‘Let’s Start with the Horse’ by Kim Martins

The Shape of Words^*

First runner-up for the 2020 Bumblebee Flash Fiction Contest, ‘Let’s Start with the Horse’ by Kim Martins, is, as judge Bob Thurber tells us, so interesting to ponder. 

Proving that fiction is as fiction does, this series of linked vignettes reminds us that good-stories-well-told come in many guises. Excerpted here from Issue 27, Summer 2020, this Bumblebee buzzes with beauty and brevity.

And for a chance to have your story featured in our magazine and on the website, enter the 2020 Raven Short Story Contest before it closes 15 October!

Let’s Start with the Horse

by Kim Martins

A Ride in the Countryside

A white horse stands, its eyes dark as onyx, cows have their tongues to the grass, dogs are tumbling, clouds are like milk splashes. It’s a Wedgewood blue sky day. I pedal fast past barns and farms. A long-rotten tree root snags the front wheel, hurtles me across gravel into a clump of bushes. Long walk back under ink-splotched clouds, a stinging wind slaps my face, restless rain soaks me to the bone, there’s a pacing black stallion with moon-pale eyes, chained dogs snarling and snapping, cows with guns slung across their shoulders. There’s been a change in the light, and I wonder what it will take to survive.

After I Left India

An official tells me at Tokyo airport that I won’t be allowed to enter the country if I keep on refusing. I don’t understand the shape of his words. His hands are like rice paper. He points to the machine with its black eye that doesn’t blink. I shake my head, so they put me in a small room, no windows. I spend the hours considering whether I should have gone to Thailand, instead. I have not been arrested. Guess they can’t be bothered because there’s a hurricane coming, but that night I learned I could not run anymore.

To read the rest of these sparkling vignettes, pick up your copy of Pulp Literature Issue 27, Summer 2020!

And, for a chance at the $300 top prize, submit to the 2020 Raven Short Story Contest!

* Title inspired by a phrase in Ms Martin’s second vignette, ‘After I Left India’ 

Kim Martins is from New Zealand and writes poetry, flash fiction, and short stories.  For inspiration, she walks her two active dogs. Her poetry and fiction have been published in various journals: Barren Magazine, a fine line, Copperfield Review, Moonchild Magazine, VampCat, Flash Frontier, Fewer Than 500, and The Drabble. By day she is a travel writer and editor for an online history encyclopaedia; by night she’s at work on her first novel.