18+ White walls, sweet antiseptic, tubes and wires, electronic beeps and the laboured, wheezing breath of my shrunken father.
We need to talk. Soon. Not about the future or present; now we've only got the past.
But my phone distracts me. I wish we had more time and words.
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© 2017 Robert Fairhead
N.B. You might link to read more of my microfiction on Tall And True. And listen to this story on the Three Minute Microfiction episode from the Tall And True Short Reads podcast.
I wrote this microfiction for a competition run by Meanjin Quarterly to celebrate the introduction of 280-character Twitter in 2017. The rules were simple, tweet a 280-character story and include the hashtag
#meanjin280. The top 10 stories were to be published on the Meanjin Blog. I didn't win the competition. But I repurposed the piece for another microfiction competition run by the Australian Writers' Centre in 2019, as We Need to Talk in 29 Words. And [proud puffing of cheeks] this was published on their blog.
Robert shares his writing on Tall And True and blogs on his eponymous website, RobertFairhead.com. He also writes and narrates episodes for the Tall And True Short Reads storytelling podcast, which features his short stories, blog posts, and other writing.
Robert's book reviews and other writing have appeared in print and online media. He has published three short story collections — Both Sides of the Story (2020), Twelve Furious Months (2021) and Twelve More Furious Months (2022) —, a microfiction anthology, Tall And True Microfiction (2023), and a collection of speculative fiction, One Day in the Life of Alex's AI and Other Speculative Fiction (2024).
In addition to writing, Robert's favourite pastimes include reading, watching the Sydney Swans Aussie Rules football team with his son, and walking his dog.
He has also enjoyed a one-night stand ... as a stand-up comic.