Ian Craine

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Oct, 2024

Stories (7)

7 Stories

133 karma pts

?

“We Are All Works in Progress” by Ian Craine

Submitted to Contest #289

   WE ARE ALL WORKS IN PROGRESS There is little in us that has been there from the start. Our cells are forever changing so that after a few years nothing is the same as it once was. So perhaps it’s not surprising that who we think we are changes over similar time scales. There are so many levels, from passing fashion to deep half subconscious identity. I am an only child. Just about. My parents met before the War. A note for later generations. When old gits like me talk about “the War” they mean what is more generally known ...

1 comment 1
Read story

“Sister Breda of the Carmelites” by Ian Craine

Submitted to Contest #288

     SISTER BREDA OF THE CARMELITES That afternoon I drove south. At lunchtime I had touched base with that windy desolate coast, and I saw the great white ball that is Sizewell B. It was a dismal day. The air was full of threat and portent. By three the sky was a bruise of blue and green and purple, and the darkness was closing in on it. Leaving the shore I saw a last church white against the sky and there was a corposant adhering to its steeple. This alone may I save, said some Lord. The wind got up. A strand of po...

2 comments 2
Read story

“When Night Again Meets Day on Equal Terms” by Ian Craine

Submitted to Contest #286

TILL NIGHT AGAIN MEETS DAY ON EQUAL TERMS On those days the water returned. It bounced and flowed across the wild grasses. It pounded the old stone wall. Spume and spray rose into the air. The grassy twiggy abodes of the nesting birds were washed away, and the rats were swept under the promenade to enter the piping and the inner runnels of the old houses. That night I looked across the water to the dim lights of Bagillt, far away and crouching on the shoreline. Now a man could swim all the way to Wales. It happened twice a year. I turned bac...

6 comments 6
Read story

“The Times of Remembering, The Times of Forgetting” by Ian Craine

Submitted to Contest #285

  THE TIMES OF REMEMBERING, THE TIMES OF FORGETTING Memories like islands now in the silted waters of his mind. He remembers the times of remembering. The child who could not but remember when there was so much to learn. The sight of the green leaves of summer on a perfect smudgeless blue sky. The sound of grinding metal from the goods railway at the bottom of the road. The smell of soapy sticky tar new pasted on the road. Then the teenager sitting in smoky Kardomah basements forcing a coffee to last two hours. And the young adult ...

2 comments 2
Read story

“The Man Upstairs” by Ian Craine

Submitted to Contest #284

                         THE MAN UPSTAIRS Patricia divorced me last month. She said I was a wastrel and was not good enough in bed to compensate. I needed money and I needed a holiday. I could just about afford Ireland. A mate who ran pubs in Central London came from a small place in County Limerick; I’d been there a few times and decided to revisit, reckoning on a bit of judicious gambling. An oxymoron perhaps- Patric...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Once Upon A Time in the Watford Gap” by Ian Craine

Submitted to Contest #279

            ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WATFORD GAPArmitage left Towcester behind, and the empty centre of England opened itself to him. It was a fine evening. On his left the sky was still aflame, scored with parallel bands of blue and yellow and red. It was if the light had been refracted through a giant spectroscope. Then the yellow smudged the red and they all fell down the sky together until nothing was left but a variegated blue, and a red aureole of fire on the far horizon. Then ...

3 comments 3
Read story

“I Columbine” by Ian Craine

Submitted to Contest #277

                             I COLUMBINE It started like they all did before time immemorial, handed down to awe and fear and shock. A liminal creature from the nether world, and known as Hellequin. He preyed on girl childs caught on the turn. Their fathers fretted at the change in them. While he, alone or with others, wandered the limits of ancient villages seeking his semi-willing victims. I have ...

2 comments 2
Read story

Author bio

Ian Craine has not written a bio yet!