Bougainvillea Heights by Chris Green As she opens the front door, Angel hears the shower running in the upstairs bathroom. That’s odd, she thinks as she unzips her boots. Jason is never home at this time of day. Still, it is a pleasant surprise. Since he took up his post as CEO of Dozier and … Continue reading Bougainvillea Heights
Tag: thriller
No Windows
No Windows by Chris Green Pablo Picasso said, if I don’t have red paint, 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 toasted teacake and a cup of … Continue reading No Windows
Ideas
IDEAS by Chris Green ‘The guy was a complete stranger,’ says Laura. ‘He just walked up to me and handed me the bag.’ ‘And you didn’t think to say what are you doing or who are you?’ says Matt. ‘There wasn’t time. It all happened so quickly. I was taken completely off guard.’ ‘And he … Continue reading Ideas
South
SOUTH by Chris Green On occasions, just for a moment, everything seems in place. For this brief spell of time, a supernatural force seems to be at work. There is equilibrium in the universe. It might be referred to by some as an epiphany, an insight through the divine. Here at the top of the … Continue reading South
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
Noir
NOIR by Chris Green It's early evening. It is getting dark and the street lights are coming on. Apart from a solemn, 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 cannot put her finger on … Continue reading Noir
Call Wyatt on the Western Front
Call Wyatt On The Western Front by Chris Green Penny hits the button on the bedside clock. 4:33 AM. We’re hardly going to get up and answer the door at this unearthly hour, she thinks. No matter what is going on. She tries to drift back off, but again the doorbell rings. She turns over to … Continue reading Call Wyatt on the Western Front
Home Alone Too
Home Alone Too by Chris Green Was it a knock that had woken her? Anna doesn’t like being alone in the big old house at the best of times, but knowing that Ron is on the other side of the world makes her more edgy. She takes a look at the clock. It is … Continue reading Home Alone Too
Lenticular Clouds
Lenticular Clouds by Chris Green Lenticular clouds hang over Mount Dante in the distance. Disc-shaped and silver, they have an air of the surreal about them. You expect clouds to move across the sky with the wind, but these are stationary. Here in the town below, the inhabitants are … Continue reading Lenticular Clouds
Wish You Were Here
Wish You Were Here by Chris Green The huge red and green trucks thunder along the carriageways of the two-lane motorway in both directions. There is something both hostile and haphazard about the way they cross from lane to lane, throwing up dense clouds of dust from the parched road surface. The trucks are military … Continue reading Wish You Were Here
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
Magic and Loss
Magic and Loss by Chris Green Let me introduce myself. I’m Miles London. I am a collector of specialist celebrity memorabilia. Primarily things that have belonged to dead A-List rock stars. I do not go for the obvious trophies like guitars or jackets. Nor do autographed photos interest me. I like items that tell a … Continue reading Magic and Loss
Everyone is Dead
Everyone is Dead by Chris Green ‘Everyone is Dead,’ the headline poster outside the newsagents reads. You can’t miss it. It is in big bold capitals. What can it mean? How can everyone be dead? I am alive for a start. The person who put the notice up could not have been dead. They must … Continue reading Everyone is Dead
Black Hats
Black Hats by Chris Green Promise and I are looking out onto a rocky outcrop in Es Calo de Sant Agustí in Formentera. We are sitting under a sun-bleached parasol outside a small café in the secluded bay. We are staying a hostal nearby. Beyond the pier, a handful of fishing boats rock gently in … Continue reading Black Hats
DARK
DARK by Chris Green I am in the garden at The Pig and Whistle on a hot August evening. About a dozen of us are sat around a table. Darkness is descending, rapidly, the way it does in mid-August. The English summer is so fleeting. Blink and it is gone. Every year it seems the … Continue reading DARK
Twinned with Area 51
Twinned with Area 51 by Chris Green Warchester - Twinned with Area 51, the sign said. This ought to have triggered alarm bells but it didn't. Area 51 was just a remote place in the US that I had heard reference to in random conversations. At the time, I knew little about the clandestine goings-on … Continue reading Twinned with Area 51
Oleander Drive
Oleander Drive by Chris Green The black Mitsubishi has been parked there for several days now. Les Rubio first noticed it on Monday, when he came back from a business lunch at The Whistle Blower. The big SUV has been there in the same position, on the opposite side of the road fifty yards from … Continue reading Oleander Drive
Blowing in the Wind
Blowing in the Wind by Chris Green I am walking Malcolm on Panhandlers Hill when I first spot him. In fact, it is Malcolm who spots him first. Malcolm is a cocker spaniel and he is very sensitive to changes in his surroundings. We get a few hill walkers around these parts and at first, … Continue reading Blowing in the Wind
The Black Book
The Black 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 house in Gloucestershire where we lived were full, but there was one particular book I was told I must never read. It was referred to simply as … Continue reading The Black Book
