Short stories

A complete story you can read in 10 to 15 minutes. The first part is free; the ending is for subscribers.

9 min read The Phone on the Back Seat A passenger left his phone on the back seat of my cab. All night long, messages kept coming in. One of them said: “Tomorrow 6 p.m. When she comes out of yoga.” At five in the morning, a photo arrived. Start reading →
10 min read The English Neighbours One Tuesday morning, a German family rang at my gate in the hills above Marbella to measure the windows. They had bought my house. I had never put it up for sale. And at two that afternoon, someone else rang. Start reading →
9 min read Someone Else’s Baby I was six months pregnant with another couple’s baby. It was my gift to them. One evening, they split up, and nobody wanted the child I was carrying anymore. I thought that was the worst of it. I was wrong. Start reading →
9 min read The Ticket For nine years, twelve colleagues played the same six numbers. One Saturday night, they came up: £2.4 million. On Monday, the woman who kept the ticket came into the office in tears. She had lost it. Start reading →
9 min read The Kidney I gave my husband a kidney. Two hundred and two days later, he left me. I thought that was the worst thing he could ever do to me. Then, one Sunday at the market, I saw who he had left me for. Start reading →
9 min read Juror Number Four I was picked at random to try a homeless man accused of murder. On the third day of the trial, the victim’s husband came to testify in tears. I knew that man. I had seen him on the night of the murder. Start reading →
11 min read The Villa Since the spring, the young Filipina at the villa had never set foot outside. Not once. One Friday, as I tied on my apron, I felt a folded scrap of paper in the pocket. A single word, in pencil. Start reading →
9 min read Room 12 In Room 12, a seven-year-old boy got better every morning. And every evening, after a visit from his mother, the best mother on the ward, he started dying all over again. It took me three weeks to dare look at the times. Start reading →
9 min read One-Star Reviews In a single night, my café in Amsterdam got forty-three one-star reviews. Then the food safety inspectors turned up, and found a rat in my kitchen. I was looking for a jealous competitor. I found an IP address. Start reading →
9 min read Grandpa Doesn’t Recognize Anyone Anymore According to the doctor and my uncle, my grandfather doesn’t recognize anyone anymore. Yet on Sundays he beats me at cribbage and calls me by my name. Sunday is the only day my uncle doesn’t come. Start reading →
10 min read The Walkie-Talkie Every night at 9 p.m., the little English girl I look after in London whispers “Bonne nuit, maman” into a walkie-talkie hidden under her pillow. In French. Her mother is in the next room. One night, someone answered. Start reading →
9 min read The Death Notice One Tuesday morning, my aunt rang to ask what I had died of. My death notice was in Sud Ouest. I thought it was a mistake, until I saw who had signed the certificate. Start reading →
9 min read The School Trip One Monday at 8:40 a.m., the school called me. My sixteen-year-old daughter had never got on the coach for the trip to Paris. She had been preparing for it for months. And she knew something I had been hiding from her since she was born. Start reading →
9 min read The Chalet I saved for two years to give my children their first holiday: a chalet in La Roche, paid in advance. On the day we arrived, in the pouring rain, there was already a light on inside. Start reading →
9 min read The Bank Card I’m 46. I have never had a bank card in my own name. My husband gave me forty euros a week and checked every receipt. He never hit me. So I didn’t know it was abuse. Start reading →
9 min read The Shoebox My father left when I was three. He never once got in touch. That’s what I was always told. Then, in my mother’s attic, I found a shoebox with thirty-one birthday cards addressed to me. Start reading →
9 min read The Messages to Lou My thirteen-year-old daughter had stopped eating. On her phone I found four hundred and twelve anonymous messages. “Nobody loves you.” Whoever was writing them knew things that had never left our home. Start reading →
9 min read The Fundraiser During my cancer, my little sister handled everything. A year later, a colleague said to me: “I’m so glad I could chip in to your fundraiser.” It had raised 38,000 euros. I never saw a single one. Start reading →
9 min read The Grandson’s Call One evening, my grandson called me in tears. He’d had an accident, he needed €8,500 in cash, and above all, his mother mustn’t know. The problem is, my grandson has never once called me “Grandma”. Start reading →
8 min read The Sat Nav My car was at the garage, so I took my husband’s. In the sat nav there was an address saved as “Home 2”. I went to see. Start reading →
8 min read The Perfect Neighbour My neighbour mowed my lawn without my asking. The whole street adored him. His wife no longer went out. One morning, I found a note in my letterbox. Start reading →
8 min read The DNA Test For Christmas, my husband gave me a DNA test “for a laugh”. In February, the results came. My father wasn’t my father. And someone in the family had known all along. Start reading →
9 min read The Brewery Recipe I created the beer that saved the family brewery. My brother secretly sold it to a big group. In an email he had written: “She’ll be out on 1 January.” Start reading →
8 min read Goodnight, My Danou My mother, 68, a widow, was in love with a man she had met online. He had already cost her twenty-three thousand euros. And he knew a pet name that only our family could know. Start reading →
9 min read Long Sleeves Tom, eight years old, wore long sleeves even in June. Everyone suspected his stepfather. One Monday, he told me: “I don’t want to go back there on Friday.” Start reading →
8 min read The Maid of Honour’s Speech I was the maid of honour. I had to give a speech at my best friend’s wedding. The problem was that the groom had spent six months trying to get me into bed. Start reading →
8 min read The Recipe Book I looked after my mother for six years. My brother visited twice a year. He inherited everything. Then I opened her old recipe book. Start reading →
10 min read The Baby Monitor My mother was covered in bruises. Everyone blamed her home carer. I hid a baby monitor in her bedroom. At 2.40 a.m., the door opened. Start reading →
12 min read The Message Wasn’t Meant for Me One Tuesday evening, my mother-in-law sent me a voice message. It wasn’t meant for me. It said: “She suspects nothing.” Start reading →