Jen Harvey

The street is crowded. So many people they merge into a blur. Just a flow of shapes.
Save for the boy.
Small still. Only three, perhaps four. He’d be invisible among the mass if it weren’t for the balloon.
A bright yellow thing, bobbing on a string. Trailing behind him in the crowd as his mother drags [...]

Posted on January 28th, 2010 under Fiction, Fiction 500 words or less. Tags: Fiction, SHort Short Story. Comments: None

Sometimes she can still hear it. The rush of air that swept through the station that morning.
Everyone had blinked and taken a step backwards as the train powered through.
And as they blinked, he jumped. The train coming to halt five hundred meters up the line.
Later, the driver explained that he hadn’t even seen [...]

Posted on October 15th, 2009 under Fiction. Tags: Fiction, Short Story. Comments: None

Last year our neighbourhood was terrorised by a lovelorn blackbird.
All through spring and deep into summer, this optimistic little minstrel would perch on the edge of our building and sing his heart out, in the hope of attracting a mate.
He sang for months. All summer long. But in vain. For despite the most elaborate [...]

Posted on March 23rd, 2008 under Amsterdam, Miscellaneous Musings. Tags: Fiction, Short Story. Comments: None

Lottie was my grandmother’s friend.
As a child her name confused me. To my ear, Lottie was the sort of name you would give your favourite doll. A chirpy, foolish sort of name. Giggly and frivolous.
So when I first met her, I was shocked to discover that Lottie was in fact an old woman.
She [...]

Posted on March 14th, 2008 under Fiction. Tags: Fiction, Real Life Observations, Short Story. Comments: None

I’m currently taking part in a little writing group online that sets a monthly challenge to write a story of 200 words or less on a set theme.
Each month we vote on the best one and the winner gets to pick the next month’s topic.
The first topic was (appropriately enough) entitled “The First Time”
This [...]

Posted on June 20th, 2006 under Fiction. Tags: Fiction, Short Story. Comments: 2

Richard
I woke up today and started thinking about Jane. Little things about her that I loved.
Like when she read, she would always pause for thought, then go back and re-read whatever passage it was that had held her attention. Savouring it, sometimes whispering the words as though she needed to take them off the [...]

Posted on April 23rd, 2006 under Fiction. Tags: Fiction, Short Story. Comments: 1

She could feel Katie hovering around, pretending to be doing something. Making out that she hadn’t noticed the box, the gold ribbons, the silver paper, her secret activity in the corner of the room.

Until curiosity and impatience won out as usual.

“Is that for me?”

“Yeah.”

“Can I see it?”

“No! It’s a surprise.”

Posted on April 4th, 2006 under Fiction. Tags: Fiction, Short Story. Comments: None

There was a sign by the door. A small blue enamelled metal plaque. One of the corners had cracked, and a crust of rust had started to flake about it.

Judy stared at it, trying to imagine whoever it was that had placed that sign there, so straight and perfect. She wondered what they would think if they were to see that rusting corner now. Would they be disappointed, try to repair it, take it down and replace it with a perfect, fresh new one?

She would leave it as it was. She liked the sign, liked that small imperfection. It made the door less intimidating.

Posted on March 17th, 2006 under Fiction. Tags: Fiction, Short Story. Comments: 1

I don’t think too often about Sarah.

Some thoughts are best left alone. Think about them too often and you end up haunting yourself. End up becoming your own tormentor.

Sarah was eight when she drowned.

A hot summer day by the river thirty years ago.

My father had put together a makeshift swing which swung out over the water in a great loop. A piece of sturdy rope was all it was really, slung over the outrstetched branch of a willow tree.

We’d played there all summer, whooping and cheering as we lunged out over the water, daring each other to swing faster and higher. To make intrictate loops and twists with each leap.

Posted on February 25th, 2006 under Fiction. Tags: Fiction, Short Story. Comments: None