Mark’s Mistake

Mark sprinkled more orange powder onto the flame. It caused a blinding flash of green light, but that was all. Except for a faint whiff of strawberries.

Mark shrugged, licked his finger and turned the page. The book on the floor had belonged to his father, who had recently disappeared. He hadn’t run away, or been kidnapped. He had, quite literally, disappeared. One minute he was in the kitchen, pouring a mug of instant hazelnut latte. The next minute, he wasn’t.

“Just one last verse.” Mark dropped blue powder onto the flame.

He’d been exploring his father’s study when he found the book. It looked out of place amongst the formal paperbacks and encyclopedias. Flipping through the pages revealed that it contained spells and incantations.

As the red light faded, Mark uttered the last word on the page and fell forward, prostrating himself and wrinkling his nose at the scent of frying bacon. He waited. And waited. Then waited some more.

Several minutes passed before he opened his eyes. Nothing.

“Hell!” He stood up and closed the book, shaking his head at his own stupidity.

“That can be arranged.”

Mark spun around and took a step backwards.

“Sorry I’m late, but you called at a rather inconvenient time. Rush hour. You know how it is.” The speaker was a tiny woman in a black suit and tie. 12 inches from shaved head and pointy horns to polished leather boots. Her face mirrored the pure white of her shirt. A miniature briefcase lay open on a pocket-sized table.

Extract from Tales From The Crying Room, a combined paperback-only version of the stories contained in Anthology of Snippets, plus a few other short stories, and a radio play I wrote for a competition (I didn’t win).

Books available dirt-cheap on Amazon. And on Amazon.co.uk. Free on Kindle Unlimited.

Or you can find them at Curiosity, the new retail shop open from Wednesday to Sunday, 11am till late, at the Railways Cafe in Pretoria.

I just finished proofreading an anthology of South African short stories – “Flambé, Silk Tie Murder, and the Rooibos Baby”. It should be published during the next few weeks, and is well worth a read if you’re interested in local authors, some of them previously unpublished. I’ll keep you updated on where to find this one, and let you know when it hits Amazon and other online retailers.

Till next time.

Cheers.