The discovery of the money gave Lucy another problem, Andrea. She'd promised that she'd live with her until the Cowes week event. Now, she had enough money to do as she pleased with her life without her parents trying to tell her what to do ever again.

It was then that she realised that was exactly the reason why Andrea was crying. Andrea must have realised that Lucy didn't need her anymore. The visible change in Lucy over the past weeks thanks to Andrea had been there for everyone to see apart from Lucy herself.

Slowly it began to dawn upon her that Andrea had made her take stock of her life. She didn't know what she wanted to do with it but it, whatever it was, was on her mind now instead of being pushed back into the darkest recesses and filed under 'tomorrow'.

Had Andrea and her no-nonsense approach to life had made her grow up at least a little bit?

That and a thousand other questions raced through her mind. It was only when Andrea touched her arm lightly and said,

"Earth to planet Lucy, come in please?"

Lucy let out a startled, "You can't be serious? Do mean to say that you put me through all that for a joke?"

"Lucy, everything I've said today has been deadly serious. Come back into the lounge and think about what I said while dish up dessert. Ok?"

Lucy followed Andrea out of the bedroom and still somewhat in a daze, she sat down at the table.

Andrea disappeared into the kitchen and returned with desert.

"Here you go, Crème Brulee de la Maison," said Andrea as she placed a dish down in front of Lucy.

This is a repost of an old story that seems to have disappeared from the site.

This piece takes the form of an interview between Ellen Hammond (EH) and Rosemary Donaldson (RD).

[EH] My guest today is the former politician and civil rights campaigner Rosemary Donaldson. Welcome to the show Rosemary.

[RD] Thank you for inviting me Ellen.

[EH] You have had a very varied and incident packed life. How do you think you would survive on a Desert Island?

[RD] How big is this island?

[EH] As big as you would like it to be?

Dedicated follower of fashion -or O'Lucky Man.

This is a tale that I wrote around 2007. The 'fashion accessory' mentioned in this story was around at the time. It didn't last all that long but it got me thinking.

“Ladies, ladies, let us not get carried away. There is a lot more to discuss that could potentially stop the project dead in the water. May I suggest that we break for lunch? That will give everyone time to think and try to consider what going forward may mean to the rest of your life.”

No one disagreed so I added,

“It is almost one o’clock now. Why don’t we reconvene at two thirty?”

Again, no one disagreed so the meeting broke up. The new arrivals went and found their rooms with the help of Ann-Marie.

That left Jo and myself alone in the kitchen.

It was a brilliant moonlit night. The warm weather of the past few weeks had made the nights unbearable for sleeping.
One of those who couldn’t sleep was William(Bill) Clancy. That night he’d gone for a drive down to the coast in his car.

As he topped the crest of a hill, he saw the gleam of the sea ahead. He wasn’t there yet. There was a steep hill to negotiate first.

He carefully started down the hillside. He saw another pair of headlights on the other side of the valley. He judged that the car was heading his way.

[At a School, somewhere two weeks before Christmas]

“Miss Featherstone, the Headmistress would like to see you in her Office?” said the Head’s secretary after she’d popped her head around my classroom door.

Sadly, my class of fifteen year olds were more interested in which ‘C List’ celebrity had either had a boob job or was … well, having it off with some other reality TV performer than 'Britain during the Industrial Revolution'. I refuse to call them stars. Most of them had as much talent as I had in my little finger.

The flight west was long and boring. I read the report on my sisters at least three times. It seemed incredible that Ruby and Emerald had not only admitted their crimes but engaged in therapy relating to anger management.

Sapphire on the other hand was totally unrepentant. The report contained copies of letters that had been smuggled out of her prison by other inmates. She was vehement in her goal of making sure that I didn’t enjoy what she considered were ill gotten gains that were in her warped view of the world, rightly hers.

A modern twist on a classic story
[At a house in a more fashionable part of Washington DC]

“We are going to the President’s Inauguration Ball next week. I saw we, but naturally a non-entity like yourself won’t be going of course but we will make sure that you don’t sit down while we are out,” said my sister Sapphire with a smirk on her face.

The famous words ‘I had a dream’ means many things to many people. My ‘I had a dream’ moments got me into trouble more than once when I was a teenager.

Jo could always wrap me around her little finger. I suppose that is part of what loving your partner the way I do is. So, despite my protestations, I was soon ushered upstairs in our spare bedroom and trying on the underwear, stockings dress and shoes.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” asked Jo hold up the two-flesh coloured ‘things’ that were the false breasts in her hands.

“Do I have to?”

“If you do then I’ll get changed into something nice just for you.”

I punched the speed dial on my Mobile.
It was a Friday afternoon in early March and I needed some entertainment.

“Hello Jen. What’s up? Your Boss still trying to feel you up then?”

“Hi Kylie. No. He’s not. I’ve threatened to tell his wife if he tries it again.”

They both laughed.

“As it’s the last Friday of the month and I’m assuming that you’ve been paid so how about some fun tonight?”

“I don’t know Jen,” she said with a big Sigh.

“Come on K. It’s been nearly nine months now.”

[24th December 2011, Helmand Province, Afghanistan]

The special forces soldier spoke quietly into his radio,
“Leopard One to Lion, come in please?”

“Lion receiving,” came the reply.

“Leopard One is waiting for the Antelopes at 951.”

“Roger Leopard One. Lion out.”

The radio went dead.

The soldier shifted his position slightly and peered out into the gathering doom of Christmas Eve.

I was still in a fragile state when Cheryl returned from Aberystwyth.

“What’s wrong?”

I pointed at the TV. Another episode of that dammed TV show was just coming to an end.

“Oh. I see. It must be hard to see your old self, isn’t it?”

I just nodded and wiped a tear away from my cheek.

Cheryl came and wrapped her arms around me.

If I was expecting a bit of peace and quiet after the wedding, then I was sorely mistaken.

Two days later I was in the middle of collecting eggs from the hens when I heard a car coming up the drive.
I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the car and its occupants.

“What on earth are you two doing here?” I said as Holly and William got out of his Land Rover.

“Shouldn’t you be on some tropical island in the sun by now?”

Progress was painfully slow with my development plans. I knew what sort of thing I wanted but getting past that was proving difficult. It was Ruby who provided the solution to my blockage.

I had just finished cleaning out the Hens when she came walking up the drive carrying a large shopping bag.

“Hello Monica, do you have a minute? I need a favour from you.”

“Hi Ruby. Sure. Just let me put this lot of hen droppings into the compost heap and I’ll be with you. Why don’t you go into the kitchen and put the kettle on? I’ll only be a minute or two.”

The remainder journey home seemed to take forever. I could tell that Kylie was tired because on several corners she either didn’t lean with me or leaned the other way.

When we finally arrived home, neither of us was in the mood for anything other than going straight to bed. It had been a very long day.

I crawled out of bed knowing that it was late but not sure how late it was. My first thought was to hit the shower and use that to wake me up.

[Authors Note]
There may be some historical bits in this section that some readers may take issue with. No insults were or are intended. I was only trying to illustrate that some people have very long memories and do not forgive the actions of others easily much like the feud between the Hatfield’s and the McCoy’s.

By the time I woke up, the storm of the previous evening had blown away and the morning was bright and clear. I pulled back the curtains in my Bedroom and looked out to sea. A few ships were visible well out at sea. Two fishing boats were about a mile or so off shore. It looked like a perfect morning.