Cyclist

Mates 85

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CHAPTER 85
Agreement to our proposals was surprisingly quick, given the allegations about ‘Wily Orientals’ I had grown up with, and within two weeks we were already at the stage of drafting a training roster, splitting Maz and I so that we could work twice as fast while still leaving time for our childcare responsibilities.

The first lot were the ‘matrix’ people, including Audrey, who turned up in one of my classes. They were all frighteningly intense in their approach to the work, and I began to suspect that the local working culture might be just a little competitive, maybe with a touch of canine cannibalism.



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This story is 105 words long.

Wrapping up

Well, I have been writing quite rapidly for a few days, and I have the bulk of the content for the book following 'Mates' ready, as well as its structure. The story order is deliberate.

'Mates' will finish properly. The next book will consist of the following, in order.

Black and White
Happiness is a Warm Hound
A Colder Dish (Neil's story conclusion part 1)
Blindside
Closing Doors (Neil's story conclusion part 2)

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Mates 84

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CHAPTER 84
Bobby was down at our place two hours before the start time we had suggested, ostensibly to check on the barbie but very clearly as an opportunity to answer a very simple question from Maz as he slumped on our sofa, Ish out in the pool.

“What on Earth was all that about?”

“Snirgeing, Maz”



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This story is 56 words long.

Mates 83

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CHAPTER 83
The settling-in period went far too quickly, as did our boy’s enrolment in the International School. That second part was actually eased by my wife’s presentation of some old photos of the place, because it had actually been her former father-in-law’s school in the ‘East of Suez’ days.

I had to force myself away from worry, because the school were offering a minibus service for pupils, recognising how those needing an ‘international’ school were rather likely to be ‘international’ in their own right, and possibly rather busy. So we made his packed lunch each evening, left it with a cold drink in the fridge for him, and one of us walked him down to that familiar bus stop, as Maz and I worked swap shifts until we were sure he could handle coming home to an empty house.

He was a Big Boy, but always our baby.



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This story is 151 words long.

Mates 82

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CHAPTER 82
We had a week to settle in, a process that didn’t leave a lot of free time. We did get some exploring in, though, which included a trip to the Botanic Gardens. Maz had seemed almost ashamed when she had asked what amounted to my permission, and our late-night discussion became quite emotional for some very obvious reasons. We were both a little bleary-eyed when we roused Ish that morning, asking him to pack his raincoat and the little digital camera we had treated him to.



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This story is 88 words long.

Mates 81

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CHAPTER 81
We landed in the afternoon, just after a rain squall had blown through; the place was a lot wetter than WA, that was clear. Maz had the window, and as we descended towards Changi, she was almost dancing in her seat, pointing out places that I couldn’t actually see, as Ish was already leaning over her for his view. I would just have to see it all from ground level.

“This was the military airfield originally, Mike. Alan’s Dad used to go to the beach here. There was a place called the South China Sea Club, but it was just palm thatched huts, a bar, a juke box and a local man cooking chips in a wok over a gas ring. On the floor. Such changes!”



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This story is 129 words long.

Blindside 6

I, me, the one with the rapid-fire gob, it was still hanging open, so I hauled it shut by pure force of will, and sought the right words, hoping to avoid the reflex “Didn’t think you were a queer”. I may be ‘queer’ myself by most people’s definition, but I had to learn about homophobia. I’m as straight as they come, in every double meaning of that word, and the idea of two men together had always been a bit ‘ick’ to my younger self. I know full well how wrong those thought are, so did my best to make it ‘were’, but my hindbrain still kicks in at inappropriate moments.



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This story is 114 words long.

Blindside 5

I took the skewers out as instructed. Leaving them to be slathered with gloop and slapped onto the grill, and then stood for a few seconds to put my thoughts in order. There was something about him, something off, that didn’t match the Norman Rossiter I remembered from that school. The lad I had known had been one of the rugby crowd, exactly the people I had spent so much energy in avoiding., and their behaviour could never have been fairly described as ‘accommodating’ or ‘inclusive’, unless it was a matter of intersectional hatred. The Venn diagram of their world had been a classic double circle: ‘Us’ and ‘every lesser being’. That second circle could just as easily be labelled ‘targets’.



