MICRO DOUBLE-BILL #2

We have another little micro-treat for you today – a double-bill of superb microfiction. We hope you enjoy…

But before you do…

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The Shipping Forecast

by Rachel Parker

We huddle around Jeb’s radio as if for warmth; pass a look instead of words. Twelve hours until the winds shake us like hungry ghosts rattling a box, until the screaming of rusted mooring cables awakens old nightmares.

Jeb issues orders; watches, muster point drills. He was a real Captain once, before the sinking of his government and its Navy. He’s teaching us knots, CPR, astronavigation, the cypher of the shipping forecast. He doles out tea breaks like rations of courage.

One of the other asylum seeker facilities went down last week.

We have no engine or sails but we have men and morale to keep afloat. We salute our Captain, our resolve good, occasionally poor, our hopes and dreams rising more slowly.

Rachel Parker likes writing microfiction and short stories. She is a member of the excellent Wokingham Writers Group.

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Bad Atheist

by Ian Davis and Fiona H Evans

I don’t believe in god, but I do believe in spiders. Icky, horrible spiders that bite my face while I sleep. I know you don’t believe me. But I can prove it. Look at this? I wake up every morning covered in welts that weep viscous fluids. What? Of course they’re not cicatrix from flagellation, you fool! They look like exactly like spider bites. And I’m convinced I’ve seen spiders scuttling across the bed. They’re not huge, just average spider size, not any kind I recognise. But I can prove it, I tell you. I’ll just set up a camera. Second thoughts… Nah. I don’t like having my picture taken. You never know what it might show. Better to remain a bad atheist.

Ian and Fiona are Western Australians who met at university in the nineties, lost touch for a while and became friends again when Ian called Fiona out of the blue while drunk. They discovered a shared love of writing and this is their first collaboration, born from an idea of Ian’s.

Follow Fiona on X/Twitter.

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If you’ve enjoyed those micros – or any of the other fiction we’ve published here at Cranked Anvil Press – please consider a small donation towards running costs. Thank you.