A single step forward ripples through the queue. I joined it long ago and it’s grown until now the queue is all I can see.
I dream of reaching the front. Where waits…
I never knew. But I can’t give up. I’ve come too far and nowhere near far enough.
Brian Maycock’s stories have appeared most recently on the NoSleep Podcast and Tales from the Breakroom. He’s in Cornwall.
He stares at the blank page, trying to think of the perfect first line. Once that’s down, the rest will flow. A masterpiece will be unleashed.
There will be acclaim, awards, royalties. Appearances at literary festivals
He stares at the blank page, for fifty years now, squinting more and more.
Brian Maycock’s short fiction has appeared in Planet Paragraph, 101 Words and The Drabble. He lives in Scotland.
There’s an android at my desk when I arrive at work. Doing my job.
I ask it to move. It won’t.
I look around for help, see the charging point has been changed to one that’s not compatible for me.
And I realise:
I’ve been replaced by a newer model.
Brian Maycock’s short fiction has appeared in 101 words, Paragraph Planet and The Drabble. He lives in Scotland.
He played one of the scratched 78s he had found with the wind-up gramophone. Danced through the rubble with no one watching.
He had spent years telling himself that tomorrow he would start trying to meet someone. Now it all lay in pieces around him: the last man on earth.
Brian Maycock’s short stories have appeared recently in Paragraph Planet and Creepy Pod. He lives in Scotland.
He spends all day at the museum. Since he lost his job, he can.
He sits on a bench. His back has gone. His hair is going.
He sighs and thinks how it is only a matter of time before a sign appears at his feet:
“Late era man. Extinct.”
Brian Maycock’s short stories have recently appeared in 101 Words, The Drabble, and Paragraph Planet.
I was sure squirrels were scared of people. Until one Grey stood in front of me and put its paw on my shin. I had nothing to give it, not even a crumb. The squirrel stood its ground and in the end I turned back, grateful it was almost spring.
Brian Maycock’s short stories have been published recently by The Drabble and Paragraph Planet. He lives in Scotland.
He stands by the entrance, dreaming. Smouldering.
He started coming here twenty years ago, when the film studio was up and coming. Like him.
He took a job at the diner nearby. Just till he was spotted.
His break over, he goes back to work. Undiscovered, for one more day.
Brian Maycock’s stories have recently appeared in Trembling with Fear, Paragraph Planet and 101 Words. He lives in Glasgow.
The skeleton of the fishing boat is exposed as the water retreats, stripped of its engine and compass, its paint, its name.
Stripped of pride by quotas and technology–by change–the man stands by the shore. Once, his life flowed with the tides; now all he has is time.
Brian Maycock’s short stories have appeared recently in 101 Words, Paragraph Planet and Trembling with Fear. He lives in Scotland.
The ghost takes its time. After a lifetime of stress and rushing this feels fine. It will work its way up to haunting, perhaps its old boss or ex-wife.
There was only simmering hatred when it was alive, but now thinking about her brings unexpected sadness, the memory of love.
Brian Maycock’s short fiction has appeared in outlets including The Drabble, 101 Words and Paragraph Planet. He lives in Scotland.
Between the commuter train and the office, the lunch break and working late.
Between the park and the bookshop, where I delay going home, to the apartment where I don’t want to be.
Before the morning alarm begins another day.
I never really stop.
Anything to not think, not feel.
Brian Maycock’s short stories have recently appeared in The Drabble, Flash Fiction Magazine and Paragraph Planet. He lives in Scotland.