Postcards from Kronk - the second collection of daily stories. (2025)

" It's the scale of everything that blows you away if you think about it. Humanity is less than a sneeze, less than an ants fart in the universe and the sooner we accept that the better. The weight of everything you know for sure would struggle to hold down a till receipt, the weight of what you don't know could crush a aircraft carrier. So you found nothing today and that's news? Get back out there and don't take no for answer " The job club had changed since I'd last signed on and I wasn't sure I understood their message.

The man brought before the cameras looked ashen and drawn but spoke with the affirmation of a man reborn. " I'd  like to start by offering my condolences to the families of Vertigo Vic and Duke Dixon who unfortunately will never get to see their loved ones again. Without the public my family too would be grieving now, so a plea to you all;  if you ever see a bonfire with a traditional guy and that guy appears to be struggling to free himself please don't walk by, call the police. " Questions began to be fired towards the man but were cut short by a woman with a severe haircut : "That's it thank you ladies and gentlemen."

Dhenuka shook hands with Adil, Vikram and Parm, determined to stay strong till the end. " It's been worth it boys, one day in the future we will all  be thought of as the great thinkers, ahead of our time but for now they are not ready, it is time for me to move on, I leave you the Health and Medicine Portfolio, let your heads not be turned but stay true to the ideals we have discussed " Vikram hugged the man they had come to think of as their father. " We will do as you say Nuka , good luck and gods blessing " He bowed his head whilst outside the taxi honked its horn. " Time to go " Dhenuka waved a final goodbye with all his arms before leaping out the window using his tail as a spring.

So when the beach stopped spinning and I didn't I then fell into the sea smelling the salt water and feeling sea weed caress my face as a collective groan of disappointment lulled me to sleep. I hadn't been the most attentive uncle but at least I'd been there for them. Until I'd fallen asleep that is. But afterwards, when I woke up, if I hadn't been there that night they may have perished, they may have been buried under the rocks. Admittedly very small rocks, more like pebbles but a cat could have jumped up onto the shelf and knocked them into their sleeping mouths. Plugged and suffocating they could have been, lying there green or purple if I hadn't have acted so quick. I should be thanked for saving your children not shouted at for carrying them into the night.

Since Otto returned from the dead he had found as many faults with his life as he had treasures. His wife was disappointing, fatter than he'd have liked; his daughter was passable but his sons were both clumsy and scatterbrained. The friends that came to call seemed boorish and the job he travelled to appeared immoral and unnecessary. Understandably upset at his new found candour Otto's wife, Maria arranged counselling, to help him remember the man he was before the crash. Initially sceptical of the process Otto soon found himself looking forward to his sessions and little by little as he learnt how the trauma of death and resurrection had likely led to his new found view of the world he began to value and fall in love with his life all over again. Maria was so happy and things were going along just fine until the day Otto received the news that the accident hadn't resulted in his death at all but merely in a brief period of unconscious...

The citizens of Kronk held their breath as King Harold stood before the cameras, ready to deliver the most important speech of his life. Two hundred miles away in the area know as the darkened a beast was stirring. Anthony, the giant, who'd laid waste to whole swathes of the south and had finally been trapped, drugged and encased within a stone prison was about to make the front pages once more. " Citizens, as you are aware last month we caught and contained the beast known as Anthony the Giant, imprisoning him within a stone box without window nor door but as many of you know, he was too strong " Flashbulbs flashed and journalists jostled with each other for position. " Each time we have built a larger enclosure he has ripped it down, he has been like the maggot in a corpse eating his way through to the sunlight, we may have slowed him down but we cannot build any more prisons " Phones were going off, the throng of journalists was getting thinner, some aba...

Autumn crept up on us as we were sleeping the leaves brittle red warnings we work in pairs, fingertips to the grass no one knows who we are looking for but we look anyway inch by inch for months now the bodies have been appearing, all unidentified one every two or three days we come together and search to make the waiting easier Its late and we're struggling to see, time to leave, start again tomorrow Will you stay with me tonight?