A Short Story For Saturday

This week, Cloud Atlas author David Mitchell published his latest short story, “The Right Sort,” on Twitter. The narrator, a teenager hopped up on his mom’s Valium, begins the story this way:

We get off the Number 10 bus at a pub called ‘The Fox and Hounds’. ‘If anyone asks,’ Mum tells me, ‘say we came by taxi.’

— David Mitchell (@david_mitchell) July 14, 2014

‘I thought lying was wrong,’ I say. Butter wouldn’t melt in my mouth. Mum gives me a look. ‘It’s called “creating the right impression”.’

— David Mitchell (@david_mitchell) July 14, 2014

A lorry rumbles by. ‘Besides,’ adds Mum, ‘if your *father* paid what the judge told him to pay, on time, we would travel more by taxi.’

— David Mitchell (@david_mitchell) July 14, 2014

Keep reading the story in chronological order here, or check out Mitchell’s Twitter feed here. Previous featured short stories here.

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