Longlist – 2026 Gooseberry Pie Annual Writing Competition
by Bronwen Griffiths
He was mad because the van had broken down and what was worse, it was just out of guarantee, and worse, only yesterday he’d given up smoking because the doctor said he must and he wasn’t sure if he could do that after fifty years and he was feeling it bad and his wife didn’t understand because she had never smoked and he wanted a biscuit to help him out but there were none in the house. His wife said if he wanted a biscuit he could damned well walk down to the shop and buy a packet and she also said, in that sarcastic voice she sometimes used, that biscuits aren’t healthy, that he’d get diabetes if he swapped cigarettes for biscuits and don’t forget tonight is our non-alcohol night and when he heard all this he didn’t know how he’d get through, or even if he would get through. His wife called the breakdown man but when the guy came, he said the van couldn’t be fixed and it would have to be towed to the dealership miles away and that couldn’t happen for another two weeks, and he felt like getting a sledgehammer and smashing the van windows. He didn’t. Afterwards it rained, hard as stones. But at twilight the clouds vanished, and the rooks flew up from the big oak tree to play in the wind and he watched them until it grew dark, and the music of their flight was beautifully soothing.
Bronwen Griffiths writes flash fiction and novels. Her work has been widely published, and her new novel, Longshore Drift has recently come out. She lives in East Sussex, UK.
Photo Credit: Blin on Unsplash
