The Ramingo’s Porch – “Roasting By An Open Fire” A Short Story By Mike Fiorito

Roasting by an Open Fire

Arriving tired and hungry to my mother-in-law’s house for Christmas, a wave of cinnamon scent fills my nostrils, as I swing the front door open. The scent is so thick I have to breathe out of my mouth so I don’t choke.

My eyes still red, I’m greeted by the two-foot-tall porcelain Santa statue positioned at the door entrance.

“Hello,” says Marian, my wife. “We’re here.”

We hear rustling from upstairs. “Be right down.”

Earlier that week, I had to plead with my son Tommy to come.

The Ramingo’s Porch – “Angel Deleted” A Short Story By Titus Green

 

“I mean, just how many hours does a person need to spend taking selfies?”

Jim chuckled at the recent sight that had begotten this whimsical, half-drunken rhetorical question: a young Asian woman in a floppy white hat and billowing dress immersed in her makeshift photo booth on the sands of a picturesque Thai beach.

Jim’s drinking companion rolled his eyes and shook his head at the absurdity of this behaviour, before taking a swig of beer. There was a brief silence as the sweltering humidity of Southern Thailand enforced its lethargy. They sat at a plastic table, luxuriating in the squalid captivity of their holiday-apartment bar. Palm fronds drooped over the chalky blue water of the nearby swimming pool.

The Ramingo’s Porch – “Thieves’ Market Labourers” by Nick Gerrard

Thieves’ market labourers

 The man in the trilby, braces and a tonic blue tie puts his arm round Grandad like an old mate and takes out a pair of scissors.

— Call that a tie Sir? Here, this is what we do with a tie like that!

— What the…

— That’s what we do; now take that off, and here we go… Now, that is a tie Ladies and Gentlemen! Now, you can have one of these beauts for three quid or two for a fiver.

I laugh and wander on, taking another bite of my beef and oyster pie, huffing steam into the chilled air, admiring our ties.

This is our patch.

OPEN CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS – Send your best works to RAMINGO! right now

Hey folks it’s time to submit again! But there are a few things that are changed here. You were used to know The Ramingo’s Porch, our quarterly printed magazine, but due to the high costs of realization, we decided to change it into an e-magazine, publishing selected submissions continuosly.

The Ramingo’s Porch #2 – Get Ready for Some “Love, Spring and Revolution” From All Over The World

Welcome to issue number 2 of The Ramingo’s Porch, which is 2 more than any of us thought would emerge from gestation into sunlight–but we received so many fine submissions, the journey proved pretty simple, if not inevitable.