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This story is 122 words long.

Blindside 4

Breakfast was more than a little awkward, Jules sneaking little glances at me before ducking her head whenever I caught her gaze. I assumed it was a mixture of smugness and shame, like that song about him knowing that she knew that he knew and so on. The two of them had shared some intimate moments, occasionally with most of the county from what I’d heard prior to inserting my little foam plugs, and she knew that I did, indeed, know. In an instant, my traitor mind came up with ‘Not so much kiss and tell as shag and scream’, but I think I managed to hide the smirk, and to be sure, I covered it with words.



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This story is 119 words long.

Blindside 3

I watched the expressions dance over her face, realising how much the ‘O’ and ‘W’ words meant to her, poor girl.

“I’m in Salfords, as Jules probably told you, so train will work well if you’re in Horley. There’s a bus stop as well. Where are you based?”

“Top end of Lumley Road”

“Ah. Several buses go past there”

He reeled off some suggestions, all of which I was aware of, although my own choice was usually the number twenty. I was a little puzzled by his knowledge, as he was a driver, like most estate bloody agents, but I assumed it was all part of the toolkit for potential sales.

“Where to, then?”



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This story is 117 words long.

Blindside 2

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Friday morning came the way it usually did, far too late in the week. I managed a bus trip without added audio, and after assembly shepherded a flock of teenagers as they laid out the tables ready for our start at ten thirty.

I was still shaken by the scene with Jules, and the vast depths of her fear. I couldn’t quite see it as she did, because I was someone that fitted the lived reality of trans women rather than the usual fictional stereotype of ‘small, pretty’. I couldn’t feel all of her fear because she was in a place I had never been permitted to enter. No pain, no gain, and as I had never gained, I had avoided at least some of the pain.

Sod that. She had been smiling when she had left my place that evening; just stand by her, ready to catch her if she fell and pray that she wouldn’t.



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This story is 160 words long.

Blindside 1

“YOU A GEEZER, OR WHAT?”

Volume control wasn’t his strong suit, evidently. Thankfully, the bus was already there, so I stepped on as if he hadn’t spoken, eructated, puked, whatever. Good start to the day.

Usual start to the day.



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This story is 42 words long.

Mates 80

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CHAPTER 80
We had other issues to think about just then, as Ish was navigating the sudden complications of primary school. There had been the usual sequence of birthday parties throughout his time in what I still thought of as ‘infants’ school’, but now he was in what my memories called ‘junior school' things were changing, as boys did their traditional dance of realising that girls were not only different, but actually distasteful which is not exactly the best process for continuing our species. His size and balance were both a little above the average, the latter no doubt helped by his emerging love of climbing, and that meant he avoided the old school horror of being ‘last pick’ for games, and THE local game for Perth was ‘footy’



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This story is 128 words long.

Mates 79

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CHAPTER 79
Life was good. We celebrated Ish’s seventh birthday by withdrawing some of our accumulated bonus money and flying out to Esperance for some seriously wet fun, including a stop on Woody Island for penguin watching. Trying to explain the why and wherefore of polar bear and iceberg absence reminded me yet again of our son’s real age, despite his literary tastes, but there were places to swim, burgers to eat and granite outcrops to play on.

Neither Maz nor I had any truck with the sexist convention that women were meant to be mothers, but we were parents, and it was wonderful, most of the time.



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This story is 109 words long.

Mates 78

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CHAPTER 78
“Right, darling, these three pictures go together, because they are all wedding pictures. This one is me and your Dad, over on Rotto”

“That’s a golf place, Mum”

“Yes. One of our friends arranged it as a wedding present, and before you ask, not as a game of golf bit as somewhere we could all sit, somewhere nice, Oh, and this picture as well. Recognise it?”

