Burning Malta
You’re shivering in the study, wearing your summer dressing gown. You refuse to accept it’s a cold July, and the coffee has gone cold. You drink it anyway. Working from home does not suit you, according to your wife. You are too easily distracted by your Ian Rankin novels, by your old books from university […]
Cherry Pits and Bee Faces
My sister keeps photoshopping her cat’s face onto bees. Cynthia is lost the way I want to be found. I’m supposed to be her caretaker, court appointed, paperwork signed and notarized, but Cynthia doesn’t really need me. After her accident with the bathtub and my flat iron, her adult social worker said she needed supervision, […]
Smartypants
The first day of class Mr. Ringer walked up to the board and wrote: 15x + 6 = 36. “Solve,” he said. Everyone’s hand shot up. We’d learned this the year before and were eager to demonstrate our knowledge. “Lawson.” “X equals Bite Me.” “Correct.” Mr. Ringer wrote another: 3x + 3 = 27. “Yes, […]
Dinner for One at the Limping Frog
At the candle-lit table in the corner of the Limping Frog, Michael is having a lone feast. This has long been his favourite meal, even before the time that the critic somewhat pretentiously said of it that ‘the gentle herbal flavour perfectly complements the delicately spiced meat.’ The crisp asparagus Michael uses is still fresh […]
Lit. Mag. Launch! Spring/Summer 2020 Edition.
Incredibly happy to announce the launch of our first literary magazine for Fiction Kitchen Berlin! This spring/summer edition collects all stories published on the site from January to June – twenty-six pieces in total. These amazing stories, and their authors, represent the best that the flash fiction genre has to offer today. As happy as […]
Courtesy Call
Good afternoon Water World guests. We have an important call waiting for a guest by the name of—and she says my name—Please come to any guest services. The kiosk is staffed by teenagers. I have a message? The kid hands me the receiver of an actual red phone: Hello? Congratulations! You’ve just been chosen to […]
Fire and Ice
When Angela was seven, she asked her mother what kind of meat was on her plate. “Rabbit,” said her mother. Tears dripped down Angela’s face. “Like Snowdrop next door?” For the next six months she would only eat meat if her mother promised that it wasn’t killed. That it came out of a tin. Until […]
Best Moments
The lights in the nightclub come on and the dancers melt down into the chequered floor. A woman with green hair and a clipboard comes up to me and asks for my name. I don’t tell her, and she writes something down. “What are you writing?” She looks at me and says: “Would you like […]