Vegetable, Mineral: a short extract
by Tania Hershman
Tania Hershman (www.taniahershman.com), joint winner of the Biscuit Flash Fiction prize in 2008, and a Highly Commended runner-up in 2009, is a former science journalist, who grew up in London and now lives in Jerusalem, Israel.
Her stories have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and will be broadcast on Rethink Daily, and published or forthcoming in Cafe Irreal, the Hiss Quarterly, Front&Centre, Vestal Review, Steel City Review, Creating Reality, Entelechy Review, the Steel City Review, Riptide, the Ranfurly Review, Magazine Minima, SouthWord and Transmission, and "Riffing on Strings", an anthology of fiction inspired by String Theory.
Tania is founder and editor of The Short Review, a site dedicated to reviewing short story collections and anthologies.
Her own story collection, The White Road and Other Stories, was published by Salt in October 2008.
What?" you said.
"I'll put the kettle on," I said.
When you came back with the post, you held the letters out to me as if the red ink would burn through you like acid.
"Let's run away," I said. "Barbados, Brighton, Bermuda, Brooklyn."
"Only B's?" you said, and slumped onto the couch.
"Today is brought to you by the letter B," I said.
"Animal," you said.
"Domesticated?" I said as I shoved the bills down the back of the armchair.
"Depends," you said.
"Depends on what?"
"If you could be bothered domesticating it."
"Has anyone?" I said.
"What?"
"Ever domesticated it?"
"How the fuck should I know?" you said and you made movements with your hands, fluttering them in and out, that could have meant anything on any day in any country in the world.
