To everyone in the room, she seemed like just a normal girl wearing Vans, bluejeans, and a red hoodie. Nobody looked. No one cared. She was just another customer with a laptop, like so many others in the coffee shop. She ordered a drink, waited patiently, then took her cup to a table in the corner of the room. Not once did she look at any of the other customers as she sat down and opened her laptop. The clicking her finge...

I would just like to share with you my little act of kindness. Please, don’t fill the comments section with things like, “Oh Verity, you are such a lovely person.” Or, “I wish I was as good a human as you.” Comments like that only make me blush, and besides, I know I will get my reward in heaven. Yesterday, I was at the checkout in my local Tesco supermarket. The queue was quite long and the frail old lady in front of me...

Time for work, even though I’d rather stay here, sitting in my chalet, in my armchair. I only work down the road in the greenhouses, so there’s no rush, just another few minutes to observe my abode where I have lived for five months. I really do like it, even though it’s nothing more than a bedsit. Below the main windows is a maple sideboard upon which are three vases, no plants in them yet, and a cream coloured dial tele...

    Dear Sam, I watch the June bugs crawl around as the fireflies float and light up my porch. It makes me want to let go, give in and be free. Part of me wants to tell you, you do light up this tiny space, my world. Your humor and compassion, that coolness and great love for music make me feel like I’m back in our hometown, but I’m not. I did escape that world and left for college to start over. I started over in an empt...

The skunky but delicious smoke fills this little corner of campus, exiting my lungs only once it's done its job. I feel the calming weight fall over my anxious brain almost immediately and glance down at the tiny joint in my hands, surprised by its secret potency.  "Miss Xanderson!" I grab one more big hit before stomping the lovely little thing beneath the heel of my combat boot and turning to face our principal, inwardl...

  She saw him from far, he stood tall among men, circumstances, and life in general. He had always done so. The years had chiselled his features, there were no wrinkles, and his body seemed as lean and firm as ever. She looked at him, loving every cell in him, worshipping him from far. She was so pleased to see he was as beautiful as he had been the day she had met him. She followed him everywhere, unseen and unheard. He...

The vacant, old house at the end of the lane beckons me. They always do - the dilapidated and forgotten. There is an appeal others overlook. Unable to resist its quietness, I settle in, deciding to call this place home. The wind blows through the window cracks, but it doesn't bother me. Oddly, I feel comforted in the chilled corners of the room - a warm welcome of sorts. Dust adorns the mantel. Cobwebs decorate the bland...

Dining out in Edinburgh would not present an overwhelming challenge I did not think. We had left our hotel on Prince's Street and strolled down the hill towards the harbor. My lady was on my arm, a spring chill in the air, so we both wore long coats. Mine was a tan trenchcoat and matching Trilby. My wife wore a raincoat in anticipation of dampness from the evening skies. As we passed two young men coming from the opposite...

An old couple meet at a coffee shop. “Harry! How are you doing?!” “Hilda! I’m doing well.” They hug and Harry pulls Hilda’s seat out for her, removing his hat and putting it on the table. “Can I get you something?” Hilda asks. “Just my usual two cents,” Harry smiles, the love obvious in his eyes. The old woman calls out for two coffees and a slice of bitter lemon cake for both of them. They sit in rapturous conversation,...

On a Saturday morning, just one week away from Christmas day, six-year-old George Mackie awoke to find that outside his window a blanket of snow covered the ground. He couldn't wait to go and wake his nine-year-old sister and go outside to build a snowman with her. Dora had been up for over a half-hour already, she wanted to be ready and able to go play with her brother. Being not so well, Dora couldn't stay out very long...

I saw her again today and my heart leapt into my chest.  I need to know that she'll be a safe place to land when I fall to pieces and that I’m not wasting my time and energy on her because I don’t give out my heart freely anymore. She’s been there when I have needed her the most, and all I want and need is to be able to do the same for her. I know that loving her is unconventional and, to most people, an impossible dream,...

              For that is the question, isn’t it? I don’t know who you are anymore. Once, you were the guy, my carefree man with those sea-glass colored eyes and that laugh. Oh, the way you could make me laugh. We used to sit outside on a blanket in the plush grass with the berries and the gouda, the white wine and lay there looking up toward the turquoise sky until that dark day, the one day when the sky turned black wit...

I remember it well for I will never forget. That park was just eight minutes away from home if I walked quickly or five if I ran. Follow the footpath by the river right around almost to the end, cross a field and down a hill then it was through the trees for a moment or two. No one ever came down there, no one, not ever; there was only ever you and me down there. I know it should be you and I, not you and me but we were j...

The Greengrocer washed his hands in cabbage juice every morning; It gave his skin that crisp yet supple flavour one looks for in a father figure. He had hoped this would improve his, frankly, dismal yam sales, but alas it only hastened his metamorphosis into "that woman." You know the one. Regardless, he clung to the hope of better days, neglecting his duty to open the store from 6 AM as advertised (which as we all know i...

I came the quickest way, across the glaur, when I was called, my heart almost clearing my body in my haste. Too soon, yet. The family is up-stairs, the ceiling weighted by them. I keep where they cannot tell my presence or its dread import. The Bible lies poised here, by guttering candle.  What cruelty: a month past the same Book lay joyous open on this same table. That day, heads canted over my shoulder, all watched my p...