Falling
It felt like it should be daytime but the lights were never turned off and the windowless rooms prevented any guessing. My mouth was sandy dry. My tongue felt like it was wrapped in rough cotton. I could smell his …
Month: October 2014
The Mistake
Nomzamo opened her eyes and sat up slowly, the bed groaned in complaint. Three small bodies shifted, aware that the source of warmth had left. She stood slowly, careful not to wake them. Despite the dark, she quickly located the …
What I don’t remember
“What I don’t remember is your ever saying thank you – for anything.” Izlena let this sentence drop into the air like a teaspoon of oil dropping into a hot pan. She waited for a reaction, as the oil would …
Writer’s confession
We have all seen the cartoon or movie version of the good angel – bad devil. The good angel is sweetly balanced on your right shoulder, all dressed in white, possibly wearing wings, a halo may be involved. The bad …
The Promise
My 45 year old eyes looked at the letter my 10 year old hand had written all those decades ago. I had been a studious boy with an odd love of punctuation and the letter was flooded with quotation marks, …
The towns you drive
Her first town was no more than a handful of businesses clustered around a cobbled main street. The chemist was on the one end and the green grocer was on the other, like bookends bracketing the village. Verdant green meadows …
You are such a liar
“You are such a liar”, hissed Angus, glaring at his little sister. Ailsa was primly perched on the wide window seat, a piece of shortbread delicately balanced in her small white hands. Mrs. Ainsley drew in her breath, carefully replaced …
Nearing Midnight
The walls were a sunny Crayola-orange; no doubt some committee’s misguided attempt to cheer up this ghastly place. Mark shook his head imagining the hours of research that went into that decision. He sighed and softly muttered: “well it’s not …
This is what I remember
I remember the night air was unusually still, not the usual wind pumping down the mountain, just a softness that wrapped itself around us. It was almost like the city didn’t want us to leave. The casual wooden table had …
Second storey window
Most people thought the wheelchair was a prison, keeping me trapped solely within a world of ramps and railings. But to me it was my ticket to sanity. No dealing with all the messy business of other human beings, just …