale figure paced.

Just £20 a week, two weeks behind, his life had been placed on a skip. He shivered, waiting for eye to eye contact.

This - he shed his sweater and threw it to the pavement. - is my home!

The nearby bus queue shuffled as the wind lashed his naked chest.

I have nothing. No place to go.

The queue looked on.

Nothing! Not a thing.

A blue rinse tutted.

He sank into a corner, and rained tears, invisible.

The bus queue shuffled.

The Snowman

The bleak bare trees stared back from a white sky, the frozen faces of snowmen petrified by the frost of the previous night. Coal eyes look out pitifully.

Children approach warily, their welly boots scrunching through the white wastes.

Is he looking at us? said the first boy, head shaven and goose pimpled. He pointed at the largest snowman, a crooked carrot for a nose.

What if I am?

Adventures of Inspector Drood

Wiltshire, 1854 ;

Inspector Drood examined the corpse in the lock up, the small stone hut perched on the bridge above the Avon. The man’s face was blue like the twilight sky.

I only put him in last night. Drunk as a fart, he was, said PC Downs.

Drowned, said Drood. He was known for his pinpoint diagnoses, and his economical turn of phrase.

But we’s twenty feet above the river. Should I alert the courts?

Drood paced awhile. He removed his top hat, and reached his leather-gloved hand down to the man’s face, tenderly closing his eyes.

No. Thankfully no murder has occurred, he said revelling in his own dramatic revelation. The victim has suffered kidney failure, causing the lungs to fill with fluid.

Drood departed, his cloak spinning around him, returning to his awaiting carriage, ready to take him back to his club, and a long-overdue brandy.

Memory

Iknew she was dead when the birthday card didn't arrive on time. Thirty-four years, and she had always remembered. As a child, I had marvelled at her memory, her ability to recall facts and dates. She had always been so organised. The absence of a birthday card was therefore telling.

That night I lit a candle, not for myself, but to her memory.