Category: short story

Joe Stratton

sunrise_breezaplains1_crop1

The toes of her pointy toe red stilettos tapped impatiently at the counter. She rattled her car keys, yet again and cleared her throat loudly. She could feel the dust on her skin, the grime in her hair. She had not seen a human or a car in the last hour.

The plains seem to go forever, the dust swirling around as the sun rose behind her. The colours in the sky and land changed before her, though she hardly noticed.Her mind was ticking through work lists, clients, finances, staffing without a second glance at the kaleidoscope of hues outside.

A quick coffee, pick up the parcel and she was out of here. Read More

Irish Willie

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“Orange 56…orange 56 is the winner winner chicken dinner!” yells the publican “last winner of the night…o-r-a-n-g-e-5-6”. The packed bar of drinkers heave a chorus of groans, many will be heading home empty-handed this Friday night. Read More

There is no cure

From the day she was born she demanded our attention. As first time parents we didn’t just ease into parenthood, we were rocketed. She was impatient to feed, and content with short bursts of nutrition rather than the regular 3 or 4 hour feed rotation. She would not sleep for long, day or night.

I remember when I was younger I used to set my alarm to watch the sunrise as it was rare for me to be awake at that hour. I feel I have now seen enough sunrises to last me a life time. Read More

DT

My dad with his soon-to-be bride in the early ’60s.

My dad is celebrating his birthday. No great ‘landmark’ birthday ending in a zero or a five, but he reckons any year after 70 is worth applauding. My father is, I think, a classical Australian country man. The red earth of the property he was born flows in his veins, and will forever more. The saying “You can take the man out of the country but you will never take the country of out the man” springs to mind when I think about my dad. Read More