Author's Notes: 'A Shepherd's Crook' is a new tale in the Chronicles of Ben Shepherd. The chronological order of the stories is: The Shepherd of Ashburn Court -- Parts 1 - 5 A Shepherd in France -- Parts 1 & 2 A Shepherd Afield -- Parts 1 - 5 The Shepherd's Crook -- Part 1 & 2 Minimal effort is made in this tale to explain t...
This story is an account of a rather typical couple, Bob and Sue Carter, living in a small town in the Bible belt; the sort of place where lives are as dull as they are open to scrutiny. It seems that everyone desires their privacy, but relishes the scandalous gossip of other people's business. Bob and Sue were childhood sweethearts and married after high s...
My thanks to blackrandl1958. ***** Chapter 1: Complacence and Discontent Every life has physical or emotional tragedy that must be endured. Suffering is part of our condition. A birth defect, an accidental crippling, an early demise: all lives include tragedies, eventually. The great tragedy of my personal life came to light because of another tragedy, a...
She was a feisty little thing, flaming red hair, large breasts spilling out of her transparent gown. "You like it? It came all the way from Paris France." I grinned. I'd been on the trail for two months with only my brother for a companion, and I was in need of a little female comfort. "I like it just fine, but I like what's in it even better." I pinched a...
Players: Mark McLuhan, (Cindy Sue) first year college student and marketing intern at Little Miss Muffin, Inc.; Ms. Helen Pennyworth, owner and president of Little Miss Muffin Inc.; Carol Winters Vice President of Marking for LLM; Susan Evans, Product Manager of LLM; Julie Pennyworth, sister to Helen and professional dominatrix and practicing nurse. Tracy Ma...
Pulling up to Emma's house I waited in the Astra and put some music on. It was one of the cleaner streets I had been on. There were trees where I had parked, saplings held with stakes in the earth, one every forty metres on both pavements. The bins had been put out for tomorrow. I saw a fluttering of curtains in the window of Emma's house and recognised th...
Part 1 "Here's some burnt connective tissue," she said, wiping a small grease splatter off her nipple and forking three strips of bacon onto Rod's plate. Before turning back to the stove she snapped off a piece for herself. Burnt connective tissue tasted so good sometimes, especially on a late winter morning like this. Her comment was playing to her vegeta...
Chapter 1 "Here's to a new day," Chris said with a clank of the rim of her well-used diner coffee mug against her best friend, Anna's, equally battered cup. "A new day and a new me." She sighed heavily, as if saying it might actually make the words believable. She felt exactly the same on the inside as she had for the past month: empty, lonely, foolish for...
Prologue Carter ambled aimlessly across the rugged terrain of the frozen wasteland. He waited with bated breath and some measure of both heady anticipation and a fair amount of dread for the Grim Reaper to finally find him. He longed for the insanity that would eventually come and escort him to a shadowy world of lunacy. Drugging his mind so his body wouldn...
Author's Note: It is recommended to read the previous chapters of this story if you have not done so already to better understand the storyline and characters... Jen woke up tightly wrapped in a cocoon of blankets, smiling as the image of Dan tucking her in when he had gotten up this morning came into her mind. Glancing at the clock, she saw it was only...