“King’s Park, Mum”



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This story is 72 words long.

Mates 77

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CHAPTER 77
Year by year, both our business and our son grew, and Geeta got her wish to see Sydney when we opened another branch there. Kul running it as a manager until we had integrated some more employees. One of them turned out to be Betty, who took over from Kul after a very few months, allowing the Butts to return. Ish was now five years old and in proper preschool, which he would regularly complain about.

“The reading’s boring, Dad!”



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This story is 82 words long.

Mates 76

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CHAPTER 76
We got a regular flow of letters after that, or perhaps it could be described as an intermittent drip feed. Every now and again, we would pop off a new snap of our boy, and hint about dates, but my mother-in-law never bit, not even to the extent of mentioning me at all, or using anything other than Malay for her correspondence. According to my wife, Mrs R even appeared to be matchmaking a few times, even though her daughter was already married. I began to feel a little unwanted by her.



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This story is 93 words long.

Mates 75

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CHAPTER 75
I couldn’t remember ever being as tired as I was those first few months, but it was Maz who bore the heavier load at first, as she was the food source. Both of us felt rather stupid when the health visitor talked us through the secret of rewarmed previously expressed milk, and I am sure Maz felt relieved rather than embarrassed. Kul asked us if we hadn’t actually sprogged in England, leaving the kid with persistent jet lag, as his circadian rhythm seemed utterly disconnected from Western Australia. Dal picked up on that, naturally, and suggested that Ish was an alien changeling from another planet.



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This story is 108 words long.

Mates 74

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CHAPTER 74
There was nothing either of us could do for him, of course, being so far away, apart from simply doing our best to be there, wherever and whatever ‘there’ might be, if he needed us. Maz, as ever, spent so much of her energy worrying about others that she had let herself fade, just a bit, and I was slowly beginning to realise what a gamble she had taken in almost literally throwing herself at me.



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This story is 77 words long.

Mates 73

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CHAPTER 73
Eventually, Neil found some equilibrium, and Maz and I managed to shuffle hm into the spare room he was using, before finally settling into our own bed. Maz was unsurprisingly rather pensive as she cuddled into me.

“So many triggers in him, love. How the hell has he survived?”



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This story is 50 words long.

Intersecting threads

As my faithful readers know, I interweave almost all of my tales. With the current stage of 'Mates', coupled with the 'Prequel' in 'Black and White', there is an unfinished story there, of Neil and Maddy.

Obviously, I know where that story goes. I am considering fleshing it out, as I did in 'Black and White', but it comes after all the stuff I have already written. I think it might work as a standalone, even so. What do people think? Should I write and post it now, or leave it till after 'Mates' has run its course?

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Mates 72

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CHAPTER 72
The cruise was a delight, right from the start. We hadn’t moved more than a short distance from the jetty when Maz was pointing at one of the smooth granite outcrops near the port.

“Cape Barren geese, Mike! Bloody good start to the day”



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This story is 46 words long.

Happiness Is A Warm Hound 5

PART 5
Brian had a little bit of time before his appointment, so stood us another round of tea, or rather I did, as Diesel was clearly in her favourite spot. Once we’d supped up, Marion and I walked out to the van.

“I came up by bus, Jules. Could you shove that stuff in the back, and I shall cadge a lift”

“Home or work?”

“Left the car at work, so no need for a detour. You did well there, love”



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This story is 82 words long.

Happiness Is A Warm Hound 4

PART 4
I found myself laughing, almost automatically. I dealt with so many dogs I had a routine check-list for their owners, a method of deciding whether the owner was Dog People or rather someone who liked accessories. Small dogs in handbags, oh please.

My boss did much the same thing, not only refusing jobs where one or more of us had raised enough concerns, but passing them up the line for official action. As she also ran a kennels and cattery near Shipley Bridge, we saw a LOT of dogs and their owners.

