I got
Mosaix and
TJ's references immediately so I'm due red bounty. I need to visit my neighbour so I'll go via the newsagent to get my reward. I loved the fact there was so much reference to Beckett (and, subliminally, TS Eliot), and of course
Robert Mackay's supreme Sci-fi update to Catch 22.
I wrote quite a few attempts but in the end I only finished three of them. I chose to submit the one about England, Scotland and Wales moving away from from France because of my other two, one was too comedy-ish, and the other was too
Endgame (I like my Beckett at his darkest, most bleakest).
@DG Jones - Iceland is north of Scotland, so when Pauline and her husband crowbar the cliffs away from the Continent, they set the mainland (Scot, Eng, Wales) coasting towards Iceland who object to the incursion, hence them declaring war. I thought it was clear that the white cliffs referred to Dover and that 'they' were the French. I should've probably thought it through a bit more.
The Reluctant Count
Clark hated spinach when he was alive! And people think vegetarians ate everything. He looked at his kitchen counter; chopped liver pate (kosher, blessed - ha bloody ha), bags of spinach, even a bottle of folic acid!
Later he sat on the graveyard gatepost, filing down his teeth while his belly and mouth smoked, really wishing he'd lost his taste for garlic.
Moonrise: Thankfully the supermarket was 24 hours.
Then - the
Endgame one - I just couldn't get down to 75 and even at 83 it was a little too obscure, expecting people to make a guess as to what Rubbish Men were.
En Passant
James walked to the white. The square was cool; the burning heat from the black quickly leaked from his soles.
'Your turn,' Mike shouted from the other end. He'd already moved!
James looked over the edge of the board at the roiling inky depths. Sparks flashed down there every few seconds.
One way out. He looked at the door at the other end of the chessboard. He'd never beat Mike or the Rubbish Men.
He peeked into the void again, and jumped.
pH
