Short Stories to read on-line, original stories of 300 words or less.

Something to read quickly.

An extremely short story.

This page has 2 very short stories, less than 300 words.

Story one is called -

The Wedding Dress.

Birdie, well everyone called her that but her real name was Bridget, was getting married. The only problem was the wedding date was set for the first Saturday of the month and she still had no wedding dress. Lots of weddings seem to end up in a last minute chase to get a dress fitted or finished but in Birdie's case there was not even a bolt of fabric waiting to be cut out and fashioned into a suitable dress.

At night she struggled to sleep worrying about what she might be able to wear for her wedding day. William said it was unimportant what she wore as long as they were wed and could start living together. Bridget's aunt was a fine seamstress but you cannot make a wedding gown without the right fabric, so although she was desperate to help out there was nothing she could do.

Ten days before the wedding and the bans had already been read and still no money for a dress or fabric. Then Sunday tea time her sister arrived clutching a brown paper parcel. The twins where going crazy with curiosity, pestering what was inside it. Mother called Birdie into the kitchen as the parcel was unwrapped. As mother untied the string and tore away the brown paper inch by inch a satiny ivory fabric was revealed. Everyone seemed to be holding their breath as Birdie lifted aloft an exquisite shimmering gown.

Short story two is called -

Pay Day.

The biscuit tin was kept out of reach at the back of the cupboard in the kitchen. The fact that the tin was not easily seen was not an indication of its importance to the Green family. For the tin was the Green family's substitute for a bank account.

On Fridays mother would collect up pay day contributions from the family's five grown up children. Then mother would stand on a chair, reach into the back of the cupboard. While clutching the tin to her apron front she would squirrel away the notes and coins that lay on the kitchen table.

One Friday things did not go to plan. The routine of the kitchen door opening and an envelope being handed to mother for her to extract the requisite sum of money from them, came to a grinding halt when Billy failed to walk in the door at six o'clock. Seven o'clock saw father striding down the street at a pace no one had seen him move at before. He asked around the local pub on the corner of the street 'The White Lion', none of Billy's friends had a clue where he was. As father was walking slowly back up the street he saw the young girl crying, wiping her eyes with the corner of her shawl.

"You seen Billy Green?" he shouted across to her.

This caused a fresh outbreak of sobbing,so he stepped forward to investigate further.

Now he was the one who did not want to go home on a Friday night. How was he going to tell the family that Billy had got married and enlisted all in one day, and on a Friday at that.

I enjoy the challenge of writing a short story within the confines of a word count limit. The result is the stories here and on my other pages that I am building on HubPages.

I also write here on factual topics but I am keeping these short stories separately as it helps me to focus on the task I have set - the one here on this page was to write two stories in less than three hundred words each.

I have another page which has five short stories in less than one hundred words.

I hope you have enjoyed reading the stories here, I have added a link to the even shorter short stories page.