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

The Casket of Fictional Delights

Brooches Podcasts Stories

Doll Man

by Alyson Faye

Flash Fiction Curious, Playful

“Mummy!  Look what I’ve found.”Amy tugs impatiently at her mum’s sleeve, while Janey taps on her iPhone.
“In a minute. Just let me finish.”
Amy shrugs, skips back to her ‘discovery’, pokes it then pulls at the filthy trousered leg. It jerks. The white plastic bag, wrapped around the bony fingers, floats upwards. Tugging to escape, in the skin slicing January winds. Amy, pink cheeked, rearranges the man’s fingers, so he can better hold the cup of tea she pretends to present to  her ‘guest.’
“Nice cup of tea Mister, that’ll warm you up.” She’s noticed how cold the man’s hand feels.  ‘Proper chilled.’  as her Nan would say.  “Nippy at this time of year Mister.” Amy parrots the words Janey had tossed at the neighbour earlier. “Here’s my scarf”’ She unwraps her fleecy scarf, carefully wrapping it around the man’s neck, like her mum does for her. Amy pats his shoulder. “That’ll warm you up.”
She wonders what else she might do to help. Regretfully she peels off her furry red mittens, a gift from her Nan. Nan’s always saying it’s good to help others. Amy gently pulls the man’s dirty fingers into her mittens. Her eye falls on the undone laces of his solo trainer.
“I’m not very good at laces, but Mummy says I need to practise more.” Amy pokes out her tongue, concentrating. “…over and under..one loop….oops, nearly..” she mutters.
Her guest wears a cap which covers the top half of his face. Amy can only see his lips. They look blue. It seems rude to lift his cap when he’s having a sleep, but she really wants to see his eyes. He hasn’t moved at all. Trying to be bold, Amy reaches out towards the cap’s brim.
“Come on Amy it’s time to go.” Janey shouts.
Amy hovers, uncertain, pats his shoulder.
“Bye Mister. See you tomorrow.” She crawls out from under the slide, turning her face towards her Mummy, she waves happily. Mitten-less.
Only the plastic bag bobs a goodbye.

  •  
  •  
  •  

About Alyson Faye

Alyson lives in West Yorkshire with her family, including 4 rescue animals. She teaches creative writing classes and works part time as an editor/proof reader. She is one of the writers in ‘Women in Horror Annual 2’, (2017) and 2018's 'DeadCades' and 'Trembling with Fear' (2018). Her flash fiction can be read widely online at TubeFlash, zeroflash, Horror Tree, Horror Scribes, Coffin Bell journal, Ellipsis 2 and in several Siren's Calls ezines. Her debut collection of flash, 'Badlands' is available to buy on amazon.  She loves noir films. Alyson Tweets @AlysonFaye2 Alyson has an Amazon Page 
Visit Alyson Faye on the web

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

News

Christmas is Coming

We are gearing up for Christmas here at The Casket.  We have two stories by Morgan Parks  in December

A Bigger Tree Each Year

Lucky Elf

And the Brooch of the Month comes from Estonia.

Don't to forget to let us know what you think of all our stories and our brooches  @casketfiction.

 

Check out other short stories on The Casket of Fictional Delights

The Goldsmiths' Fair

Journeys through Jewellery

Rue Pigalle designs women-only trips around the world, for intimate groups of art, jewellery and culture lovers.  Isabelle describes herself as having three passions; jewellery, art and craftsmanship. She takes her clients on journeys of discovery around the world, destinations include Paris, Barcelona and New York.  There are trips to London planned in 2020 and as a prelude Isabelle asked me to write two pieces on this year’s Goldsmiths’ Fair. Followers of my Brooch of the Month blog will know I regularly visit and shop at the Goldsmiths’ Fair, so I was delighted to take up the challenge and report back all the highlights for readers of Rue Pigalle.

Goldsmiths' Fair Week One

Goldsmiths' Fair Week Two

Tweetings

  • RT @MennaBonsels: Enjoy Christmas short stories by @MorganJParks And look for the podcast of Lucky Elf, read by @ajacksonbond https://t.co/TKsVU9ooRK, 21 hours ago
  • Sunset from our balcony. #relaxing #sunset https://t.co/B1ROvFadbF, Dec 3
  • I have spent 2 days of my holiday trying to make @VodafoneUK work crappie service all they have done is increase my traif and it still doesn't work , Dec 2
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 to delight!
  • The Casket on Facebook
  • The Casket on Twitter
  • The Casket on Pinterest

Text & stories © Joanna Sterling 2019
Stories © various authors
Audio by Menna Bonsels
Maintained by Brighton WebTech
Brooch photography by Mark Colliton