Benjamin Allen's Modern Tales

Benjamin Allen's Modern Tales

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Who's That on TV?
A woman with her hair dyed half blond half blood, she shuts the kitchen door and says, “They can hear us.” With one finger tapping her nose she says…
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Benjamin Allen
A Lizard With No Tail
The black mole growing in her head. The idea that the more birthdays you collect, the more likely life will hide behind a corner, stick a leg out and…
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Benjamin Allen
6
8 Pool Ball
Anything oily or creamy on my body makes me wanna rip my skin off. Even now I’m growing older with no moisturiser in my bathroom cabinet. I like my skin…
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Benjamin Allen
Hello, Who’s This?
If we were friends when we were kids, you probably received one of those phone calls. The landline phone rang, you picked up and couldn’t hear a thing…
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Benjamin Allen
2
How Not to Swallow a Cricket
The swimming pool has this little robot that, doesn’t matter how much pizza you had the night before, the wee guy will never fat-shame you.
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Benjamin Allen
2
Airport Cinderella
Essay My wife stands by the airport security check leaning over a queue of trays rolling in front of her.
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Benjamin Allen
2
A Few Words About Breasts
Abi is on antibiotics because the doctor dropped her skull on the floor. The doctor said, “Sorry.“ He said it slipped off his hand during surgery.
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Benjamin Allen
Give Me Vitamin C
The delivery guy will drop forty-seven oranges and twenty-five clementines by the front door. He’ll step back a few meters and I’ll drag everything…
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Benjamin Allen
New Year’s Eve 20-Something
Injuries aside, my life was going as scheduled. Everything was great. Until it was not.
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Benjamin Allen
Pins and Needles
There’s always a sense of relief in hospitals. No matter how miserable you are feeling, two seats away there’s always someone who looks much worse.
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Benjamin Allen
1
One of Those Persons Who Should Never Die
My mother and her brothers, they all stay in touch with the usual phone call on Christmas making sure no one is dying or checking if anyone got married.
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Benjamin Allen
The Window, the Slot Machine, My Uncle and the German I Can’t Speak
After all the times I’ve been in Germany, I could never learn a single word except for that one sentence.
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Benjamin Allen
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