I woke to the sound of bird-call. The clock told me it was eight-thirty, that’s late for me. I turned to see an empty pillow, he’s up. I had better get up, he’ll be waiting for me in the kitchen, no doubt. He must have snuck out of bed, he usually wakes me. Oh well, I was getting on a bit, I deserved a lie in now and then. I’d had a good sleep; I was feeling happy, today was going to be a good day. As I entered the kitche...

Eden. The word doesn’t need adornment, it just evokes the image of paradise. Except, it doesn’t in my case. Though not by any means hell, my Eden wasn’t the paradise you should find yourself praying for. For you see, my Eden was, and maybe always will be, my community; a coastal Australian town, about five hundred kilometres, though at times it felt more like five hundred years, away from Sydney. Eden was, as you might ha...

July’s midsummer heat stuck. It stuck to the blades of grass. It stuck to Sumire’s beige romper. It stuck to everything and anything like a sweltering bog. Sweat drenched her underarms as she set up her easel and foldable chair. Even at her elevated vantage point, the muggy draft painted her body with its salty sheen.Wiping her brow, she gazed over the stacked rows of terraced rice paddies below, bristling with the vibran...

Gail's first day at this new department in the Foreign Office was an uneventful day that did not come as any surprise to her. She had seen a lot of ministerial and government departments before. She had been seconded, from the Home Office where she had been working, since leaving Cambridge, for some twelve years. A typical classics student, and an ambitious young lady, Gail had given most of her time to her work and progr...

Completely true in every detail, I remember after all these years, how she sat, the little silver bracelet she wore on her left wrist – even the charm that hung off it – a small fish. I can describe her dress, her shoes…sIip-ons actually, smell her hair, hear her soft voice – tell you what the weather was like. I don’t have to imagine the tears which come to my eyes as I write this either. She was so ethereally beautiful...

Frank Baldwin stared out the window of his office. The lights of downtown Eversham shone before him. Usually, the mayor smiled when he looked out at those lights. A lifelong resident who had been the city’s mayor for twelve years, Frank was pleased and proud with the work he had done to improve the city. Tonight, though, he gazed out at them and sighed. It was looking like twelve years was enough for the citizens of Evers...

“My family is much different from the Glantrys. We value the person, not their wealth or heritage. I’m working as a lawyer, starting from the lowest. I attended a public school where nobody knew me, and I had to work to do anything that wasn’t connected to my studies. Yes, I’ve been luckier than most. Just to make you understand the difference, I’ll tell you this family secret, and I trust you not to go telling it to anyb...

“No, Julie… It’s because I love you. I fell in love with you the moment I saw you when I was buying that book, and that love grew the more I was knowing you. The day you smiled for the first time, I felt like if nothing else in the world was more important than to make you smile. Now that I know what caused your sadness, what broke your heart and confidence, and your enjoying life, I am so angry I could even kill those be...

How can we forget our lost love? Why forget them? They are the ones who grew us up, they are the ones who destroyed us, they are also the ones who abandoned us in the countless shipwrecks of our hearts. Why chain ourselves to the risk of breaking every link with every sigh, every desire? They met, they loved each other from a distance, fled, got together, hugged each other, gave each other their long-awaited first kiss, l...

She.   He stopped texting her, all of a sudden. She could not understand why, since he had asked her to be his completely, to belong to him out of her own will. She had found this disturbing and enticing at the same time. The nature of her feelings for him drove her to him in ways others would not have thought possible. These others would maybe have felt asphyxiated by his demands but in her case, she glorified in them. S...

❣HAMDA❣ "Hey Mum, I am leaving for my interview and will see you in an hour. And don't forget that I love you!" Hamda said. She walked out the door on a bright and sunny Wednesday morning. Today felt like a good day, and she knew that something good would happen.   ~*~ "Welcome to Black Bels Advertising, how may I help you?" A blonde woman sitting behind the desk asked me. "Good morning, my name is Hamda Cale, and I am he...

That’s it. Breakfast dishes all cleared away. Cups neatly stacked, in the lower cupboard, Cereal bowls alongside with the plates. Now, why do I find something so menial satisfying? Oh, don’t I know the reason very well? It’s a form of security. Just like the warm aroma of my wife’s scones baking in the oven. There’s something steadfast and reassuring about that sort of thing. Fifty years or so of establishing everything i...

Standing at the school gate, Harry Connor cursed softly. Memory, you damned trickster. A tantalising image had shaped in the furred conduits of his ageing mind. A gem of reminiscence teasingly snatched away, evading his grasp. He had made this journey seeking to recall a special face. Now, the school’s soot-darkened bricks and stark arched windows had fleetingly evoked a significant moment, long forgotten. Bent against th...

When we first met it was entirely by accident. Even now I remember it clearly, although almost four decades have passed by since then. It was one of those lovely bright sunny days that are so typical of Paris in the springtime. I was strolling along the Boulevard Haussmann, just outside the Magasin au Printemps where the pretty girls were selling their bunches of lily of the valley as they traditionally used to do on the...

The world where I live in is my imagination. Ever since I was a teenager, I always liked being alone lying on our house's rooftop covered by the tree branches. The swaying leaves gave me shade from the harsh burning rays of the sun while talking to my favorite tree and eating my manzanitas with the birds, or sleeping after all of my house chores was done. Hiding at the rooftop, daydreaming the rest of the day before my mo...