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Helen Abbott

I write about families, marriages and the things people decide not to say out loud. Some of these turn into quiet stories and some of them turn into something closer to a thriller, which I have stopped trying to control. Everything here is finished before it goes up, and all of it is free.

Stories

  • Eleven Years of Thursdays by Helen Abbott — Family Drama, 27 parts, about 63 minutes, complete and free. Claire’s mother died in July. In September a landlord calls about an apartment eleven minutes from the house Claire grew up in, three months behind on rent, paid in cash the first week of the month for eleven years. Somebody is still living in it.
  • My Neighbor’s Cat by Helen Abbott — Romance, 4 episodes, about 13 minutes, complete and free. I feed the cat that turns up at my back door at seven every morning. In October he arrived wearing a collar with a note taped to it, from the neighbor I have never once met, telling me to stop. So I wrote back. We have been writing for six weeks now, and the cat has been carrying it.
  • My Father’s Sunday Calls by Helen Abbott — Family Drama, 3 episodes, about 5 minutes, complete and free. My father called me every Sunday at four o’clock for almost a year, and I never once picked up. Forty-one voicemails sat unplayed in my phone. Then he died on a Tuesday, and there were not going to be any more.
  • My Husband’s First Wife by Helen Abbott — Domestic Suspense, 3 episodes, about 10 minutes, complete and free. I’m the second wife. He never once asked me to change anything. He simply moved the mugs to the other side of the cupboard, and then the coat, and then my hair, until a woman called the first wife’s name across a parking lot and I turned around.
  • My Husband’s Second Phone by Helen Abbott — Thriller, 5 episodes, about 17 minutes, complete and free. My daughter said the gym bag was buzzing. My husband’s phone was on the kitchen counter where it always is. There was a second one sewn into the lining, with a single contact saved, and a message that said don’t bring the kid.