Hunky Dory by Chris Green Writers of self-help books are fond of telling you that life always offers you a second chance, it is called tomorrow. This is all very well. It’s something you can look forward to. But what if you could have your second chance yesterday? This would mean that you still had … Continue reading Hunky Dory
Tag: speculative fiction
Time Out
Time Out by Chris Green The train has never been this late. It is nearly 10 o’clock. Max has been waiting for over an hour. He has been through nearly all of the Thelonious Monk selections on his iPhone. He may have missed something but so far as he can tell, there have been no … Continue reading Time Out
Altavista
Altavista by Chris Green Magenta does not enjoy riding the elevator to Red’s nineteenth-floor apartment in Altavista. It moves so slowly that it doesn’t seem to be moving at all. But security is tight. The chance of encountering an assailant in Altavista is small. The building has a uniformed concierge to vet unwanted visitors. The … Continue reading Altavista
All About Jazz
All About Jazz by Chris Green All About Jazz tends to be quiet in the afternoon. After the lunchtime rush, things do not pick up again until the evening. We are a small establishment down a side street on the edge of town. If you were driving along the main road out of town, you … Continue reading All About Jazz
Back in Time for Tea
Back in Time for Tea by Chris Green It was Monday morning, but I was not pressed for time. I was off work. An old Tai Chi injury had flared up, and I had been told to rest. I was sorting out things that in my busy schedule at the kite repair workshop, I never … Continue reading Back in Time for Tea
Summer Time
Summer Time by Chris Green It was already the middle of July. Only a few moments ago it seemed it was June, or May even. The Bank Holiday Mondays, the Chelsea Flower Show, Royal Ascot, Summer Solstice, Glastonbury, Wimbledon and the British Grand Prix had come and gone like thieves in the night. In quick … Continue reading Summer Time
Cover Story
Cover Story by Chris Green A vermilion memo is circulating at the research establishment, one down from red. Red means evacuate. Tension levels are rising. I am glad it is time for my shift to end. Although I keep my head down at work, I have suspected for a long time something weird is going … Continue reading Cover Story
Apocalypse No
Apocalypse No by Chris Green 1: At first, Ingrid and I think the explosion may have come from Dmitri’s place further down the lane. We live out in the sticks and Dmitri is our nearest neighbour. He is always tinkering with something questionable in his makeshift workshop at the bottom of his garden. With his … Continue reading Apocalypse No
Glitch
Glitch by Chris Green ‘Heliotrope destination,’ the caller says and then hangs up. Heliotrope destination? It sounds like a cryptic crossword clue. What does that mean? What on earth is he talking about? In these days of scams and hoaxes, I record the calls we get on our landline. I play the message back. … Continue reading Glitch
Harry and Kate
Harry and Kate by Chris Green Black cats are supposed to be lucky, aren’t they? Harry Regis thinks so. What he doesn’t realise is that in many cultures, black cats are seen as an evil omen. Most of Europe, for instance, considers the black cat to be unlucky, a harbinger of doom. Fortunate then that … Continue reading Harry and Kate
Extra
EXTRA by Chris Green How do they know there are only thirteen days left? How can anyone be so precise? And what exactly is the nature of the emergency? Why does no-one appear to know? Or if they do know, why are they reluctant to tell us? Not that I can do much about it, … Continue reading Extra
You Never Know Who Your Friends Are
You Never Know Who Your Friends Are by Chris Green A writer can become dangerously obsessed with fiction. The temptation to create something original out of an ordinary everyday situation can be hard to resist. I could not possibly know what I was getting into when I created Quentin Thief’s social media profile. Quentin was … Continue reading You Never Know Who Your Friends Are
More Weird Shit – an Inspector Boss Mystery
More Weird Shit – An Inspector Boss Mystery by Chris Green ‘It didn’t occur to you that a two-year-old Mercedes Sprinter on sale in Toker’s End for less than two grand might be hot,’ Jonny Geezer says. ‘To be fair, we were a bit strapped for cash, guv, and there wasn’t that much around,’ Gandy … Continue reading More Weird Shit – an Inspector Boss Mystery
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
Shooting Script
Shooting Script by Chris Green 1: The headline on the front page of The Independent, Shot Down in Downing Street came as a shock to Catherine Larsson. It was accompanied by a grainy picture of the Prime Minister clutching his shoulder. A trail of blood appeared to be trickling down his white shirt. Unaware that … Continue reading Shooting Script
Where Have All the Flowers Gone?
Where Have All the Flowers Gone? by Chris Green Always something of a wild man, Danny Rocco isn’t the type you would expect to find at a Ludovico Einaudi recital. But the main reason that Danny’s being at the Einaudi concert is unlikely is that Danny Rocco is dead. He met his maker three years … Continue reading Where Have All the Flowers Gone?
