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The Casket of Fictional Delights

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Night Wait

by Fanni Suto

Flash Fiction Melancholic, Restless

The thick, starless night enveloped the lonely figure with the smell of autumn, the season of mists. He didn’t know how long he’d been waiting in the abandoned bus shelter, he wasn’t even quite sure why he was there. He felt like a forgotten, unfinished rhyme. The world was stirring around him, time slipped through his fingers and melted into the landscape. The horizon lay dark and coldly wet as if a colour-blind artist had washed away the lines with grey water colour. Puddles of light trembled on the ground, hinting at street lamps hiding in the fog. Wind passed through the creaks of the shelter, but it felt so quiet and soft as if it hadn’t really been there. The bus stop was bleak and empty; there were no tags, ads or government propaganda, not even a time table. He thought about going home, but realised he didn’t know where he lived. It wasn’t the realization that scared him, but the fact that he was so nonchalant about it. As if it was no big deal. He hadn’t even noticed that his name, his details and his memories had all slipped away from him during the endless hours of waiting. A little later, two swaying light cones split the stirring darkness. A bus rolled into the stop; its long black and white body reminiscent of a stork. Its door opened with a grunt. The driver’s form melted into the night, he seemed nothing more but a living shadow. Trinkets jingled on the rear-view mirror: a coin with a hole in the middle, a plastic boat and a worn Pluto plushie. The driver greeted his only passenger with a nod, then he started the engine and the bus melted into the misty dawn.

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About Fanni Suto

Fanni is a writer in her mid-twenties. She writes in Hungarian and English; poems, flash fiction and countless unfinished novels. She tries to find the magical in the everyday and likes to spy on the secret life of cities and their inhabitants.
Visit Fanni Suto on the web

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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

 

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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.

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