Hand hovering over the door handle, Lucy pauses. The smell of burned plastic makes her gag and she winces as she imagines the scene beyond. The fire has destroyed her once-pristine dining room, although she acknowledges, it had been unusable for a while. Six months to be exact. Ever since Tim moved his collection in. “Only temporary,” he’d said when she protested. “Just while I sort them out.” Temporary my foot. In fact,...

The time had come to put away their childish ways. Their days filled with banter and playful ways were done. The sowing and reaping over, the storehouses full. All of it a distant memory now, the time for war had come. The faint echo of troops clamoring could be heard as if an echo on the wind.  The barbarian hoards had claimed the mountain pass as their birthright, but beyond them was a foe even greater. Soon the passes...

Folks always claimed ‘Buck’ Granderson got his nickname because he still had the first dollar he ever made. It wasn’t true, at least not the part about his name. I had it on very good authority that his parents, two otherwise sober and responsible individuals, named him Buckalew Lavelle Granderson. While few knew about his full name, those who did all agreed it must have been a long and very difficult birthing for a momma...

Reaping the harvest was no easy task, but hard work was always rewarding, and today was a special day! The people sang new songs and were full of joy! They bundled the grain and lifted it high as they carried it back to the store houses. They laughed and joked with each other as they took long drinks from the well to quench their thirst on the cool fall day.    No labor on this day was lost on the people. For the echoes o...

The canvas was blank. Like a brilliant shining light in his mind, it was blank. Piercing and constant it stared at him, begging to be transformed. Like so many times before, beauty and vibrant color longed to be placed. It cried out to him, but he was empty. Reports of success and victory streamed in, yet it was all empty. Day after day the generals talked of greatness and victory. Day after day the canvas remained blank....

Do you rememberA special placeWhere the artistically woven branchesOf a long-dead treeTold unknown stories from years past? It is paved with asphalt now, Supporting the feet and wheels of commuters and visitors Enjoying the riverside view.The physical presence of that thoughtful landmark is now goneBut if you are quiet and very still, you might still feel it’s presence there.  

Chris wasn't where he should be. He should be at work, sitting at his desk, a place which is a ten minute walk from his home, but instead he is sitting on a bus travelling through a place he does not recognize. Chris has no recollection of how it is that he came to be where it is he is. In fact he cannot remember anything from after he woke up that morning up until this moment where he has just found himself sitting on a...

  "Go into the Lavender Tower at night," they said.   "We dare you," they said.   Obviously they'd never had the courage to try it for themselves. For the fourth time the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as something in the cold, dark room flitted amongst the headstones commemorating countless deceased Pokémon. Shaye tried to ignore the dark shapes he saw―or thought he saw―moving just outside his field of vision...

  Nadska knew he was in trouble. He’d had the misfortune to be planet-side when the first of the Star Destroyers emerged from hyperspace above Kashyyyk, now everyone on the jungle world was trapped. The imperials had already jammed global communications and were commencing a well orchestrated assault on the planetary defences. That was all Nadska knew, he honestly didn’t care what the Empire wanted with Kashyyyk. He just...

The Bee Flats. They'd come up with the name in Paul's dingy basement flat, which always smelled dank and foisty no matter how many Glade Plug-ins Paul threw at it. Jacko always felt a little ill the day after he'd spent time at Paul's, the damp air permeating his already overworked alveoli. The copious amount of weed they smoked obviously didn't help matters. They were proud of the name as it combined their shared interes...

It was much more isolated than he'd imagined. He'd pictured the cemetery by a church. Near a town. Near something. Not this - just a cemetery, in a forest, with nothing - and no-one - around. The darkness didn't help, or the creeping fog. Despite this, and despite the pervasive atmosphere on impeding doom he felt, he quickly found the grave. A shiver ran through him as he read the epitaph. So young.Though it felt quite ma...

  His dark sleep-deprived tired eyes were focused looking on a bunch of beautiful blooming little flowers.The flowers are small, measuring 6mm. in width. Each radially symmetrical bloom has a fused corolla that opens into five rounded lobes. The flower is powder-blue with a conspicuous, bright yellow center. Flowers are arranged in tightly coiled, rounded clusters that unfurl as the flowers progressively bloom.The leaves...

Sunday morning, cold, damp and miserable. The dark rain-clouds which had, less than an hour previously, let fall a deluge of freezing rain upon the fields and hills surrounding the small Pennine village, were beginning to break. Their stark edges becoming wisps of pale grey. For the men and women who had gathered around the well-kept war memorial, the weather was a mere inconvenience. Nothing would keep them from remember...

One of the first jobs I held after quitting school was working at a TV antenna manufacturing plant where I worked with a very tech minded man named Jim. Despite holding a degree in electrical engineering he was unable to find work, so we wound up together helping to build design and test outdoor TV antennas. These antennae were usually mounted to the chimney and were a necessity back in the day as cable TV  was non-existe...

It was a spa day on the farm and the animals were excited.Sparky, the pup, let the new animals know what the day would be like so they wouldn't be nervous. Sparky loved a spa day. It was his favorite event on the farm other than the day when the kids came to visit.Miss Emily had breakfast ready for her little ones. After breakfast, her helpers for the day arrived. She needed lots of help for the day because all the animal...