a cast of characters

Tales From The Town #55: The Worst Idea Ever

Thermometer racing. That was their new game. The four of them had all spent this week’s pound on a thermometer each and now they were home they left them in the sun so they could play this new sport they’d just invented where your thermometer had to beat their thermometers to the highest temperature of the day (while also accruing points for reaching significant milestones along the way).

Thermometer racing. They all agreed this game wasn’t just the worst game ever but the worst idea ever too. The worst idea any of them had ever had. The greatest waste of their money and their time and their lives and an entire Saturday ever ever ever.

Thermometer racing. Even the name was awful. They’d said thermometer so many times by now it made them all feel sick but still they couldn’t stop saying it because they were trapped in some delirium loop now, too furious to stop.

Thermometer racing. The only thing about it they couldn’t agree on was whose idea it was in the first place. The arguments about that, at least, were worth every penny.

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Notes:

1. Written on 3rd August, 2021

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Tales From The Town #54: Pollen Days

Even in the sealed confinement of her room, Tina sneezed and sneezed. She could not stop.

It hardly seemed fair. All these tears and she wasn’t even sad. At least the sound of the others playing on the swing outside helped her write some of the most furious poetry in her collection.

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Notes:

1. Written on the 3rd of August, 2021

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Patreon subscribers get not just early access to content and also the occasional gift, but also my eternal gratitude. Which I'm not sure is very useful, but is certainly very real.

(Ko-fi contributors probably only get the gratitude I'm afraid, but please get in touch if you want more).

Thank you!

Tales From The Town #52: Don’t Tell Me That I Am Free

The moon sets beyond the sea. The sun rises above the hills. Yet here were are, trapped forever beneath the unbreachable ceiling of the sky.

Selene has tried so many times not to look, but there she is again, watching and weeping at the turning of the moon.

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Notes:

1. Written on the 8th and 9th of June, 2021
2. The title is taken from Blown-out Joy From Heaven’s Mercied Hole by A Silver Mt. Zion.
3. This story marks the end of “Winter”
4. Which ran from Tale #28 to Tale #52
5. While “Summer” ran from Tale #1 to Tale #27
6. They have long seasons in the town
7. And very little in between

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Support An Accumulation Of Things

If you like the things you've read here please consider subscribing to my patreon or my ko-fi.

Patreon subscribers get not just early access to content and also the occasional gift, but also my eternal gratitude. Which I'm not sure is very useful, but is certainly very real.

(Ko-fi contributors probably only get the gratitude I'm afraid, but please get in touch if you want more).

Thank you!

Tales From The Town #51: Puddles

Sudden sun for a whole weekend marks the unexpected end of this long unceasing winter, and by Monday morning, all that remains of this entire season’s crop of snow are puddles dotted here and there on the street and in the road. And when the children walk to school, one by one, beneath the gleeful stamping of their boots, they too will soon be gone.

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Notes:

1. Written between June 9th and June 15th, 2021

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Support An Accumulation Of Things

If you like the things you've read here please consider subscribing to my patreon or my ko-fi.

Patreon subscribers get not just early access to content and also the occasional gift, but also my eternal gratitude. Which I'm not sure is very useful, but is certainly very real.

(Ko-fi contributors probably only get the gratitude I'm afraid, but please get in touch if you want more).

Thank you!

Tales From The Town #50: Stop Motion

On his desktop a spaceship. In the spaceship a man. And against a backdrop of stars, formed from dust on an old black t-shirt pinned to his wall, this spaceship moves slowly through space, one photograph at a time, taken painstakingly over hours, days, weeks of his life, waiting there on his camera to be assembled into motion.

Animation was as slow as David’s life. Played back, weeks reduced to seconds, it gave the impression of motion. But in fact there was no movement at all.

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Notes:

1. Written in May 2020
2. Almost a year before I actually started stop motioning
3. Unstoppably

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Support An Accumulation Of Things

If you like the things you've read here please consider subscribing to my patreon or my ko-fi.

Patreon subscribers get not just early access to content and also the occasional gift, but also my eternal gratitude. Which I'm not sure is very useful, but is certainly very real.

(Ko-fi contributors probably only get the gratitude I'm afraid, but please get in touch if you want more).

Thank you!