Our Mary

Donna L Greenwood

Our Mary is sleepwalking again. I tell Mam, but she hisses in the dark, “Go back to bed, don’t wake her up. She’ll be fine.” She flops a dead arm onto the prone flesh of my dad and the pair of them disappear into snores. I climb back into bed and watch my sister whispering to the wall. I can’t make out the words but the growl inside our Mary’s throat prickles the hairs on the back of my neck.

In the morning, I ask Mam why I can’t wake Mary while she’s sleepwalking.“Because she could go into shock and have a heart attack. Just let her be. She’s harmless.”

I’m not so sure. Mary is glaring at me over her cornflakes. When Mam’s not looking, she’ll grab my wrist and twist it, like she does every morning. I think our Mary is the Devil.

At school, she finds me and slides her nails into the soft flesh of my belly. Her breath is hot as she whispers, “Tonight, I’m gunna wait till you’re asleep and then I’m gunna cut your thingy off.” When I look into her eyes, I see an empty black sky.

#

Our Mary’s out of her bed again. She’s facing the wall and spitting out her hoodoos to the shadows. I creep past her and head to my parent’s bedroom. On their bed, I see two mounds shrouded in sheets.

“Mammy,” I whisper, “Our Mary’s at it again.”

The mounds do not move.“Mammy?”

Something is whispering beneath the sheet. I move closer.

“Tommeee. Tommeee.” The mound sits up and the sheet falls. It’s Mam’s face but her eyes are Mary’s eyes.

I run a fast as I can back to my room. Our Mary is still whispering to the wall. I walk around her so I can see her face. Her mouth is opening and closing faster than I’ve ever seen a human mouth move. Harsh, alien words are spewing out from her lips. I look at her eyes. They’re closed. Suddenly, she snaps her head sideways, “Tommy. Tommy. Tommeeee.” My name comes firing from her lips like machine gun fire. She pushes her face into mine and looks directly at me. I slap my hands onto my mouth to stop the scream.

Oh Mary Mary, where did your eyes go?

Our Mary is the Devil. Of this I am quite sure.

I grab her arm and shake her furiously.

“Wake up, Mary. WAKE UP!”

She blinks and looks confused. Her face grows pale and her hand grabs at her chest. She falls down in front of me, her arms flapping by her sides. I wait for Mary’s body to go still and then I put my ear next to her mouth. Only when I hear her last breath putter out, do I walk down the corridor back to my parent’s bedroom. I won’t tell them I woke her, but I will tell them that the Devil is dead.


This story was the winner in the UNCANNY themed flash competition.

About the author: Donna L Greenwood writes flash fiction, short stories and poetry. Her work has been nominated for Best Small Fictions and Best Microfiction. Her debut novelette-in-flash ‘The Impossibility of Wings’ was published by Retreat West Books in June 2021.

Listen to the audio version on our YouTube channel

Volunteer role available – do you want to run our Twitter account?

After a brilliant year with us, sadly Emma can no longer run our Twitter account. We loved having her and will miss her and all her great ideas – she’s the brains behind the new Retreat West Awards and the Flashback Friday revisit of our older stories, among other things. Thanks for everything Emma – we’ll miss you!

So we now have a volunteer role available to take Emma’s place. As well as running the Twitter page, so you’ll need to Twitter savvy and love spending time there, you’ll also get to learn loads about writing through the great stuff we’ll give you in return!

You’ll need to:

  • Schedule and post Tweets to share our news and let people know about our community, our courses and our competitions.
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If this sounds good to you, then mail us at news@retreatwest.co.uk by 5pm on Friday 27th August 2021 letting us know why you’d like to do this and what you can bring to our team!

The Uncanny themed flash shortlist

We’re excited to reveal our shortlist in the latest themed flash competition. Lots of really great stories this time around so our usual shortlist of 10 has 1 extra on it! Well done to everyone who was longlisted and congratulations to the writers of our shortlisted stories. No telling which is yours yet though!

The stories are now with our judge, Ross Jeffrey, to make the final decision.

Shortlist

  • Cravings
  • Edging
  • How I Learnt to Cook
  • How to Become a Wallflower
  • Lillith Comes to Me After I Pray for Wholeness
  • Nesting
  • Our Mary
  • Sister of the Jilted Bride
  • The Outsiders
  • The Search for Oretha Wells
  • The Six

Flash and Micro tips from the 2021 Prize Judges

We’re delighted to welcome Michelle Elvy and Tim Craig to the blog today with some helpful insights into their favourite flashes and micros and what they’re hoping to see from the shortlisted stories they read in this year’s Flash Fiction and Micro Fiction Prize. Amanda Saint asked them both some questions and here’s what they had to say…

Flash Fiction tips from Michelle

What’s the best advice you can give to writers looking to master the flash fiction form?

