Week 1: Monday Julia was on the treadmill when she first saw him. She couldn't say what it was that made her look at him. He wasn't as young, fit or good looking as some of the other men at the gym. In fact, he looked very much like he could be a friend of her husband's, or a husband of one of her friends. He looked to be around 40 and he was exercising har...
Some Thanksgivings have more to be thankful for than others do, and this was definitely one of them. Rachel and I had met at a college frat party as sophomores and had been a "regular" item ever since. Living on the West Coast and going to school on the East Coast some times made it difficult to get home for the holidays. The Thanksgiving of our senior year...
"Get your fat furry ass off my face!" Marley fell to the floor with casual grace and scuttled out the bedroom door with guilty haste. The cat knew perfectly well that he wasn't allowed in Enoch's bedroom but couldn't resist the warmth and comfort in there. It was raining hard outside now and Enoch lay listening to the heavy drops bombard the window for a mi...
DON'T LET THE DOLEDRUMS FOOL YOU Tempting Goodness for Outdoor Meals, boasted the advertisement. Vera studied the package for margarine with big gray eyes. It gave her ideas, but then she remembered that time in April. She had prepared Jell-o topped with whipped cream in a bowl and had waited for Jim to come to his bed. Once he appeared, coming out from his...
Adam sat in a corner of the canteen, sipping a cup of what purported to be coffee from the vending machine but was, truth to be told, rather more weak than willing. It was 4.45pm on a Friday afternoon and he'd just completed his first week as a data imput clerk in the Finance Department of Woodchester City Council. So far the job had been enjoyable and the f...
After taking my sister's place on her driving test almost another year passed before my next opportunity to take her place. A month before we had moved as a family to a new part of the country where Mum had found a good job although we had yet to make any friends. I was still doing a minimum wage job in a supermarket, whilst Jessica was away on a holiday in...
When her stepmother entered through the cottage door bearing the news, Cinderella was sitting exactly where she always did. And that was in front of the blazing log fire, the ash and cinders dappling her deathly pale skin; naked as always, as clothes were a vanity wasted on one who never ventured beyond the kitchen hearth, the stack of logs and the coal scut...
22nd Century Imports was a fancy name for a distressed goods wholesale business. Edward "Ted" Hanratty bought the inventory of businesses that were going out of business for whatever reason, and either sold the inventory to other businesses in the same line of work, or through a chain of discount outlets he had in his own and two neighboring states. The "imp...
Author's Note: An accident shrinks a thirty five year old man to just over three feet tall. *** When Jenny met us in front of the store, Arilla said, "I'm sorry I didn't have time to pack any sleepwear for her." "Don't worry about it, we'll make do with something." Jenny took my hand when I climbed out of the car. She said, "My car is around back. My r...
A couple nights after Jeri's visit, Fritz called to talk to both Ron and MaryAnn. "Hey folks I just got back from Sacramento. Suddenly I'm the Golden Boy in politics and the nabobs up north have been teaching me how to comport myself in the nation's capital. I leave for Washington in a couple weeks to settle in, but first things first. "When we can make th...