The week passed quickly, and Jovita and Hanna were soon enjoying their Saturday together. After a festive Shabbat lunch, they walked hand in hand from Hanna's Greenwich Village apartment to the National Museum of the American Indian in the Finance District, exchanging pleasantries along the way. Hanna was excited about looking up the indigenous aspect of Jov...
We all have fantasies, I guess. It’s part of what makes us human, is it not? As a pious Muslim sister who wears the hijab, I am certainly no different. My name is Raya Mamadou and I was born and raised in Adel Bagrou, a small town on the southeastern arm of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. My father Saleem Mamadou is a member of the Afro-Mauritanian nobil...
A letter from the unemployed to Santa Claus hoping for a job. Dearest Santa Claus, I'm sorry, Santa. Maybe I asked you for too much last year, when I asked you for what I'm asking you for again this year. Since I didn't receive what I asked for last year, by asking you for the same thing again, I was hoping to receive it this year. Maybe I was expecting to...
A true story (related to Sub Joe by a well-known British political figure, and published with his permission). I'd been urged to attempt the Cambridge Entrance exam by my maths teacher, as I had, at 18, an aptitude with numbers. However, in order to be considered for a place at Cambridge I had to obtain a good 'O' level result in a foreign language. I was,...
"Oh, my handicap is off the chart," Katie said in a mocking tone. "Yeah, Cutie, zero is definitely off the chart." JR and Rockie were laughing as they helped Tyler load the golf bags into the back of Patty's SUV. Katie feigned annoyance at being bested by Tyler on the nine holes that the four had just played, but anyone who saw her face every time Tyler hit...
My name is Lorena Elisabeth Rosenthal, and I'm a young woman living in the City of Ottawa, Ontario. I was born in the City of Tel Aviv in the State of Israel. My family moved to the Confederation of Canada about eleven years ago. I am twenty two years old and attend Carleton University, where I major in Criminal Law. I was raised Jewish, and for most of my l...
LXXI Ivory Towers Mark & Molly 2075 There was much that was making Mark feel guilty. Here he was—a married man with a devoted wife with whom he'd lived for fourteen years and a delightful nine-year old daughter—now living every day of the week in Oxford: a two hour train journey from Islington. And this was all because his employer, Sig Mu Inc., Korea, need...
XXX Britain Means Business Tamara 2095 It didn't come as much of a surprise to Tamara when Zoe died. The mystery was rather that she'd managed to live so long given that she'd managed to maintain for so long a drug habit far in excess of what a woman of advanced years was designed to withstand. All the same, it had been good while it lasted. She and M...
XVII Faith and Charity Tamara 2093 Tamara studied the framed picture on the wall. It showed the image of a slightly tubby middle-aged woman which had been made to resemble a mediaeval Christian saint. She even had a halo around her forehead. "Who's this?" Tamara asked. "It's Saint Diane," said Dahab. "She was the founder of the Reigate centre." "Is...
My name is James Roy. Friends call me J. R. Who am I? A five-foot-nine, stocky and kind of hairy biracial guy with short hair, light brown skin and pale brown eyes. I work as an accountant with Atkinson & Rhodes in the city of Brockton, Massachusetts. Got my degree from Suffolk University sixteen years ago. I'm forty two years old, dreadfully single and slig...