Previous 24-hour Fiction Pieces

Current piece is live at:
https://medium.com/@ursula.hoult/24-hour-fiction-3e2183949372

• Aug 20, 2018: I have one in my backpack
  He had rolled the ankle earlier in the day in the soft jungle soil, trying to step away from a snake, which turned out to be only a slightly curvy stick.
• Aug 19, 2018: The Stars were Shining Brightly
  She stared. She stared as long as she could before her eyes started watering, and she had to blink away the moisture.
• Aug 18, 2018: A Guardian Angel in Training
  The newest angel winced as they came with inches of a nose-to-tail, and in an effort at self-preservation gave the driver’s glasses a quick spirit clean.
• Aug 13, 2018: Life in Space
  She had saved for a year to be in this corridor.
• Aug 12, 2018: A world without paper
  Magnificent stories. Stories of all the peoples of all the worlds. How they loved, how they hated. Even how they made hot chocolate
• Aug 11, 2018: Odd Couple — Arthurian — Shoemaker
  Forgetting herself she burst out with “Oh my god, no! That’s disgusting” and immediately started wondering if she felt a little ill.
• Aug 10, 2018: The White List
  The polar opposite of a blacklist, and the right angle of a greylist.
• Aug 9, 2018: Look what you made
  After all, the book had said, “delight the senses, count them all and for each one plan how to deliver that delight.
• Aug 8, 2018: Jolly Green Giant
  He’d even offered to juggle the oranges she was carrying
• Aug 7, 2018: A kind gesture
  They say it’s the simplest things that make a difference. A smile when you’re down. A coin when you’re hungry. A chair when you’re tired.
• Aug 6, 2018: Remorse — Cuban — Nomad
  And now in the final countdown of the cancerous cells, he’d allow himself to open the box and start each day with the finest Cuban cigar.
• Aug 2, 2018: Vengeance (Kindred) — Dying — Bulldozer
  Threats were muttered. Lawyers names invoked. And normally that would be enough. But then came the hemlock in the tea.
• Jul 29, 2018: Supernatural occurrence — Amazon — University
  That was the first time I’d seen her. She had been standing by the desk next to me, looking startled. As though she had no idea why she was here.
• Jul 27, 2018: Revolt — Urban — Library
  …but she fell silent and looked down at her feet, then back up at him. “ I don’t remember the rest” she said sadly.
• Jul 26, 2018: Reunion — Royal — Garden
  …one small cutting, stolen in the dusk before closing, at the Kensington Palace gardens all those years ago.
• Jul 23, 2018: Healing journey — Enlightened — Mask
  So she’d gone home from work, washed off the mask she wore each day and caught the train out to the old hall where the course was being held.
• Jul 21, 2018: Abduction — Da Vinci — Construction Zone
  A second message arrived. It was a picture of The Last Supper with red lettering “Bring it to us, or bad things happen”.
• Jul 20, 2018: Disaster — Zulu — Insects
  The bodies of the dead were piling up and still the wave kept coming. Dancing and drowning themselves in the fresh syrup.
• Jul 19, 2018: Self-sacrifice — Royal — Fish
  If only the land collapse had not taken place. If only the chicken flu had not proved quite so deadly. If only people liked tofu a little more than they did.
• Jul 16, 2018: Odd Couple — Ivy League — Fishing boat
  I might not have told him” I admitted. The older man nodded companionably beside me, as though young men in shiny shoes told him this every day.
• Jul 15, 2018: Fish out of water — Saharan — Farm
  The business reporter was covering a complicated story involving a big name fast food chain and a small duck.
• Jul 14, 2018: Self preservation — Ghetto — Bus
  Giving off a scary person aura, so that muggers chose someone else on the morning walk to the bus stop. Wondering whether the electricity would still be on when you got home.
• Jul 13, 2018: Conflict with a god — Utopian — Hotel lobby
  …you now had to figure out how to explain that Zeus, the lusty little god, was still alive and well in the world, sometimes in swan form, arranging Tinder dates.
• Jul 12, 2018: Remorse — Prehistoric times — Samurai
  But let’s roll with it. Fearsome, scary samurai dude. With a sword. And he’s shouting at the giant wombat.