Chasing Waterfalls

Chasing Waterfalls by Chris Green 1: Through thick and thin, Eddie Dolman has followed Bristol City’s fortunes, travelling up and down the country in all winds and weathers to watch his team play. He has financed his fanatical support through a stall selling cheap foreign mattresses at inflated prices at Compton Regis market. While Bristol … Continue reading Chasing Waterfalls

Room 404

Room 404 by Chris Green Level 4 is strictly off-limits. I shouldn’t be in there, let alone in Room 404, and logged in to the server. Everything on the 4Server is Top Secret. No one at my pay grade is allowed to access classified documents. There must have been an oversight in staff rotas, because … Continue reading Room 404

Bacon

Bacon by Chris Green Will notices The Guardian newspaper in front of him has tomorrow’s date. Normally, this might not matter too much. There would probably be an innocent explanation. The Guardian, after all, is famous for its misprints, but it is unlikely that an edition would have gone out with the wrong date on … Continue reading Bacon

Noir

NOIR by Chris Green It’s early evening. It is getting dark and the street lights are coming on. Apart from a middle-aged man dressed in black sitting near the door, Stacey is the only customer in Café Noir. She is uncomfortable because the man keeps staring at her. She doesn’t often stop off on her … Continue reading Noir

Lark

Lark by Chris Green ‘Do you think the lark has ascended yet?’ ‘Oh, come on, Sean! Of course it has! We must have driven fifty miles since you switched the radio off. We're coming up to the A30 turn-off.’ ‘Lark Ascending IS a long piece, Kate.’ ‘H’mm. But not that long.’ ‘You’re damn right. Not … Continue reading Lark

Three

Three by Chris Green 1: Seventies The best things in life are three. Charlie Tooting thinks so. They are sex and drugs and rock-and-roll. Many others of Charlie’s generation agree. After all, we are talking about the nineteen-seventies. Nineteen-seventy-three to be exact. Charlie is twenty-two years old. It would be fair to say though that … Continue reading Three

Snow

Snow by Chris Green ‘I wonder if it’s going to snow,’ the text message reads. It’s an odd message and I do not recognise the number. But to get into the spirit of things I reply, ‘It’s only August.’ This appears to strike a chord because immediately I get a reply which reads, ‘Meet me … Continue reading Snow

Summer Sisters

Summer Sisters by Chris Green Sisters Rose and Clara were born on the Summer Solstice, two years apart. They shared the same genes, the same upbringing and went to the same schools. Yet they were like chalk and cheese. Rose liked pressing flowers and playing with dolls. Clara trashed Tonka toys and read Viz magazine. … Continue reading Summer Sisters

Lost

Lost by Chris Green I’ve no idea where we are or how we come to be here. Given the extraordinary aggregation of sophisticated satellite technology at our disposal these days, it ought to be impossible to get lost on the roads. GPS is supposedly millimetre accurate over the entire country. When Sophie and I have … Continue reading Lost

ICKE

ICKE by Chris Green It was the summer I worked for the Parks Department. Tony and I had parked up our mowers in Cortina Drive, a quiet cul-de-sac in a residential area, a place where I reasoned, Nick Ford would not find us if he came to check. It had been a hot dry summer, … Continue reading ICKE

Bird

Bird by Chris Green ‘You’re telling me you found it in the car park and you thought you’d just plug it into your workstation,’ says Frank Flint. ‘It’s a fucking data stick. What did you suppose it might be doing lying there in the car park of a high-security organisation like this?’ I had an … Continue reading Bird

Balaclava

  Balaclava by Chris Green The coach has just left the bus station. We are waiting at the lights when, through the back window, I catch a glimpse of a man in a balaclava, running through the crowd. He is waving a handgun around. He shouts out something. He fires shots indiscriminately at the passengers … Continue reading Balaclava

Ki

Ki by Chris Green I have just taken a photo of the blue sea with the bank of cloud over the dark headland, when the stranger with the mirror sunglasses appears out of nowhere. He asks me if I am a professional photographer. ‘Not at all,’ I say. ‘It’s only a Canon PowerShot. But there … Continue reading Ki

The Book

The Book by Chris Green When I was growing up in the nineteen-sixties, I was surrounded by books. The bookshelves in Grey Gables, the big old Gothic revival house in Gloucestershire where we lived, were full. Fiction and non-fiction, there were books from all around the globe. There were books of every classification. but there … Continue reading The Book

Light

Light by Chris Green ‘Purple Haze was never Number 1,’ the girl at the bar says. ‘Nor was Strawberry Fields Forever. Odd for two such famous tunes, don’t you think?’ Matt is taken aback. It’s a strange way to open a conversation. Is she talking to him? He does not know her. He looks around … Continue reading Light

Phone BIll

  Phone Bill by Chris Green I read somewhere that over half of all the people in the world have never received a telephone call. Sometimes I wish I was one of these. The phone should be a comfort but it can also be a curse. Unwanted calls can outnumber the ones from family and … Continue reading Phone BIll