Short Stories for Idle Moments: A Collection of 20 Short Stories Written with Brevity in Mind and a Sting i

By Michael Madden

Here is a new voice in short story telling. Tales with an ending that will lead readers into the domain of the unexpected.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jan 15, 2015
• ISBN: 9781483546322

Book preview

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The Park

So, I’m taking my walk. My normal morning walk through O’Connor Park. There’s a path, narrow and poorly maintained. It runs diagonally through the park from south-west to north-east. I’ve asked the council on three occasions to widen the path but, of course, there are insufficient funds for such a trivial need. It’s so narrow, in fact, that when someone is coming towards you, an arbitrary decision needs to be made. A spontaneous decision: which one of us is going to walk on the grass to make way for the other.

Anyway, I’m taking my walk. It’s a beautiful spring morning. You get the scene: birds twittering, swooping across the trees, light breeze ruffling the branches of the trees, sunshine (it’s about 6:30), not too many people walking yet. I sense that I’m the only one who takes some kind of interest in my health. You know, regular walk, dietary controls. Want to live longer if I can. I take notice of my doctor and those tv programmes that ramble on about our appalling health standards these days. The ones with the plethora of junk-food ads wedged in between all the good facts about