I sobered up quickly, giving him a smile, but refraining from patting his hand. Most definitely not a good idea.

“Sorry again; not laughing at you. It’s just ridiculous, given how you look after her. Who has this come from?”

“You got time for this?”

“Not working for anyone but myself today. What do you have?”

“Well, I’ll put the kettle on first, then. Tea or coffee?”

“Tea, please, in this weather”

He smiled.

“You can lie down again if you want, but I will be in a chair”



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This story is 184 words long.

Happiness Is A Warm Hound 3

PART 3
It was only three days before I got the tasking to walk Diesel again, and this time I ran them out to Owlbeech. I normally avoided there with smaller dogs, but Tara loved it, as there could be a lot of splashy water and a huge space to sprint, which she seemed to do for the sheer hell of it. There was also a lot more dead wood to pick up, drop, chew and so on.



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This story is 77 words long.

Happiness Is A Warm Hound 2

Part 2
I gave him enough time to get back down the path to the public car park, then gathered my two for their ride home. Ryan was wanting a chase again, so he stayed on the lead while Tara did her own in and out of the trees roaming, which I had worked out meant she typically walked and ran about a dozen times the distance I did. It was heading towards school run time, so I stopped by the little tea place, where they had a warm pasty and, to my delight, a piece of lemon drizzle cake.



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This story is 99 words long.

Happiness Is A Warm Hound 1

PART ONE
I always avoided the first part of the hill when the weather was likely to produce mud, which meant the whole of January and most of February in practice. It wasn’t the mud on the path itself, for that was why wellies existed, but the immense quantity my dogs would collect. They’re not exactly my dogs, of course, so mud meant cleaning them off before returning them to their ‘real’ owners, and I rather liked having some ‘me time’ each day and enough hot water for a bath for myself rather than two or three mud-magnet hounds.



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This story is 101 words long.

Mates 71

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CHAPTER 71
I nodded, with a meaningful glance toward the other passengers.

“Chat later, love. Messy stuff”

“Late, then. One question now, though: is he all right?”

“I think so, especially with Alys to look after. Later, though, be best”



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This story is 39 words long.

Mates 70

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CHAPTER 70
Murdo had been incredibly generous, but he remained a very sharp businessman, and springing for accommodation as well as the venue would have cost rather a lot, so we were booked on a late afternoon boat back. Rod had arranged a small coach, and Phil a few taxis for those we couldn’t fit in. Tradition had to be observed, and so we bounced back over the water before trundling up to King’s Park, where Kul did his video thing and Neil the snaps.



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This story is 86 words long.

Mates 69

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CHAPTER 69
The wedding carried on in as traditional a way as can be imagined, despite it taking place in a glorified tent on a golf course. We had the speeches, and the toasts, and Des and his minions delivered a meal of surprising originality and variety. He had set up a line of barbecues for those who needed the full Aussie, but had stationed a couple of his kitchen staff in strategic positions to ensure food was cooked, and I noticed we had no chicken or pork. Sensible man.



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This story is 89 words long.

Black and White 8

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MADDY
I realised he might not immediately get the point, so asked again, before he could answer.

“Do you want to get used to it, Mr Strachan?”

He actually laughed, and I could see his grin in my imagination, shining out of his helmet,

Stop it! Bad mind!

Neil’s next words set me laughing with him.

“What is it you say, Maddy? The answer is ‘Oh my yes!’, of course”



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This story is 71 words long.

Black and White 7

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NEIL
I pointed at Maddy, who smiled as she accepted her dish.

The waitress indicated a dessert menu, I thanked her, and she was off to another table.

“No cuddle, then, that time?”

She knocked back most of her second glass---where had the first one gone?---then looked up at me once more.



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This story is 53 words long.