Take your time – and I mean this in every sense. Take time to let an idea simmer. Take time to examine and re-examine. Take time to see what may evolve, even in a short piece of writing. Take time to edit. Take time to let your own style bubble to the surface. Short does not necessarily mean fast; fast may mean forced. Writing flash is a real kick – but if you’re looking to master the form, learn to slow down and listen to everything about your writing: the rhythm and pacing, the sounds and phrasing. The best writing comes with patience, with letting things unfold more naturally.

From my own experience, I can say that both of my recent books came with short bursts of energy and then long periods during which I stepped back from them and waited for the rhythms to sing out. In ‘the everrumble‘, sound is the central thing that matters, so letting the stories that made up that novel take form, each in their own time, made a big difference to the final version of the book.

Same goes for my new collection, ‘the other side of better‘. Some of those stories are from a while back, and I loved coming back to them to see how they slowly morphed into a shape that fit the book. It’s something I live by: I am not one to rush. And in the case of flash, though it may seem like a bit of fast-paced fun, you can gain quite a lot from allowing yourself a bit of time. I find the short form allows a great deal of space for reflection.

Who inspired you when you started writing flash fictions? What was it about their work that resonated with you?

I’ve loved short stories, and then shorter stories, all my life: the way you can build a whole scene, a relationship, a world in space smaller than, say, a novel. I liked writers who could build something complicated in a small space – Steinbeck’s Cannery Row or The Pearl; Kafka’s Metamorphosis; Grass’ Cat and Mouse. Then, I read Nathalie Sarraute’s Tropisms and was fascinated by the way she moves in abstractions while still capturing something real. All of these examples were doing something new in their time – and that idea of breaking down boundaries seems to have stuck with me from an early age.

Flash fiction, then, was a wonderful new form to come to when I first realised what it was, and started writing it. I liked the constraint combined with the way such a small space makes you think outside the square: you’re in the box and you need to get out of it. I liked the freedom that the form suggests and encourages. I liked the way I had to think about the mechanics of writing alongside ideas. The challenge of form and content was irresistible – and still is.

What kinds of stories do you hope to see when reading the shortlist for the Flash Fiction Prize?


I like stories that push their limits – not by mere gimmick, but with layering and critical thought behind the story on the page. Those are the ones that stick, because you find yourself thinking on different aspects of the story, even after the story has ended. I encourage writers to take risks, to try something different – but again, to see where their own explorations might take them.

And I imagine I’ll be reading stories that speak from a real and resonant voice. Being aware of and developing your own way of writing is very important. Even if you are experimenting, keep true to yourself. Your stories will shine – and those are the ones I hope to read on this short list.

What elements will make a story stand out for you when you read the shortlist?

To start: strong character, memorable setting and mood, excellent attention to detail. Something off-beat and sharp-witted will certainly stand out. The poetic nature of the small form is often the thing that drives it: attention to sounds and rhythms on the page. Language- driven stories can be so moving. Adventurous storytelling, too, as well as sensory awareness and wild imagination. And I’ll mention this too – not as glamorous but certainly as important: the mechanics of how we construct realities on the page in terms of the openings and endings, and all that stuff in between.

There is no one right way to write a good piece of flash – another reason I love the form – but there are many elements that can make a small bit of writing really work. And then, a piece that shines has a special lift to it: something that pulls it right off the page and holds it in the air between you and the reading of it.

Who are your favourite flash fiction writers and what do you like so much about their work?


Too many currently writing to name! But two whose work I admire include George Saunders and Sandra Cisnero, both masters in their own way. I like the dry humour and wit alongside warmth and humanity that both manage so beautifully in their work. In the last few years, I find reading any of the Best Micro Fiction or Best Small Fictions volumes a wonderful lesson in concision – with so many different examples of how to go about writing flash fiction. Just pick up any of those volumes: you will not be disappointed, and you’re guaranteed to learn something new with each read.


Micro Fiction tips from Craig

What’s the best advice you can give to writers looking to master the micro fiction form?

Obviously, I would recommend reading a lot of good micro fiction (start with the annual Best Micro Fiction Anthology, the Wigleaf Top 50 and of course the excellent Retreat West Competition Anthologies! But also I would say read a lot of prose poetry: I know that ugly scenes of violence have been known to break out when writers try to agree on the difference between the two things, but don’t let that put you off.

Who inspired you when you started writing micro fictions?

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Jude Higgins. She encouraged my writing and, in organising and inviting me to the Bath Flash Fiction Festival, she introduced me to an entire community of talented short-short fiction writers I am so happy now to call friends.

