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The Casket of Fictional Delights

Brooches Podcasts Stories

Paper Cuts

by Joanna Sterling

Flash Fiction Disturbing, Thought-provoking

You start at the top right hand corner, taking your time to complete the tear to the bottom. Careful to fit in six tears.  Laying the seven strips in their individual heaps, contamination abhorrent. Once, you started on the left – you said it felt unnatural, disloyal. Flex, elongate the digits before you pick another sheet from the pile on the kitchen table.  A flyer for a mobile hairdresser advertising a ‘wash and set’ at £11.75.  Start again, top right corner.  Irregular size sheets are tricky. Mum has already done two circulars and a postcard of Frinton from Auntie Maeve.  Her method is frantic, rapid and vicious – rip, rip, rip – confetti of squares.

Last week at the back of the cupboard in the Art Room at school you found an abandoned guillotine.  It would do the job in one swipe, a mighty swish down. Severed.  Too quick.  A tear can be slow, jagged, meander, stop – start over again.

When his letter reaches the top of the pile, Mum’s hand hovers and withdraws.  You spin the envelope between your fingers, watch the second class stamp as it turns over and over.  This time you start in the middle, the tear count abandoned.

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About Joanna Sterling

Joanna writes short stories and flash fiction, has had her work published in a number of magazines and anthologies. She lives in London with her ever growing collection of Brooches.

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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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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.

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  • We have had over 90,000 #podcast downloads of our #shortstories and #flashfiction - THANK YOU to all our loyal listeners https://t.co/cn87VLbkVF https://t.co/d4EwrFrB5L, 20 hours ago
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  • A cautionary tale for all my 'cat' friends on Twitter espcially @Elizabe29713381 @OutwoodsCat @KevinScampi @TheStourbridge https://t.co/peiEESwVR9, Apr 14
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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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