Torsade Literary Space Frédéric Boutet: The Passenger (complete)
Frédéric Boutet Tales The Passenger (complete) This story is long past…it took place nearly forty years ago. We were told it by one Captain Marius Cazavan, retired, of Marseille. “But I recall everything as though it were yesterday. I sailed for a firm out of […]
Frédéric Boutet: The Faker (complete)
Frédéric Boutet Tales The Faker (complete) The man stood haggard, still gripping the knife. He was in a sordid hotel room, the dead girl stretched at his feet, a dark pool oozing from her open throat. He had found her working the boulevard Sébastopol. […]
Frédéric Boutet: Berthe (complete)
Frédéric Boutet Tales Berthe (complete) He closed the store in haste and ran onto the rue de Rivoli, towards the boulevard de Sébastopol. She might be waiting. Before turning at the corner, he stopped a minute, a habit of his, before […]
Short Story: The Blue Bird (conclusion)
Short Stories The Blue Bird (conclusion) She backed into the living room and picked up the remote. The news channel showed three women on lounge seating, two resting hands on books. One read aloud from hers. They were not personalities Gitana had ever seen. Someone had found them, told […]
Frédéric Boutet: The Bargain (complete)
Frédéric Boutet Tales The Bargain (complete) On the fifth floor, at an old, forbidding door that made her wish only to leave, rang a young visitor, frail in her worn dress, her black hat…her heart beating. “Is he there? I want to speak to […]
Short Story: The Blue Bird (part four)
Short Stories The Blue Bird (part four) “So,” she told him, standing. “Here’s what I’ve decided for today. I’m going over to Glimmerings. I’m going to put a note up on the board, get in touch with me. I don’t care…” She raised her voice. Dave was […]
Frédéric Boutet: Complicity (complete)
Frédéric Boutet Tales Complicity (complete) Having made a tour of two large department stores…and buying none of what tempted her; then of the elegant streets, where she felt herself still less elegant than on the modest ones, Germaine Leprez hesitated at the threshold of a […]
Short Story: The Blue Bird (part three)
Short Stories The Blue Bird (part three) The person who lived here, number 46, had gone someplace. They’d all gone someplace. She went back down the hall…rattling knobs along the way, aggressive. She got to the landing, and turned to watch. No door tentatively inched back. No head […]
Short Story: The Blue Bird (part two)
Short Stories The Blue Bird (part two) She thanked him for the water. “I’ve got to get back upstairs.” They’d had one of those friendly congruities of feeling between people not ready to be friends. Dave fading back into distance, giving her this non-answer […]
Frédéric Boutet: The Balance (complete)
Frédéric Boutet Tales The Balance (complete) Lunch finished, M. Buchêne was back to business, per custom smoking his tranquil cigar while in discussion with Mme Buchêne. This intimate hour in the middle of their day had been a delight to them since the start […]