What kinds of stories do you hope to see when you read the shortlist?

The kind I’m not expecting. Having read for a few micro competitions of late, I would counsel against the commonest themes; i.e., cancer, dementia, my wise Granny, and Aren’t Men Bastards? I’m not saying don’t do them; it’s just a fact that, for a judge, these kind of stories have to work harder to stand out from the crowd.

Is there a micro fiction you wish you’d written that completely blew you away when you first read it?

So many! But ‘Repair Man’ by Kathy Fish would be right up there. A huge amount going on in the spaces between the words. (Read Kathy’s story here)

Who are your favourite micro fiction writers and what do you like so much about their work?

The waters of micro fiction are teeming with talent. For me, it’s the usual suspects: the mighty Kathy Fish, the legendary Meg Pokrass; also Nuala O’Connor, Christopher Allen, Fiona Mackintosh and Stuart Dybek (check out especially his book, ‘Ecstatic Cahoots.’) Geniuses, all.



Michelle Elvy


Michelle Elvy is a writer and editor based in Aotearoa New Zealand. She is founder of National Flash Fiction Day NZ and Flash Frontier: An Adventure in Short Fiction, and Reviews Editor of Landfall. Her anthology editorial work includes Best Small Fictions (since 2015), Ko Aotearoa Tātou | We Are New Zealand (2020) and Love in the Time of COVID: A Chronicle of a Pandemic, which she is presently curating with Witi Ihimaera. 
Her work has been widely published and anthologized, and her books include the everrumble and a new collection, the other side of better, forthcoming in 2021 from Ad Hoc Fiction.  michelleelvy.com

Tim Craig


Originally from Manchester, Tim Craig lives in London. A winner of the Bridport Prize for Flash Fiction, his stories have placed three times in the Bath Flash Fiction Award and have appeared in both the Best
Microfiction Anthology and the annual BIFFY50 list. He is a
Submissions Editor for Smokelong Quarterly. (Twitter: @timkcraig)

Many thanks to Michelle and Tim. Get reading and then get writing your entries for this year’s prizes! You can win great cash prizes and get published in the annual anthology. See all the info here.

2020 Retreat West Awards – the shortlists!

We are so excited to reveal the shortlisted stories and writers in our first ever Retreat West Awards! We’ve re-read all the flash and micro stories we’ve published online and in our anthologies between August 2020 and July 2021 to choose our winners from.

We’ll be announcing the winners and runners-up in each category at our first Online Flash Fest in September. They’ll get a lovely prize too!

But in the meantime, well done to the writers who appear here! And good luck for the final round of judging.

Best Micro Fiction Title Shortlist

  • ‘If You’re Trying This Hard to Salvage Your Marriage Should You Call it a Crusade?’ By Fiona McKay
  • ‘Pieces of Our Boy’ by Kay Rae Chomic
  • ‘Sad Song of the Backwards Selkie’ by Becky Tipper
  • ‘The Only Way I Can Make Sense of the Word Recovery is to Smash It
    Into Pieces’ by James Montgomery
  • ‘The Significance of Horses in the Dreams of Young Girls’ by Rosie
    Garland

Best Flash Fiction Title Shortlist

  • ‘Diadem Through the Eyes of the Bear’ by Donna L Greenwood in
    The Impossibility of Wings (Homemade Weather anthology)
  • ‘Drowning Hazards in the Traditional Irish Kitchen’ by Tom O’Brien
    in Homemade Weather (Homemade Weather anthology)
  • ‘Love is Many Things, None of Them Logical’ by Hannah Storm (How to Hold an Umbrella anthology)
  • ‘Manslaughter is Muddy Water You Cannot Wash Your Hands With’
    by Ian O’Brien in What The Fox Brings In Its Jaw (Homemade Weather anthology)
  • ‘My Year of Useless Miracles’ by Tom O’Brien in Homemade Weather (Homemade Weather anthology)
  • ‘On the Tideline, A Piano’ by Sam Payne
  • ‘Wormholes, Mushrooms, Silverfish’ by Timothy Boudreau (How to Hold an Umbrella anthology)

