What are Sci-Fi-Cafe.com Espresso Shots?

These are sometimes called 'Micro Stories'. They're a story, a scene, an emotion or a moment compressed down into the smallest number of words possible. Sci-Fi short stories are often most fun because the author can explore 'what if' scenarios with a single simple concept without having to worry about expanding the plotline, developing characters (which, really are usually mostly there just to carry the plot).

Originally, sci-fi-cafe was conceived to try to sell these micro-stories, and perhaps some day they may return. I've collected a few from the dozens stashed away in the fridge - quite often the story ends abbruptly and allows the readers' mind to carry on with the inertia, to find their own conclusion or meaning. They certainly leave the reader with something to ponder.

Light and Dark

Golden light burned the air through curtains gently parted by the warm breeze. Now still, the thick pink material held the bedroom in a dark gloom lit only by the shaft of light piercing the space and splashing against the creamy white wall opposite.

Julia slid from the darkness like a ghost, her white nightdress bursting into brilliant fire as it came into contact with the powerful stream of sunlight. Turning slowly, she watched as the folds and billows of her gown flared and then sank back into shadow.

She stopped to let the light wash across her outstretched arm, fingers projecting tapered shards of darkness into the beam. Dust motes winked and eddied like a rich soup of plankton in some exotic sea, spiralling and swirling as her arm began to sway gently.

Then, as she fell silently to the floor below the window, the fire in her gown was gutted like Julia's own life.

Two, three, four little pink pills danced briefly in the patch of sunlight on the floor by the wall before they too became still.

Relocation Package

Jake strode into the living room of his new house. Munching a locally grown apple from the Welcome basket in the kitchen, he thumbed the TV remote. MGN News channel filled half the clean white wall.

Taking this job was the best decision he'd ever made in his life, ok it meant shifting his whole life to relocate, but out here the air was clean, the grass clean and the sky the kind of blue that you only ever saw in the movies.

Back home, he had watched his brother die from some asthma related complication the doctor couldn't be bothered to explain properly.

After glancing at the view from the master bedroom Jake drifted into the en-suite.

"Now, that just beats everything" he said under his breath. The holographic imager in the bath room was connected to the internet and ready to go.

Jake folded his employer's 'Welcome to Mars' card and pushed it in his back pocket.

Reset

The sun was just a dim blue glow to the west, most of the brighter stars were out now. Mark stopped to tighten a shoe lace as he crossed the park, he just noticed it, almost missed it.

Just for an instant, the sky blinked. The deep blue of the sky above went completely black for the briefest of moments and then returned as if it had never gone.

Did he just blink? No the sky didn't come back all at once, it kind of unrolled - it was this motion that really caught Mark's eye.

Slowly, carefully, cool as a cucumber, he got to his feet. This changed everything.

'They' would be watching him now to see if he'd noticed. How long would they be looking for a change in his behaviour?

He continued his journey, suppressing a nonchalant whistle, got home, locked the bolts on his door.

That night he replaced the foil on his bedroom ceiling - turkey foil was much thicker.