Jim - I left Nat to his fate - to the tender mercies of Adel, Bill, and Pete - and the ex-military owner-operator of that particular recompression chamber. A very good friend of Pete's who had lost his lower leg in Kandahar province but still did commercial diving work with a specially designed prosthetic for that leg and foot/"fin". As I left I couldn't...
1: Neu Mitteleuropa July 2002. I saw her for the first time in the hotel lobby where we were registering for the conference -- a heavy-set, early middle-aged woman, her brown hair short and tightly-permed, wearing a blue trouser suit. The jacket was military-style with two rows of brass buttons on its front, giving her the look of a Civil War-era Union of...
With a name like Tamsin you would be right in thinking my partner was born with a sliver spoon in her mouth. I suppose Oliver sounds a bit upmarket too but we did originally meet at University, her having come from a rather upmarket private school in England and I from a Grammar School. In our first year together the relationship was developed in the few hou...
For finding out how our heroes started living together, please read "The unexpected housekeeper." This is the continuation of their story, presenting how a lonely, overworked lawyer had his life changed by a not so regular housekeeper. 1.Friday evening After that day's marvelous morning, and having a good day at the office, I got home around 8 pm, as usual...
"No, there is no overt pressure at the moment, but if I cannot be sure the situation will remain the same if the result is not different the next time," Resham sobbed as she sat next to me. "Come on, things cannot be that bad," I consoled her by hugging her tight and running my hands down her back. "I can sense that the tide has turned the wrong way, parti...
White Buddha: Portrait of an ESL Teacher in China "Melvin..." "Where was he from?" "Portland, Oregon." "That's weird." "It's a weird place..." "But he hated Portland, like, really, really hated Portland, always shitted on its hipsters, and politically correct, passive aggressive people..." "He certainly was not passive aggressive." "Wasn't he...
Chapter One Old Jim Grinsted had been up and down the aisle a couple times. Married once - the father of three now grown children - he'd been married again for a few years. Didn't work out. So now he was on his honeymoon with Sabina - 30 years his junior. Honeymoon? Horsefeathers! Yes, he'd given her a $2,000 diamond ring (small change for Old Jim), but it...
Strolling through the back streets of Bangkok and looking at the women - prostitutes or not - leaves me with a need and on fire. I see an older woman on a single crutch with a single leg. Of course, older is relative. She seems pretty, but the morning hides much. The dress is short and the lone leg nice, the other hidden somewhere, maybe it ends near her hi...
I'll face the hellish realms, Camilla thought, but I'll still use Nigrovum to keep my physical body from decomposing; I can't bear the thought of my beautiful body getting ugly in that mortuary. With this other resolution in mind, Camilla removed the psychic barrier that had been keeping the spirits of Agape, Don Josiah, and Candice from entering the room E...
*Editing magic performed by KJ24 and Shyqash, plus contributions by the regular gang of brigands and neer-do-wells* *Would you choose ephemeral beauty, or rugged determination?* *Please note: I wrote this before the incidents in Paris and San Bernardino, which makes some of the fantasy story developments tragic in that life sometimes mirrors fantasy* ****...