Synkroniciti is delighted to welcome back writer Tim Collyer of Wiltshire, who previously won our “Dreams” short story contest. In the flash fiction piece “Broadcast,” a routine trip to the dentist uncovers an extra-terrestrial plot. Building upon the squeamishness and unease many of us feel visiting the dentist, Tim skillfully creates an eerie atmosphere laced with humor. The result hits all the right buttons. We relate readily with trying to answer questions with multiple hands in our mouths and with the worry we feel when we aren’t sure what medical professionals are seeing. What makes this story unique is the way our narrator reacts.
“My ex-husband thought I was empty after he left. He was wrong. I was just making room.
Tonight, when the meteor shower returns, we’ll open our mouths to the sky. We’ll sing the stars home. They’ve been searching so long for somewhere warm to grow.”
Would an alien invasion be a welcome escape from the trials and tribulations humans create for one another?
Read “Broadcast” in Synkroniciti’s “Patterns” issue, Vol. 7, No. 4, available for purchase here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Tim Collyer is a Wiltshire-based writer whose work has won the Seán Ó Faoláin International Short Story Competition, Eyelands International Short Story Contest, The Page Is Printed, and Synkroniciti‘s “Dreams” Contest. A Pushcart Prize nominee, he has been published in Nebula, Gently Mad Magazine and Woodside Review.