Countdown, Short Stories

A stained carpet, a boy’s love of a cat, a dopey scientist, a treacherous river, these four new short stories from JR Hughes range from love to cats, from family life to death.
“Snow followed the atomic meltdown. Before that was the tsunami which came after the earthquake. And that was just Japan.” Will this turn of events help an ex-Rose of Tralee win the heart of a slow but genius scientist?
“Everything must have contrived to get us to the river that night.” A woman and her philosopher lover grapple with their move to a new country.
“The food was blue. Too blue. I said it out loud by mistake. Slap of a car, tore me down, left me for dead.” A boy pays a high price to be cool.
“Dad tuts to himself - not, apparently, at the splotch, but at the untimely interference of the women.” Some spilt Bordeaux makes an impression on New Year’s Eve.