“Across the road, Laverty’s shop lies shuttered behind steel. Closed two years now, the neighbour told her, after Laverty retired and the sons weren’t interested. Some resourceful vandal has covered the spray-painted obscenities across the shutters with neat squares of white, each one topped with a smiling face in acid yellow. A van swishes past, and Laura feels something in the air shoot free, like the blockage in a straw. When she looks again at the opposite pavement, Laverty’s lion is waiting for her.”
What do you do when a lion follows you home? February 2016's edition of Long Story, Short Journal unique short story, 'Pride', answers the question. Author Mandy Taggart, previous winner of the Michael McLaverty Short Story Award, gives readers a window on a life marked in equal measures by vulnerability and strength. Accompanying photo by American photographer Austin Granger. READ 'PRIDE'.