Homburg
Homburg by Chris Green Ben Maceo told me about the clock last week. Ben has special powers, you see. He can tell when things are going to happen. Had it been anyone else, I would never have believed them, but as it was Ben, I knew that it would happen and so I was able … Continue reading Homburg
When I Was Older
When I Was Older by Chris Green When I was older, I was a saxophonist. I was one of the last living saxophonists before the instrument was banned and all saxophones were melted down to help the war effort. The trumpet suffered a similar fate. Brass instrument detection squads with sophisticated detection equipment were deployed … Continue reading When I Was Older
ODDS
Odds by Chris Green Having worked at BiggerBet, Rick O’Shea knows a little about odds. Rick knows, for instance, the bookmakers’ odds of Norwich winning the Premier League are 1,000 to 1. The mathematical odds of being dealt a Straight Flush at five-card Draw Poker are 72,192 to 1. The odds of winning the jackpot … Continue reading ODDS
Cor Anglais
Cor Anglais by Chris Green I’m guessing many of you haven’t had someone following you in the fog playing The Diabelli Variations on the cor anglais. Beethoven piano pieces aren’t something you expect to hear on a double reed woodwind instrument in a concert hall, let alone while you are taking a morning walk along … Continue reading Cor Anglais
Only One Reality
Only One Reality by Chris Green A second did not seem an important integer, but therein lay the problem. It was such a small unit of time. Yet, such was the degree of precision operating in the overcrowded skies that if Quincey Sargent had returned from his break seven seconds earlier or seven seconds later, … Continue reading Only One Reality
The Hurdy Gurdy Man
The Hurdy Gurdy Man by Chris GreenIt is after midnight. Lois and I are watching a nail-biting episode of Bad Break on Horizon when the old man in the threadbare purple duffle coat calls round. He is selling violins. In these uncertain times, traders are likely to call round at any time of day or … Continue reading The Hurdy Gurdy Man
TIME
TIME by Chris Green Time is a bitch. You never know quite where you are with it. Einstein, bless him, argues that the distinction between past, present and future is an illusion, albeit a stubbornly persistent one. This morning as I go through the mail, I begin to appreciate the great man’s uncertainty. These bills … Continue reading TIME
3:13 a.m.
3: 13 a.m. by Chris Green Not so long ago, it was becoming recognised that at 3:13 a.m. each morning, everyone heard something disturbing that gave them a jolt and caused the heart to skip a beat. The rogue sound was not the same for everyone. For some, it was the tolling of a distant … Continue reading 3:13 a.m.
Chinese Boxes
Chinese Boxes by Chris Green The fire engine comes hurtling towards me. It is out of control. It has no driver. Conan Doyle Street is narrow and the precipitate leviathan gathers momentum as it heads down the slope. I dive for safety into the doorway of the antiquarian bookstore. The fire engine forges ahead, gradually … Continue reading Chinese Boxes
Give Chance a Piece
Give Chance a Piece by Chris Green If Dalton Ripley had not stayed up until the early hours watching The Shining on Netflix, he would probably not have been late leaving for work that fateful Monday in late September and if he had not been late leaving for work he would not have been speeding … Continue reading Give Chance a Piece
No Windows
No Windows by Chris Green Pablo Picasso once said, 'if I don't have red paint, then I use blue.' You have to be able to adapt to changes of fortune. I did not plan my early retirement, but here I am on a Tuesday morning sitting in my recliner with a cup of green tea … Continue reading No Windows
The Sadness of the Post-Truth Pianist
The Sadness of the Post-Truth Pianist by Chris Green You don’t hear Mozart a lot on the radio these days. While his music isn’t officially banned like that of Beethoven and Bach, playing it is strongly discouraged. You can no longer buy decadent European music in the shops. No Fauré, No Debussy, no Chopin and … Continue reading The Sadness of the Post-Truth Pianist
You Never Know Who Your Friends Are
You Never Know Who Your Friends Are by Chris Green A writer can become dangerously obsessed with fiction. The temptation to try to create something original out of an ordinary everyday situation can be hard to resist. I could not possibly know what I was getting into when I created Quentin Thief's social media profile. … Continue reading You Never Know Who Your Friends Are
Sign of the Times
Sign of the Times by Chris Green Earlier Some years ago the Chinese surreptitiously replaced the Year of the Cat in their astrological calendar with the Year of the Rabbit. The story goes that they wanted all the zodiac animals to get along and the rabbit was more compatible with the rat than the cat … Continue reading Sign of the Times
Chris Green Stories 