Episode Details

This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is an occasional bonus episode, for the first of May, 2026. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.

Your one-hundred word story for the day is: Anything From The Canteen Sheet?

---

He lunges when it slides under the door. The first week, still used to shops and restaurant menus, he sneered at the crooked page. He mocked his cellmate's eager interest - and got punched for it.

Now, he's the same. Any break in the grinding tedium is welcome. Anything. When something new appears on the list, he savours it. Plays with it in his mind. Orders it, even hair products he will never use. Anything for novelty.

This week, between instant noodles and A4 notebooks, is a new item: Final Apocalypse. He writes a 1 in the box.

Immediately, thunder rolls.

---

A while ago, I entered a drabble competition which had a theme of "Canteen". I sent this one, having discovered that the weekly order forms given to prisoners - in the UK at least - are called 'canteen sheets'. It wasn't placed, but I'll pop a link to the winning drabbles in the show notes.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/100-word-project-128068977

---

Take care, everyone, and I'll see you again sometime.

https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2-may1-bonus