CHAPTER 1
“Yes, can I help you?”

I really needed to ditch the burner for a new phone. Too many people knew the current number, and that could mean leaks, and leaks meant problems. Not always, not immediately, but almost inevitably. I had managed to keep the address quiet, but, just like the phones, it was only a matter of time. How on Earth had I ended up in this line of sort-of-work?

Seeing the Sights

A short story by Rosemary

In the summer of 1905, in a rural area of western Pennsylvania, two boys were born into the Wenger Mennonite community on the same day. They were pretty typical kids, and they went to school together. Played together. Worked together, and determined that when they went on rumspringa, it would be together.

Leroy was born in the morning of July 2^nd, and Eduard, later that night, and they considered that it was God’s will that they be friends. They loved each other like brothers, and when they were eighteen years old, they left home, and went to Philadelphia on their Rumspringa.

HAD TO GROW UP

“And now, breaking news. Police in Anchorage, Alaska are searching for a girl who escaped from the hospital last night. Police have set up a hotline for anybody who has…”

Charles and Eugene frowned at the news report. “It’s been three days and nothing. The whole city losing gravity for a brief moment should have been front page news all over the world, but it’s been barely mentioned. How the hell is that possible?” Charles muttered to himself, sitting in the hospital’s waiting room with his and Eugene’s families.

Cheer Coach
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

To me, it was a natural extension from gymnastics. At college I was a gymnast, but injury put an end to my career.

Berlin 1945: A Story of Survival

A Short Story based on Historical People
By Maryanne Peters

It seems hard to believe with everything that happened afterwards, but in the 1920s and 1930s Germany was at the forefront of the battle for rights for homosexual and transsexual people.

The Berlin based sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld led a campaign throughout Europe with the formation of “The World League of Sexual Reform”. He toured America in 1931 with the Hearst newspaper chain dubbing him “the Einstein of Sex”. It was Hirschfeld who first outlined the full spectrum of sexual variations, by gender and orientation.

CHAPTER 51
Recovery from surgery was slow, but nowhere near as bad as I had feared. When I left Hemmings’ place, Carol was with me, having taken the train down so that I wouldn’t have to ride all the way home again alone, but for my little rubber ring under the new anatomy. We hardly spoke at all; what should have been the celebration of my body finally being compete was lost in the rattle of train wheels and Tannoy announcements from the guard. It all felt so utterly meaningless, and the question locked in my mind was whether I should really have bothered going through with the surgery. What, after all, was the point?

CRYING SHOULDER

Prison Therapy
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I never shared a cell with Saus Solnick. I like to think that if we ever had, if we had talked this through, none of this would have happened. If I knew who he was, I never would have followed him on this path.

Squaddie
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

The Special Air Service is one of the most prestigious of special forces units, if not the most prestigious. All other special forces units have been modelled on it or some of its practices. One key element is that membership is on merit as assessed by a secret and non-reviewable internal selection process. This has always been seen as a strength. But it has been observed that it may also account for the fact that no woman has ever been admitted to the unit.

Chapter 14 - In Nemain’s Shadow

Early Evening, November 5th, 2007 - Harborview Hospital

To Not Let Go

Chapter 3.2

As we approached the door to the downstairs, we began to hear what sounded like excited shouting. It was like people were watching a sport of some kind. We arrived behind a line of men cheering and stomping their feet. They were dressed in what looked like simple white togas like I had seen in pictures of Ancient Rome.

We stood there for a moment, then one of the men turned a bit and caught sight of us. “My friends!” he exclaimed, almost musically. “You appear to be new here!” He spoke animatedly until he caught sight of me. "Child! What are you doing dressed so shamefully?"

Lay It Down

Kelly looks at the time on her dash radio. She hopes Mr. Bounty will arrive soon. It’s been a long day for her, and she would like to get home and try to get some sleep in. She notices an older model incoming turboprop aircraft coming in for a landing. It taxies over to the hangar she was waiting at.