The Apocalyptic Four

I’ve been a fan of abstract and surreal art and architecture for many years and I was fortunate to visit Barcelona a while ago and to spend a couple of days admiring several of the works of the great Antoni Gaudi. Some of his buildings are architectural derring do are just truly breathtaking in their audacity.

Recently I have started looking through the photographs that I had taken and started to upload a few to my art website reevephotos.com. Some of the photos I have left in their “natural state” while with others I have felt the urge to create new imagery.

One such image is that of the 4 ventilation chimneys atop the Casa Milà building, constructed between 1906 and 1912. These structures look out over Barcelona from an area of the rooftop known as the Garden of the Warriors.

Given the name and their obvious symbolism, I thought it only fit to also give them a short story too, only 3 sentences long:

They had dismounted and now stood together. Staring intently at the citadel. Was it with menace or indifference?

Let me know what you think of the imagery and/or the accompanying prose.

~Richard

February 15, 2024 0

6 sentence story – Discombobulated

I had a little fun in GIMP today, loading up an image I had taken of an apartment block in the Old City in Montevideo, Uruguay last year and merging it with a desaturated copy slightly out of alignment to give a glitchy effect. I think this was a little inspired from last night’s viewing of the disconcerting TV series, Severance.

Anyhow. I also put together a micro story (six-sentence) to accompany the image, so please let me know what you think!

Despite shaking his head he still couldn’t focus. And the pill hadn’t helped. Where on earth was he? This trip had been particularly bad and now both his realities were out of alignment. He felt in his pocket. That’s odd, he thought, this isn’t my phone.

~Richard

February 4, 2024 0

6 sentence story – The Citadel

The sandstorm had been the last in a long set of challenges, but they had survived it. Now they were close to the Citadel. They had been away so long and through so many adventures. Barely a quarter of the expedition was returning. Would it be a warm welcome back home? They would soon find out what had happened during their absence.

January 14, 2024 0

Haiku ~ The Wedding

Today another Royal couple were created for the House of Windsor (or rather, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, until the political change) and also for the paparazzi. After months of build up we will see further weeks of pictures of the wedding followed by the usual “is she pregnant yet?” speculation for months on end up until the point at least two royal sproglets are dutifully produced to (Royal) Order.

Unsurprisingly, I didn’t watch the wedding, but instead decided to use the opportunity to celebrate the day by restarting my blog (yet again – I’ve been very busy) with the following haiku.

Enjoy, or not, the choice is yours!):

Worldwide coverage.

Amid pomp and vanity,

Privileged couple wed

Having said all this, I obviously wish them all the best for a long and happy future together.

~Richard

May 19, 2018 3

A Game of Perspectives

The King

He looked across his Kingdom to see his opponent in the distance, protected by his foot soldier. I have this covered, he thought to himself smugly. But the carefully planned trap was sprung, and to his horror the Knight bounded across to his left and hemmed him in the Rook’s grasp. It was all over. Checkmate. He slumped and fell to his knees.

The Queen

She stood to the edge of the court and observed her husband’s opponent. He had a smug look on his face, but she would soon end that. How dare he attack their city? She stood tall, clear in the knowledge that she was the most powerful player here. She didn’t even have to move this time. A barely perceptible nod to her Knight and their pre-planned trap was sprung. The color drained from their enemy’s face and he crumpled to his knees, defeated…

The Bishop

To be honest, this was the part of his role he disliked most. He had never really felt comfortable being brought into the battle. It seemed to go against his credo. Then again, the Kingdom had to be defended otherwise all his Good Work could not be continued. This had been a particularly hard fight. Looking at his fallen comrades and his bloodied broadsword he prepared for the next onslaught. Then he saw the Knight gallop towards the enemy in a bold move and suddenly it was over. He had lived to fight another day! But only after he had ministered to the wounded…

~Richard

August 27, 2017 3

Barriers

It was a choice she never wanted to make. In fact, choice wasn’t really the word for it. She had to do it. No-one in their right mind would give up a family, home, lifetime of work, a successful career as an engineer and a middle class job. Unless they had no choice.

She thought back to the ones she had left behind, lost forever to the incessant bombardment. For what? A few square feet of a town that had been raised from the desert over a period of two thousand years, and now razed to rubble and would soon become sand again. That was why she had left. She had no-one left to save but herself.

How ironic that she was now standing on sand again, although this time with the sea foaming between her toes.

She looked up at the fence. So this was what salvation looked like?

~Richard

July 19, 2017 0

A Story – Reflectors

She couldn’t remember when she had first noticed the totem pole. She had just looked up from her dark lonely thoughts one day while walking down the street and seen it. Every day for the next month she had noticed that more items had been added. She didn’t know who was doing this, or when, as she had never seen anyone attaching anything to the lamp post, or even taking much notice of it. It was almost as if she was the only person to see it.

Today was her day, though. She had planned it for a week and finally plucked up courage.
As she twisted the blue beads into the wire she held her breath guiltily.

“Hello,” said a soft voice from behind her, ” I wondered when you were going to add something of your own…”

~Richard

June 7, 2017 0

A Story – Keyhole Figures

It was only a brief vision, but it left him stone cold nonetheless. They had said that early in the morning, when the place was quiet that strange things happened near that door. He had been doing his regular rounds but was a little delayed when he passed the space. Maybe only ten minutes but it made all the difference. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and and a deadening silence as he passed. Glancing over his left shoulder as he walked down the incline he saw the figures quite clearly. A young woman in a shawl and a small boy. They just stared at him as if they were expecting him to be someone else. Their gazes bored into him with longing. He blinked and they were gone, but he shivered and quickened his pace. He made up the ten minutes by the time he reached the end of his rounds. He would definitely not be late again…

~Richard

April 22, 2017 0

A Story – Taken

They’d left him only for a few minutes. He said he was tired so he sat on the old dentist’s chair to have a rest. They continued to search nearby but had spread out either side of the corridor so no-one could get him. Then there was the scream. They rushed back to find the chair empty and torn and piles of dust and plaster ripped from the walls. It had taken all of 10 seconds at the most and there was no sign of him whatsoever. Now they were only four of them left. Would they ever get out of this place and back to the sunlight?

~Richard

April 1, 2017 0

A short story?

I wrote this originally as a six sentence story in March, 2016. Perhaps I was having a Nostrodamus moment…

It had started off as a boast, born from a late-night party with his friends, and had somehow mutated into an unstoppable train. At some point he was bound to be derailed; at least that’s what the pundits had opined month after month. But now he had arrived; admittedly by the skin of his teeth, but a win was a win nonetheless. His offensive rhetoric and inconsistent fomenting had made no difference, or had it? He had played a dangerous game and was quite surprised by how far he had been able to rally people’s rage to achieve his aim.

He felt exhilarated as the director called one last time, “We’re ready for your address, Mr. President,” tears welling in her eyes.

~Richard

January 20, 2017 1

Category: prose

The Apocalyptic Four

6 sentence story – Discombobulated

6 sentence story – The Citadel

Haiku ~ The Wedding

A Game of Perspectives

Barriers

A Story – Reflectors

A Story – Keyhole Figures

A Story – Taken

A short story?

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