A topsy-turvy tale of rubbish, rivalry and one relentlessly tidy cleaner.
The city of Stynk always broke convention—
It did so again by introducing its first Pollution Appreciation Festival. Citizens scrambled madly to outdo each other with impressive piles of debris and noisy engines.
“Would you like a smoke?” Each would request, breathing black patches into the air.
The winner’s reward? A golden garbage can trophy.
The mess was—Stynky.
Elderly cleaner Bob Swipe was the only one who would swipe litter piles with perpetual persistence, earning everyone’s outrage.
“Stinky.” He would intone.
Each sweep swept away a carbon masterpiece.
The judges were at their wits’ end—
There was no mess left to assess.
Not a recalcitrant stain on the pavements.
They banned Bob and banished him to Blandsville for excessive cleanliness.
Stynk tried again to recreate debris piles —-
But made garbage trucks that picked each one.
Mirrors of the Mind by Michelle Liew is a collection of psychological and supernatural short stories that explore the quiet unease beneath ordinary moments. These are not tales of spectacle, but of subtle fracture — where memory distorts, silence speaks, and the self is not always singular. In these stories, what is unseen often carries the greatest weight, and what lingers is not what is shown, but what is felt.