Black and White 6

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MADDY
I settled back against him as we continued down the lane to our digs, his buttock flexing against my hand, his own hand on my hip, and I was feeling almost blissed out. Sod what they had said at school, sod what had been written in the Register when I was born, this, the here and now, or there and then: it was right, fitting, proper. And I had the right dress with me, and shoes to go with it, because my own paranoia had been so worried there’d be a dress code for the dining room.



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This story is 99 words long.

Black and White 5

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NEIL
I could feel my face burning as she asked me, but she was sitting in such a relaxed way I could do nothing else but try my best. I had tried not to stare at her breasts, but I knew they were there, and my body was telling me exactly how well it knew the same thing, and I had no idea what I should do about that. Her question, though, wasn’t ‘what did I want?’ but rather ‘what might we want?’, which was a very different thing altogether. She was being so incredibly open about it; all I could do was try and match that, even though I could never do so.

Breathe, Neil.



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This story is 117 words long.

Black and White 4

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NEIL
I couldn’t really sleep that night, my nerves all over the place. What if I got another stiffy while talking to her, for example? I woke again at about four, and realised I wasn’t going to drop off again. I rolled over in bed to light up my computer, and yes, there was a room in Durham. Before I could chicken out, I booked it. I doubted that the B and B would complain, as they would keep my money for the extra nights, and kept the space to fit in another guest.



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This story is 96 words long.

Black and White 3

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MADDY
“Riiiiiight… Now, we both prefer monochrome, but you mentioned colour. Shall we get the pudding served, so we can clear the table to look at your portfolio?”

He hoovered up the ice cream I offered, so it wasn’t long before the table was cleared, dishes left soaking for the moment. That was what I normally did, but he didn’t need to know any of that. His portfolio was a large folder of paper prints, and one set caught my eye, as while it looked monochrome, there was a tiny dot of colour down near the bottom edge. I stood on the brake several times, but we got there, and in summary, the bite-sized chunks made perfect sense. I could feel the commas and full stops reasserting themselves in his speech.



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This story is 133 words long.

I blame Jo

I blame Ms Barbarella. she commented on one of my stories, as she often does. and it collided with my writing method, which is to construct a solid back story for every meaningful character.

I am now 11,000 words into bringing Neil's back story to life. In two evenings of writing.

STOP IT, JO!

Seriously... apologies for the resultant hiatus in 'Mates', but Neil and Maddy have my writerism by the scruff of the neck.

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Black and White 2

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MADDY
I was riding to the supermarket, ready for my version of a Big Shop, which is easy enough to fit onto even a small bike when you live solo, and it was a miserable day, joy to the world. I was musing on whether it was time to get some better footwear for the bike, or at least some waterproof over trousers that were actually proof against water, when the handlebars started to twist in my hand as the rest of the bike shimmied frantically from side to side. My hand let the throttle close, and thank god I didn’t grab the front brake, but as the engine slowed I coasted to a very wobbly stop, where I sat astride the little machine trying not to hyperventilate. What the hell?



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This story is 132 words long.

Black and White 1

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NEIL
My school days were long past, but they still rode me hard, revisiting when I least expected them, or perhaps when I was least able to handle the memories. I was deep in a sump well below Castleton when something triggered my memories and switched on the classic fear/flight responses. It took me several minutes to put them back behind their wall, as I lay in the cold and dark, seeing and hearing the other boys as they threw whatever they had learned from their parents at me. Thank god I was always so much bigger than they were at all ages. Sticks and stones would never break my bones, but what I understood of their words still bloody hurt.



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This story is 122 words long.

Mates 68

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CHAPTER 68
“Oh hell, Mike! Really? She must be…”

He stopped abruptly, looking directly at me, slowly collecting his next words.

“I know about your own loss, mate. The two of you must be in much the same head state, or am I wrong?”

“You have it just about right, Neil. We have had a few moments, to be honest. Memories, that sort of thing. Lots of stuff, baggage. Left overs, hang overs from the past”

“But you love her?”



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This story is 79 words long.

