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The Casket of Fictional Delights

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Soiled

by Alex Reece Abbott

2017 Flash Fiction Competition Runner-up

PodcastFlash Fiction Historic, Uplifting

The devil’s children live behind big black gates and high stone walls girdled with barbed wire. Seven days a week they work, no clocks, silence enforced. Isolated from the world, windows barred with steel, kept separate from each other to prevent contagion. Behind the heavy, brown door – always locked – it’s airless and hotter than hell. Broken-backed, unwaged, cranking the cast-iron wringers, working the Hoffman presses, the hungry girls purge their sins by washing dirty laundry by hand. Reeking, bloodied butchers’ coats. Grubby Guards’ uniforms. Soiled nuns’ habits. Scrubbing and bleaching stains from the priests’ vestments. Grime and girl are burned by toxic lye. Cleanliness is next to godliness. Dolores knows she’s dirt to them; Satan’s daughter. Shorn bald, the nuns lather her questions and curses, soap her filthy mouth. Batter her for speaking. Crack her head on the convent wall until blood pours. Dump her in a disinfectant bath, then scour away her sins with a floor brush. They say: you’re dirty in thought and deed. We’ve to do this because you’ve the devil inside you. We’ve to rid you of the devil, look what you made us do…

I done nothing wrong, her silent reply.

Dolores escapes. Some creases cannot be ironed out, some stains too stubborn to be shifted. An unrepentant, city heathen, her mind barely tainted, she cuts to let the badness out. Some nights she hears the brown door slam.

She talks so history won’t repeat.

She traces her stolen daughter.

She teaches her about survival.

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Soiled
by Alex Reece Abbott

https://thecasket.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Soiled.mp3

Story read by Remie Purtill Clarke for The Casket of Fictional Delights.

About Alex Reece Abbott

Alex is a Penguin Random House WriteNow finalist and winner in the Irish Novel Fair, Northern Crime, Arvon, Crediton and HG Wells prizes, Alex’s short fiction is a finalist in, among others, the Sunday Business Post/Penguin Prize, Maria Edgeworth, Tillie Olsen, Bridport and Lorian Hemingway prizes. She writes across genres and forms. Alex was a runner up in The Casket of Fictional Delights Flash Fiction competition 2017. Alex tweets @AlexReeceAbbott
Visit Alex Reece Abbott on the web

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Starting in June and through to the end of September  The Casket of Fictional Delights presents more Susan Tate adventures.  Enjoy following a year in the life of Susan Tate the quirky librarian who lives in Canterbury with her cat Charles Dickens written by Joanna Sterling, read by Menna Bonsels and illustrated by Michael N Green.

There are many other short stories and flash fictions available to read and listen to in our Stories and Podcast sections.

Joanna & The Casket of Fictional Delights Team

 

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  • Its July in the life #SusanTate the quirky #librarian who lives in #Canterbury with her #cat ‍⬛#CharlesDickens - Derek has a surprise for Susan's #birthday You can #read or #listen to the story read by @MennaBonsels #free https://t.co/YudZOQtdto https://t.co/oyMBRICsQ4, 10 hours ago
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Text & stories © Joanna Sterling 2022
Stories © various authors
Editing by Joanna Sterling & Alyson Faye
Audio by Menna Bonsels
Brooch photography by Mark Colliton
Other photography by Rosie Marks
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