Kelita Sim

“Weight and Glory” by Kelita Sim

Submitted to Contest #252

TW: Eating disorders, death, griefBody heat doesn’t produce any benefits inside an anglican church on a balmy spring morning. The pews are packed with mourners, cladded in black felt, rocking in their seats with chill and grief. I’m unsure which emotion is stronger as I stuff a hand into my coat pocket, scraping it against the sharp paper folded inside. I try looking upwards to stop my spinning head from swandiving between my legs.I am faint again. I am crashing again. I haven’t eaten anything again.The outer corners of mouth feel tacky but ...

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“Kindle” by Kelita Sim

Submitted to Contest #234

“We have all the time in the world.” Without a word, she revolves in place with hands on hips, elbows jutting and lips puckering. As her eyes glare down at our bodies adorned with lingerie and filigree, I imagine her brain firing up all over again. The blasé comment is a fatal mistake, offered up by the trust fund teenager, in a moment far from optimistic. If the teenager had taken a second to read...

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“Best Practises” by Kelita Sim

Submitted to Contest #230

Newspapers are very handy. You can do a lot with such a humble item:1. Reading:Of course, you can read them – if you’re that way inclined. Personally, I've never found the appeal of sitting on your backside all day and shuffling through just to make unsolicited commentary especially about people’s lives, and things that aren’t your business or in your control. But I digress...2. Pack delicate items:I may not read the paper for news, but I do watch the local news channel every...

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“The Commune” by Kelita Sim

Submitted to Contest #229

These days, I avoid drama, crowds, and confrontation. I avoid them like the plague.Because here, drama, crowds and confrontation only ever lead to either a fight or what I call a “rush”.All lead to injury. And I’m terrified of being injured - again.The last and only time I was injured was the worst time of my life. The injury itself and the memory of what happened before and after still haunts me. I’m terrified that if I get caught up in another rush or brawl, and get hurt again, I’ll have to relive that day over. It’...

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“Love (...and other drugs)” by Kelita Sim

Submitted to Contest #227

“I don’t want to hang up.”“I know, me neither”.She flipped over on her stomach and indulged for a guilty moment in the idea that she was in some pathetic romcom (her least favourite film genre) where the girl gets all giggly and restless whilst phoning her guy.Her feelings for him and his for her were deep. It had been admittedly an incredibly fast and perhaps reckless love.*For years, they’d been within each other's radar due to sharing mutual friends. They'd grazed shoulders at student bars and partici...

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“The G.O.A.T” by Kelita Sim

Submitted to Contest #209

That boy gives me no rest. But he will not wear me down. I will seek him, I will find him and I will kill him.Dare I say he is worse than those uncircumcised men! Those uncircumcised men, who are like a plague that won’t die, like a nightmare that won’t end. They just keep coming back. Honestly, no sooner we send them galivanting back across the desert to Gath, no sooner they come right back for more. Either they’re gluttons for punishment, deluded or they need to fire their advisors.They underestimate ...

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“Dressed in Pink Seeing Red” by Kelita Sim

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #207

The house at the end of Beverley is enthroned with pink blossom trees. From the outside alone, a pale bricked driveway swept clean, I can tell this household likes to keep everything in order. Spring shivers through the branches as I bring my own ride, an ergonomic budget-friendly hatchback, to a stop. I wonder, gazing through the window if the party’ll be hosted outside.Spring is my favourite season, but sadly, it’s incredibly temperamental. I have vivid memories of enduring outdoor functions whereby all four seasons fo...

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“Your Reputation Precedes You” by Kelita Sim

Submitted to Contest #198

The headteacher doesn't look up from his desk. He has a MacBook on his left, and a cup painted with watercolour cats on his right. He stabs at the keyboard, one key at a time, staring intently into the screen behind a pair of bug-eyed spectacles. He slurps the tepid tea and stabs, slurps and stabs, then curses quietly when the computer lets out its own explicit at his data entry misstep.His visitor watches him from the opposite end of the room, hidden in the shade of a banana leaf plant, her brown eyes taking him in, in ...

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“A Misguided Memoir” by Kelita Sim

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #163

“A man’s pursuit for wealth and fame is his greatest downfall”What a statement! I hear you exclaim. Please know, dear reader, I’m not intentionally trying to rustle feathers. I’m not trying to make a name for myself and become known for my thinking like the great Aristotle. No, I’m a simple man making a, quite frankly, obvious observation.Although I am now old and suffering from “disease in my legs” (the physician insists it is gout), spending my latter years prostrated on my bed, I ha...

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“Prodigal” by Kelita Sim

Submitted to Contest #151

The car is covered in plastic but the driver doesn’t address my masklessness. He reapplies his own, cordially, and through the rear-view mirror, asks me with smiling eyes where I want to go.I try to recall the address but the familiar sights of the oak-lined avenues and feeling of stiffness after a four-hour journey generate an automated answer.“Home,” I say.“Ah,” his brightness is muted by his facemask. He glances at my luggage contaminating his plastic sheets with dried mud and probably the COVID virus; must be nice...

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“One Day” by Kelita Sim

Submitted to Contest #147

TW: GriefWe lie, wide awake, spooning in bed and listen with frustrated envy to our younger neighbours putting their mattress to work on the other side of the wall. It’s not lost on me how ironic it is that their lovemaking intrudes on our own. The sounds are so distracting that I feel physically exhausted just listening and suddenly the wild night we’d both planned doesn’t feel so appealing anymore.“I’m sorry,” I sigh hugging Santi’s arms wrapped around my soft middle, “I just…can’t. Not with that <...

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“Of Vice and Kinsmen” by Kelita Sim

Submitted to Contest #142

As Amina’s eyes zip down to the next row of paperbacks and finally locate the correct section, she ironically fails to notice the squatting man browsing through the lower shelf. The man barely loses balance, but his grumbling unsettles Amina. She snatches the recommended book and backs out of the narrow aisle, profusely apologising. Feeling flustered, she presses the novel against her chest and slides into the view of the front desk’s library assistant. She has fortunately bagged the last copy.Why is my heart beating so fast?!<...

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“Rendezvous” by Kelita Sim

The queue provides the perfect excuse for Malika to return to her Toyota, take the forty-minute ride back to her maisonette and keep her reputation in check. She thinks about sliding out from between two pairs of loved up couples and returning to her life of modesty and mundaneness. But if she does that, she’s proving him right, isn’t she?If she backs out now, she’s letting him win. And she’s not going to let him win.Not today, not this time.I’m staying; she resolves, shutting down her introverted mind. Pus...

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“Deviation” by Kelita Sim

Submitted to Contest #132

The family of three (minus Caleb’s wife, who had booked a solo all-day retreat last minute without telling her husband) rattled through the turnstile after the holiday club rep Carmita as she signalled the direction of the activity pool and facilities.“Be quick,” she warned, in accented English, and tapped on her Casio as Caleb steered his family towards the changing room, “the swimming has already started.”The family changing room was completely empty, much to Caleb’s relief. With a huge sigh, he allowed the luggage he’d ma...

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“The Gift That Keeps On Sounding” by Kelita Sim

I jerk awake from my stupor and feel it coming on fast.There’s this bizarre transition from total peace and dormitory to vivid awakening. An awakening so sudden and vicious enough to gatecrash a pleasant dream, slap consciousness back into the body and set off all the internal system’s alarm bells that something is very very wrong.As I come to, swaddled like Baby Jesus in layers of tartan blankets, sandwiched toastily between two other dosing relatives, I feel it tear through my innards and explode acro...

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