• Browse
  • Home
  • Stories
  • Brooches
  • Competitions
  • Podcasts
  • About The Casket
  • About Joanna

The Casket of Fictional Delights

Brooches Podcasts Stories

Bubble

by Katy Wimhurst

Flash Fiction Playful, Thought-provoking

In the park, she watched it float up and up, the largest bubble she’d ever seen. A massive orb glinting with hints of rainbow colours. She couldn’t work out where it had come from. This didn’t surprise her. She had little idea of many things these days. A few years back, so much had seemed clearer. Now the world fell on her in an odd way. And today she was in the park, watching an enormous bubble drift into the sky.
“Bubble,” said a voice. The woman turned to see a man with white hair and a bearded collie on a lead. ‘Bubble,” he said again, as if making sure the word sounded real.
“Yes.” She offered him a gentle smile.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I mean, you don’t always know…”
“You don’t.”
They both stared up at the bubble. It was high now, moving across the face of a cloud.
“Only came to the park on a whim today. Normally walk the dog by the river. Now I’ve seen the bubble,” he said.
“You have.”
“Sounds silly, but I don’t want it to vanish from view. Ever,” he said.
“It will.”
“I know. I don’t want it to.”
“No.”
They stretched their heads back, gazing. The bubble got smaller and smaller, shrinking to a dot in the sky.
“Imagine. Something so big, improbable, marvellous, becomes…a point in the distance,” he said.
“That’s perspective,” she said.
“That’s everything,” he said.

  •  
  •  
  •  

About Katy Wimhurst

Katy studied social anthropology, then did a PhD on Mexican Surrealism. She’s worked in publishing and had fiction published in ezines and magazines, including Bust Down the Doors and Eat All the Chickens, Theguardian.com, Café Irreal, GlassFire, Serendipity and DogVersusSandwich. She won the Tate Modern short story competition.

You’ve reached the end of this story. Please do explore further. And if you’re feeling generous today, donate to The Casket and help keep the fictional delights flowing. Want to know when more stories arrive? Make sure you sign up for regular updates.

A little tin-rattle

The Casket is a platform for new, fresh and enjoyable short reads. We don’t receive any grants and your generosity helps us provide FREE accessible ad-free content. Any donation is hugely appreciated. If you would like to contribute, donate by PayPal by submitting your name and an amount.

Sending

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

If you choose to leave a comment on The Casket of Fictional Delights, in addition to the comment you provide we collect a little data, including your IP address, in order to check it isn't spam and to publish the comment. Following approval, your comment text, name and website URL (if provided) are visible to the public. To find out how your data is used, check our Privacy Policy

Everyone at The Casket is hoping 2021 will be a better year than 2020.  We have some great short stories and flash fiction lined up for your delight.  We kick of the year with a story by Lydia Unsworth “The Smallest Boxes” and then for Valentine's we have a story by Dylan Brethour which will also be available as a podcast. Later in the summer we have a new Flash Fiction Summer Collection which will be published online and as podcasts read by Menna Bonsels and Richard Hodder.  We hope you enjoy the stories we have for you and look forward to welcoming you back regularly.

Joanna & The Casket of Fictional Delights Team

 

Help Keep Us Going

Please consider making a donation to The Casket of Fictional Delights.  All content on the website is free and widely available to audiences worldwide.  We do not receive any grants and all our content is Ad free.  The Casket of Fictional Delights specialises in producing high-quality podcasts which are recorded by professional actors/voiceover artists from around the world. We hope you enjoy reading and listening to the stories and finding out about Joanna’s varied brooch collection.

DONATE

Tweetings

  • New Brooch of the Month from The Casket of Fictional Delights - https://t.co/X6qktSMZxL, Jan 23
  • Best #brooch of the month, love it, now where can I buy one to add to my collection https://t.co/b4wFYvFVx5, Jan 21
  • RT @lena_valentin_: ❤️🐈🐾❤️🐾🐈 Meet Emily 🐈! Eli found her 2 days ago in an empty hotel area. Emily is super beautiful and very sweet. Little Emily is looking for a forever home 🏡. Please retweet and help Emily finding a loving home. ❤️🐈❤️🐈❤️🐈 #cats #CatsOfTwitter #Eliscats #AdoptDontShop https://t.co/DEctbTZs9R, Jan 15
Follow The Casket on Twitter

Podcasts

Prefer to listen? - from the beginning The Casket of Fictional Delights has specialised in producing high quality podcasts of short stories and flash fiction compilations. The podcasts are recorded by actors and voiceover artists and produced by a professional studio manager ensuring we maintain a consistent high standard. I’ve chosen three to highlight the variety and quality of work we have to offer - visit our Podcast page for more. I hope you enjoy listening to them.

Casket podcast highlights

Listen!

  • Apple Podcasts
  • Android Podcasts
  • Spotify
  • Stitcher
  • Tunein

Sign up for our Newsletter

The Casket of Fictional Delights newsletter delivers the latest story or brooch of the month fresh off the press, and keeps you informed about our competitions and other Casket news periodically.

No spam, ever - and we never use your details for anything but sending your newsletter. You can change your mind at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of any email you receive from us.

View our Privacy Policy

  • Stories
  • Authors
  • Podcasts
  • Brooches
  • Birth of a collection
  • About The Casket
  • About Joanna
  • Liu Xiaobo
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • The Casket on Facebook
  • The Casket on Twitter
  • The Casket on Pinterest

Text & stories © Joanna Sterling 2021
Stories © various authors
Audio by Menna Bonsels
Brooch photography by Mark Colliton
Other photography by Rosie Marks
Maintained by Brighton WebTech