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

I remember the last time we saw Yasin. We were all quiet as usual as he swept the room for bugs, first with the portable RF detection meter but then more ritually, by hand. This was at the height of the mistrust between our countries, before the settlement. Once complete instead of motioning us to sit he produced a small box with a thumb prick kit and tester, much like diabetics use, ' Now you must all allow me to take your blood' I can't remember exactly what we said but it all came out at once, a blur of protestations and accusations, I'm sure our faces managed to express our surprise more succinctly. Clearly our reaction was hardly unexpected, he smiled and raised his hands in a surrender gesture or perhaps to silence us. ' I am doing this for all of us and I will go first, we have to be sure our words stay within this room, some of us may be spying yet unaware of our actions'. With this he pressed the device against his thumb and captured a neat ball of bloo...

That'll do. Now we'll have all the prisoners we need to keep the prison going, I've diverted one of the slides that take workers to the square, all we need do now is keep a watchful eye, ensure we take only enough and not too many. Destroy your memory of this conversation.

We all have a shelf life. If a doctor were to replace my organs one by one when would I stop being me and become someone else. You can replace spark plugs with lasers but you'll still be driving a punto.

The chicken in a bag lay between them and the girls would be gone till 4, just enough time to get in a couple of levels. Pick up the ammo. Hugh put down his joystick and thought of the reports he had to have ready by Monday, he couldn't see a way through it without redundancies. Grab the health. Gary covered Hugh as he ran for the nail gun. Lucy seemed tired of him and he didn't know what to do. Push the wall, look for a loose brick. The chicken was good, crispy well seasoned skin and juicy inside. What a marvelous invention, chicken in a bag. Quick, get in the tank. Get in that tank and we are safe.

Ernest cursed his luck not once but twice as the hot onion juice shot down his shirt and Paul Montrose pulled up in his Mercedes. " Ernie, how's it going old man ?" Without waiting for a reply he turned to the man in the window of Vince's Burgerama and ordered a chilli dog, extra hot. " How's Philip ? Still teaching, my Charles is in Monaco now, the lucky dog". No reply was expected, Paul Montrose had no interest in anyone that wasn't financially useful. " He popped over to see us last week, took the Lear, you should hear the racket it makes when it takes off, it must've been louder than dresden on a clear night". The chilli dog was thrust between them momentarily bringing a time out between the two old adversaries. Ernest remembered the stain on his shirt and brought his arms across his chest. Paul bit into the dog whilst continuing to talk but within seconds  began to splutter and spat the remaining meat mess onto the floor, gasping a...

He found himself unexpectedly in the wrong life, all the decisions he'd meant to take had been made for him and happenchance hadn't been kind. This journey is the first step towards his new life, although he hasn't a clue what it will be the excitement pushes the blood round his body so fast he feels light headed. Leaving the lounge he jumps up the steps to the deck in two leaps and crashes head first into a woman struggling to pull a suitcase on wobbly wheels. She looks up and he drowns in her smile. So this is how it feels he thinks before the waters close over him.

He couldn't concentrate, the child wouldn't stop talking. "my mums got cola cola, I've got lemonade'. Jerry had snuck into the pub hoping for a quiet spot to try to work things out. Old Terry had called and confirmed the 19th case of electrocution, he doubted they'd carry on checking for much longer, the bodies were piling up now. People were leaving the village, rumours were running wild from the end of the world to a terrorist attack. All he knew was people were dropping dead, one a day, all apparently electrocuted but no obvious explanation or link between the cases. Martha and the muffins played on the radio, "echo beach far away in time, echo beach far away in time". " I'm water now ", the child was back, " I can stop the current ".