CHAPTER 88
I was unable to speak for a long time, that name cutting the strings that had stopped me slumping onto the bed as Kim did. So solid, so ready to pull Kim into a cuddle, find out what her problem was, to ease her pain, and thump.

Oily. Happy, smiling, cheeky, gorgeous man Oily. Rosie and Carl’s brother.

‘Shooting’.

CHAPTER 87
The news filtered back over the next few days, largely via Paul.

“She hurts, Debbie, but she’s still with us. She’ll be ready for visitors tomorrow, doctor says”

We were all in the back dining room, except for Kim, Gemma and Alicia, and I saw several of the girls sit up, Charlie and Tiff whispering to each other. I knew exactly what it would be, of course, and over the next week we operated a rotating watch over Paula. By ‘watch’, it seemed to consist largely of watching her eat a large number of Gemma’s best treats. And by ‘rotating’. It was mostly Charlie and Tiff that were involved. A few nights after our first visit to the hospital, I had a different sort of visit, as once more a nondescript figure in raincoat and baseball cap was at my back door.

I mind playing with my gran’s sewing pins. She was a seamstress and used expensive, thin, steel pins, not the cheaper more common, thicker, iron ones that were used by virtually all women in those days. I’d been playing with them with a magnet and some had become magnetised. She’d complained to my dad, ‘I don’t know what that bairn of yours has put on them, but I’ve even scrubbed them with Ajax powder and still they stick together.’

I tried to frown at my image, but the expression looked suspiciously like a pout.

CHAPTER 86
Marty must have had his chat with Gemma, for she asked for a house meal the next Friday evening, which brought a flurry of urgent requests for additional places to be laid, one of them for a much smaller person. No Blake, however, as it turned out he was doing some coppering job or other. What the hell; I had asked Paul and Paula as well, so it was the second dining room, as ever, for a full House. Gemma insisted on doing the cooking, really pushing the boat out with little savoury nibbles to start with followed by a full-on chicken dinner with more trimmings than a Mod’s Vespa, and as she bustled around the kitchen, directing some of the other girls to ‘pour this’ or ’peel those’, I found myself looking properly at Marty, as he sat in an alcove, as much out of the way as he could manage, given his size.

Mouse glances up at her rearview mirror and notices two black SUVs were following her. She had gotten a few miles down the highway. When she noticed they were being followed, after picking up the man and teenage girl.

She steps on the gas pedal and increases her speed. She watches as the SUVs she spotted increase their speed as well. She looks ahead and spots two eighteen-wheelers and several other SUVs. She speeds between the two eighteen-wheelers and zig and zag between the other cars. She drops back, so she is hidden by the eighteen-wheelers.

CHAPTER 85
I spent some time as the days lengthened once more working with Heidi and the local colleges, and to my delight we found a couple of vocational places for Charlie and Tiff, while Clara settled into her own A-level preparations, and we lost Alicia.

Junior golf is a sequel to "Golfing with Mom" and "Ladies Invitational". Didi and Sandy are moving on with golf as they start school together. Didi is learning how to act like a young lady as her best friend Sandy is teaching her about being a girl.

For 35yrs the border between the Human Empire and Gorgonzola Empire as remained mostly peaceful. The citizens for the Human Empire of this border region are loyal to the last man, woman, and child to the Empire. It was on one of these worlds that gave birth to a legend. The world of Apollo 6 is one of the harshest worlds within the Empire. One so harsh that only it could claim to be the birth world of James J. Owens, the most feared of Death Dealers. A world that is even now poised to give birth to a new legendary warrior. One who shall be baptized in the blood of the Empire’s enemies. Robert Wolff youngest great grandchild of James Owens’ sister Cecilia Owens.

CHAPTER 83
It was quite a bright Thursday, and I wasn’t on shift. Charlie and Tiff had some excuse or other for skiving, something about having finished and passed their A-levels, so we were all at a loose end. What to do? Decision made, two girls on the bench seat of the Transit, one on a seat in the back, and round to Diane’s. She would definitely have biscuits, because I made sure I put a couple of packs into my rucksack.

Meagan's Tail

A new Universe, a New story!

Intermission of our story

Pixie time!

CHAPTER 82
Cathy didn’t speak much as she drove us home, but I suspect that was simply the way she approached her driving, like everything else she did: measured, methodical, cautious and then, after all options had been weighed, decisive. It wasn’t until we were safely on the M4 that she offered a comment.

“What was it Peggy Hughes said to you as we left, Debbie?”

CHAPTER 18
Sam and Rosie, naturally. That word sat in the front of my mind as I watched them run across the field, and it was another little barb in my soul. Up and down, my mood; the slightest little thing derailed me.

‘Naturally’. I wasn’t natural, of course, not what they thought I was, not a real girl in any legal sense, but that wasn’t the issue just then. It was how they were acting without a script, natural children behaving naturally. Such things had been beaten and raped out of me in Mersey View, and in other supposedly safe spaces before my entry into that particular circle of hell. I watched two other children of around my age, I saw them dance and laugh, and when I matched them, I had to think it through beforehand.