Best Micro Fiction Opening Line

  • ‘Marianne awoke to find she’d turned into a washing machine.’ Domestic Appliance by S.A. Greene
  • ‘Afterwards, all Matt could do was smash everything he and Sam had built together.’ The Boy Who Only Ever Wanted to Build Bridges by Anne Howkins
  • ‘Grit on Sonny’s hands conspires with sweat to create tiny diamonds,
    glittering under the prison lighting.’ Bird in Flight by A.Joseph Black
  • ‘A rich man hires me to prevent ghosts from haunting him.’ Ghost Blocker by Andrew Boulton
  • ‘She feels pretty in her sister’s dress, but her father’s look is ugly.’ The
    Weight of Blue by Karen Mitani
  • ‘While my neighbours are at work, I climb the fence and slash their artificial lawn into latticed piecrust.’ How to Sow a Wildflower Meadow March by Keely O’Shaughnessy
  • ‘A still small voice whispered “it’s time to feel wild again”, so I hiked to a
    secluded spot I knew.’ A Still Small Voice by Anna Grimmett
  • ‘Now Tiff won’t stop talking about that bit in Jurassic Park where they
    extract the dinosaur DNA from the insect trapped in amber and I think if
    mama was here she’d tut and say that girl’s got a gob on her.’ Last Week I
    Was Bitten by a Mosquito by Sam Payne
  • ‘At the zoo, my daughter informs me she knows why vampires are so mean, and returns to her ice cream without further comment.’ Without / Without by Nathan Sindelar
  • ‘The border stopping dreams from passing into reality is not as clear-cut as the Dover Lorry Border Patrol.’ Lest We Perish by Kathryn Aldridge-Morris

Best Flash Fiction Opening Line

  • ‘We go to the river, stand on the bank like true girls of summer, our bare legs exposed in bikinis as red as our mother’s lips, our long hair flowing like gypsies.’ Girls of Summer by Sara Hills
  • ‘She ask you if you want to make another baby, taking your left hand and pushing it down the front of her pyjama shorts.’ Buried by Emily Harrison, (How to Hold an Umbrella anthology)
  • ‘My father doesn’t shout, but his voice hurts my head.’ From Loud in
    Homemade Weather by Tom O’Brien (Homemade Weather anthology)
  • ‘He read somewhere that when trees prepare for the winter, they drain the leaves of their nutrients, store them in their roots.’ From The Places We Go When the Winds Blow Cold by Ian O’Brien in What the Fox Brings in its Jaw. (Homemade Weather anthology)
  • ‘The hyenas came for my mother when I was ten years old.’ From In the Night They Will Come For Me by Donna L Greenwood in The Impossibility of Wings. (Homemade Weather anthology)
  • ‘I can see music.’ The Shapes of Sound by Poppy Lyle
  • ‘In Venice I dreamt I was vomiting glass.’ Glass by Louise Watts.

Best Overall Micro Fiction

  • ‘In Which my Botanist Father Becomes a Tree’ by Jo Withers
  • ‘Martha Takes Her First Drive in Frank’s Car’ by Alison Wassell
  • ‘Otoch’ by Fannie Gray
  • ‘Rewilding’ by Alison Wassell
  • ‘Sanctuary’ by Annie Soilleux
  • ‘The Significance of Horses in the Dreams of Young Girls’ by Rosie
    Garland

Best Overall Flash Fiction

  • ‘Buried’ by Emily Harrison (How to Hold an Umbrella anthology)
  • ‘Girls of Summer’ by Sara Hills
  • ‘Glass’ by Louise Watts
  • ‘Riverwater Cistern by Niamh MacCabe (How to Hold an Umbrella anthology)
  • ‘Python Parlari’ by Kathy Hoyle
  • ‘Shapes of Sound’ by Poppy Lyle
  • ‘The Quickening’ by Abi Henning
  • ‘Wormholes, Mushrooms, Silverfish’ by Timothy Boudreau (How to Hold an Umbrella anthology)

The Uncanny themed flash longlist

We have had such fun reading these Uncanny stories! Many weird, tense, and creepy hours have been spent getting our 120 entries down to this longlist of 27 stories.

Many thanks to everyone who entered and well done to the writers of the stories below. As always, no telling which is yours!

Longlist

  • Along for Another Night Flight
  • Balm of Hurt Minds
  • Cracks in the Pavement
  • Cravings
  • Drawn by the Muralist
  • Edging
  • How I Learnt to Cook
  • How to Become a Wallflower
  • Lilith Comes to Me After I Pray for Wholeness
  • Morag, in her garden
  • Mr Piège’s Doll Emporium
  • My lopsided stepson
  • Nesting
  • Our Mary
  • Push/Pull
  • Reflections
  • Sister of the Jilted Bride
  • The Brians
  • The Carnival of Charms and Heidi’s House of Mirrors
  • The Cloakroom
  • The Nail Technician
  • The Outsiders
  • The Search for Oretha Wells
  • The Six
  • Totally Fit
  • Unholy Liberties
  • Vanishing Twin

Good luck everyone! We’ll have the shortlist in August!