Across The Universe
Across The Universe by Chris Green There has been a secret underground line in the south of England for years. It can be accessed through a network of tunnels originating from the basement of a former Turkish dry-cleaners in Dulwich. The line runs for sixty miles deep underneath the Weald to the coast near Newhaven. … Continue reading Across The Universe
Buy and Buy
Buy and Buy by Chris Green When did personal computers cease to be a labour saving device? Without even looking at the Spam folder, it took nearly ten minutes daily to scroll down through the garbage in my inbox, searching for the one or two messages that might have some relevance on my life, or … Continue reading Buy and Buy
Zelkova Serrata
Zelkova Serrata by Chris Green Was it a knock that had woken her? Anna doesn’t like being alone in the big old house at the best of times, but knowing that Ron is on the other side of the world makes her more edgy. She takes a look at the clock. It is 3:23. Much … Continue reading Zelkova Serrata
The Way We Were
The Way We Were by Chris Green It was Monday morning and I was not particularly pressed for time. I was off work as a result of an old Pilates injury flaring up. I had been told to rest. I was sorting out some matters that in my busy schedule at the kite repair workshop … Continue reading The Way We Were
FILM
FILM by Chris Green I have never watched an interactive film before. IF, as it is becoming known, is a revolutionary idea to get the audience involved in what they would like to see happen on the screen. I am watching with an open mind. I feel that democratising cinema in this way has great … Continue reading FILM
Cadence and Kascade
Cadence and Kascade by Chris Green I wake in an unfamiliar room. My head is pounding and my mouth feels like a dried up drainage ditch. I am used to more formal surroundings, when I wake, a comfortable bed and sometimes a cup of tea. My recall of how I came to be here is … Continue reading Cadence and Kascade
Come Rain Or Come Shine
COME RAIN OR COME SHINE by Chris Green ONE: RAIN It had rained every single day for the three summer months. Every morning at around five past seven with my bacon and egg sunny side up I would watch the weather forecast on JustNews. The weather presenter would come on and shrug sheepishly in front … Continue reading Come Rain Or Come Shine
Black Fiat Uno
Black Fiat Uno by Chris Green It was Monday morning and I was not particularly pressed for time. I was off work as a result of an old Pilates injury flaring up. I had been told to rest. I was sorting out some matters that in my busy schedule at the kite repair workshop I … Continue reading Black Fiat Uno
Kosmik Kitchen
Kosmik Kitchen by Chris Green June 1970 Mark Friday is eighteen years old and like many others of his generation has not given any serious thought what to do with his life. Plans are not cool. Plans are for straights. Something will land in his lap when the time comes; when the world realises … Continue reading Kosmik Kitchen
No Time At All
No Time At All by Chris Green Tara was finding it difficult to remember things. Friends of hers, in their fifties and sixties, suggested that her memory was unlikely to get any better. As you grew older those periheral places where the past was stored were harder to find, they said. They told her how … Continue reading No Time At All
Slumpton
Slumpton by Chris Green The door to number 16 slammed in Harry's face, as it had more times than Harry cared to remember. Its split green and orange panels were all too familiar. Familiar too were the plywood and chicken wire that were nailed over the space where the window should have been, perhaps in … Continue reading Slumpton
Burning Bright
Burning Bright by Chris Green You will be walking along Kipling Street bright and early, on your way to work at the packaging museum. For no accountable reason, you will be thinking about Alicia Keys, and one of her tunes will be running through your head when two young men in dark clothing will jump … Continue reading Burning Bright
Diamond White
Diamond White by Chris Green Every night Natalie would come back home from St. Saviour's Hospital, where she was an orthopaedic nurse, to find Shaun slumped in a chair in front of the television, watching darts. More often than not, Shaun's friends, Bernie, Mac and Tosser would be there too, shouting their crude encouragement to … Continue reading Diamond White
Ceci n’est pas une pipe
Ceci n’est pas une pipe by Chris Green It seems a long time ago now that Passion and I arrived at Kemble station, in the Gloucestershire countryside. We had taken the Great Western train down from London and were planning to explore the Cotswolds. Passion and I have always been keen walkers and had been … Continue reading Ceci n’est pas une pipe
La Bamba
La Bamba by Chris Green When Max turned out the light he assumed he would wake up in the morning, pull back the chintz curtains to let in a little light, notice that the birds were singing in the back garden, and apart from a small corner in front of the greenhouse where the turf … Continue reading La Bamba
Cotswold Life
Cotswold Life by Chris Green I hadn't seen Ron for many years when he got in touch with me on Facebook. My name, Chance DeVille, was of course so unusual that if someone were trying to look me up I would not be hard to find. Not many people had taken the trouble to, so … Continue reading Cotswold Life
Chris Green Stories 