It’s seven o’clock on a newly minted Auckland morning when I step on board the Overlander for the twelve-hour journey to Wellington down the Main Trunk Line. The announcements begin …
The Cold Submission (Paul Adkin)
Dear Mr Collector, I am sending you this unsolicited package containing my latest work, with the hope that you will deem it worthy for display in your museum. That you …
Photocopier (David Cohen)
An accountant – call him Accountant A – occupied a modest office in a modest accountancy firm. Even though Accountant A’s office was one of the smaller offices, the Boss …
How My Father Got His Robotic Hand (Jacqui Dent)
It was in the summer of 1995 and my father was working in a top-secret IBM water lab off the coast of Wollongong. Thanks to classic films like Deep Blue …
Homesick (Cassandra Atherton)
Every second Saturday you go home. You still call it home. Like a homing pigeon. Even though your home is now with me. Your instinct is always to head …
Mother and Son (Stuart Barnes)
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings That then I scorn to change my state with kings —Shakespeare _ Mid-December 1994. Recently I’d turned 17; my parents had …
The old, old story (John Clanchy)
Spring in Paris. It was the spell cast by the words themselves which had drawn her there. Which had led her to squander on airfares and a cheap hotel the …
Highway One (Caroline Reid)
The husband was half asleep when he felt the car slowing. He opened his eyes to see a tall man in a funny hat rushing towards them, arms hanging loosely …
Cherry Bomb (Cassandra Atherton)
I wished it were a phantom pregnancy. I prayed I was really Christine and had been impregnated by the Angel of Music. Or the ghost of Gaston Leroux. Not you. …
Blurred Impressions
(Callie Doyle-Scott)
I wish I could say that I had a plan. But when I eventually decided to say something… it was as if the awkwardness in my gut dissolved and carried …