I’m thrilled to have this story placed 2nd in this year’s Flash 500 Short Story competition.

A response to Sidney’s ‘Astrophil and Stella’, my short story ‘Drowndead’ recasts the theme of the Fourth Song in a modern tale of consent, or lack thereof – the old woman remembers that time in South Africa when she didn’t consent, then the incident with the drowning dog, and the porcelain figures that mock her poverty, whilst the child’s voice tells a simpler story, of bad boys, lassie dogs, and his ZX Spectrum.

You can read the story on the following link:

https://flash500.com/short-stories-2nd-place-drowndead-by-mauk-donnabhain/

Natali Simmonds, who judged this year’s competition, had some lovely words to say about the story:

A boy, a dog, and an elderly lady make an unusual trio in this deftly written story about redemption, regret, and unconditional love. Drowndead was so original in the way it was told, mixing together the innocence of Disney’s UP and the nostalgic purity of The List of Suspicious Things. I adored the Nordic tang and the way the writer tells the story from the point of view of both an elderly lady and a young boy, going back and forth through time, first person to third person. A melancholy tale told with so much heart.

The story has a very personal meaning for me, as there was an elderly neighbour I used to visit as a child – although she wasn’t Danish, still I could sense her isolation, and her story-telling drew me in. I’ve always been a sucker for a good story!

I imagined a life for her and came up with this story to try to explain the friendship I had with her, and how powerful human contact can be across generations.