Throwback Thursday: ‘My Brother Paulie’ by Alex Reece Abbott

Ground Control

‘My Brother Paulie’ by Alex Reece Abbot takes us on an odyssey through fraternal love and obligation in four short sections. Shortlisted for the 2017 Raven Short Story Contest, it appeared in Pulp Literature Issue 19, Summer 2018.  Until the end of November you can pick up a print copy of Issue 19 on sale for $8.

Want more precise, insightful, and poignant flash fiction from Alex Reece Abbott? ‘Alphabet Soup’ was shortlisted for the 2018 Hummingbird Flash Fiction Prize and appeared in Issue 20, Autumn 2018. And ‘Reap What You Sow’ won the 2023 Bumblebee Flash Fiction Contest, appearing in Issue 39, Summer 2023. Until the end of the month, when you buy two issues of Pulp Literature containing Alex’s stunning flash fiction, you get the third one free!

My Brother Paulie

by Alex Reece Abbott

Docking

“Hey, Major Tom. Lunch? Baked beans …”

Paulie stares through me.

Can’t blame him, it’s hardly the fare of space travellers.

“Fancy docking for a shower?”

What’s caused his latest lift-off? Like space exploration, medicine is an inexact science.

Mostly, we never find out.

 

Deep Space

Everyone has an opinion about my brother Paulie, but I’ll tell you something. From before.

He loved space as a boy. Apollo, Sputnik. Rockets. Asteroids. Planets.

Now he’s on a voyage of discovery from my most comfortable armchair.

His spacesuit — a knitted, cyclamen-pink onesie — covers him, apart from a small oval visor, like our snorkelling masks when we were kids. 

But Paulie’s twenty-three and he’s not coming up for air.

Find this story and more in Issue 19, Summer 2018, ON SALE now until November 30th!

Or get all three issues of Pulp Literature containing fabulous flash fiction from Alex with the Alex Reece Abbott Bundle. Buy two, get one free!

ORDER THE BUNDLE HERE

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Alex’s short fiction has been selected for many collections, including  Bonsai: The Big Book of Small Stories, Dusk, Word Factory’s Citizen: The New Story, The Broken Spiral, and Heron. She has won the Northern Crime Competition, the Crediton, Arvon, and HG Wells Grand Prizes, and often places and shortlists. Alex’s literary historical novel, The Helpmeet, was a winner in the 2016 Greenbean Irish Novel Fair.  ‘My Brother Paulie:  A Domestic Space Odyssey’ was developed during a workshop with award-winning writer and diversity campaigner Kit de Waal, and was shortlisted for Pulp Literature’s 2017 Raven Short Story Contest. Alex’s story ‘Reap What You Sow’ was the winner of the 2023 Bumblebee Flash Fiction Contest. Alex’s website is alexreeceabbott.info.

Have you got a prize-worthy words in you?

Submit them to the Kingfisher Prize for Poetry, closing November 15th!