Mates 67

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CHAPTER 67
Life took a turn for the bloody busy after that evening. We were both working full time, of course, and there were our combination recreation and social sessions at music nights and at the climbing wall, but there was so much else to deal with. Australia has a very relaxed approach to marriage, in its own way, barring a few slightly irksome formalities. We could indeed marry just about anywhere, but that choice had been sneakily covered by Murdo. We could always say no, of course, but given what he was offering to us a refusal would have been more than rude.



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This story is 103 words long.

Mates 66

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CHAPTER 66
The tears followed once again, of course, but this time they weren’t entirely driven by grief. I switched sides on the bench seat so that I could hug her, and she could use my shirt to soak up her tears.

“Ey, you all right, love?”

It was one of those women Maz had described, who came down to walk laps of the park for their daily exercise, so many thousand steps app-based thing. Maz waved a hand at her.



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This story is 81 words long.

Mates 65

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CHAPTER 65
My mouth was sticky the next morning, my head still fuzzy. I could still remember most of it though, as the pictures were shown, more wine poured and a messy bout of tears was resolved in the old, old way. Maz looked up at me, bleary-eyed, and lifted a sheet to her nose with a wince.

“Which of us spilled the red on the dooner?”

“No idea. Won’t need a dry clean for a while. Stain’s there to stay, I think. I’ll stick the kettle on, and then we can strip the bed”

Her smile up at me was a little fragile, but she nodded.

“Good job we’re both off today”



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This story is 116 words long.

Mates 64

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CHAPTER 64
The double garage had been a sound choice. When we had narrowed our search to a couple of properties, that had been the clincher. Our estate agent (neither of us believed in imaginary estates) had been full of humour, repeating a phrase I had heard more than once before.

When the original houses were built, he said, you’d sometimes see your next door neighbour. As time went on, that compressed to hearing them, and with the current developments, where there was what seemed like six feet or so between your own eavesdrop and next door’s guttering, you could just about smell those across the property line.



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This story is 109 words long.

New book

I have a new book out on Kindle which is a first for me, as it is non-fiction. The subject matter may interest some on here,, though, as it is about cycle touring. I have taken my logs from three tours and edited them to better fit the narrative, so it will come across as very 'jerky', but that is a feature.

The three tours are:
Around Western Australia
From Hoek in Holland up to the edge of the Norwegian border with Sweden
From Munich along the Danube to Budapest and then around Hungary

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Mates 63

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CHAPTER 63
There was a place to leave the bike at Soapy Joe’s, just behind Kul’s car. I did the multiple lock thing, and slipped into the back seat behind Maz.

“No butts today, mate, even if they are cool. Did you mail head office?”

“Not yet. Wanted to make sure we can tie this one down before potentially looking stupid. Talk me through it again, please”



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This story is 68 words long.

Mates 62

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CHAPTER 62
“Mister Rhodes?”

I raised a hand, feeling absurdly childish as I did so.

“Here”

The bald man smiled and waved towards a side door.

“I’m Simon Burns. Just in here, and we can see how this goes. It’s all set up. Can I assume you speak and read English?”



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Mates 61

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CHAPTER 61
Things did settle down after that fortnight’s busyness, for the simple reason that even the best management magicians can’t come up with a new and revolutionary idea every day. We almost gave up on the sausages idea, for example, because there was no feasible way to fly out a sample pack to the east coast, and by definition anyone renting a van in Perth was likely to be heading over that way, so wouldn’t exactly be in the area for a repeat purchase.

Instead, Chad had a word with Rhona, who was definitely SWMBO in that business, and breakfast packs for their camping sessions started being ordered from a former miner. And Maz bought a helmet.



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Mates 60

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CHAPTER 60
The tent Maz had bought was, to be honest, rubbish. It was light enough for me to backpack, but if it had encountered a bit of wind, or rain, we’d have ended up sleeping under the camp shelter. What it did have as an advantage was simple: the inner tent was largely netting. Leaving the fly sheet off meant a view of the sky.



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