“I had a talk with her yesterday morning. She actually opened up to me and I felt you needed to know about it.” Shelly came out and handed a can of soda to her. Persephone opened it up and took a quick sip. “She's had so much fun the past few days, she's dreading having to be Troy for Christmas.”

“Maggie? Could I offer a suggestion?” Persephone asked as she leaned back in the couch.

Thanks to Djkauf for the Editing

Last part of Livermore for a while. But not the end of Tracy and her friends

Note: Rating gone up slightly due to a little issue brought in at the end

CHAPTER 22
I was on my own that evening, waiting for the phone to ring, but there was nothing. No Larinda, no checking up, and certainly no second thoughts. I logged onto the internet, and before I could stop myself the latest offers from Dorothy Perkins were on the screen.

On and Over (1st draft preview)
by Cleo Kraft

PROLOG

Small soft hands opened the door and a cute little blonde girl's head peeked in the room. She bit her lower lip as she looked around for any sign of people around. Her breathing was hurried and panting a bit as she had just ran from the park all the way up Forest Avenue to Dr. Jenning's place.

On her desk was a photo from the year before. It had been taken just around Halloween. She had been focusing on it a lot the past few days while her youngest was off with friends. In it was her husband, looking like he always did. A small smile on his lips and a hand on her shoulder. Then her older child, Vance, had his usual goofy grin on. But her son Troy was another story. She could recall her mother-in-law telling him to look up and smile. After several pleas, he finally did. But anyone could tell the smile was forced and his eyes were still focused on the ground.

She reached into her purse and pulled a newer picture out of her wallet. This one had been taken in Livermore by her friend Shelly. It was just before she had gone to San Francisco for her Doctor's appointment a month before. William was in it, as was Vance. Instead of Troy, the glum looking boy, Tracy stood in his usual spot. Her smile seemed to be infectious. Her husband, son and herself all wore a smile just like it. Maggie rested the picture on her desk and picked up her sandwich. She began thinking about how things had changed when Tracy came out. The confidence, the happy demeanor. She could remember the trip to Livermore, the first one. The young girl had talked non-stop till they reached Tracy, the town. After a few hours of hell, when the child thought she should be Troy while at Shelly's place, Tracy came back and was brighter then before.

Thanks once more to Djkauf for the editing

This time we look into the lives of William, Maggie and Vance

CHAPTER 19
I was a little slow to work the next morning, which was an office day. I stopped at the coffee shop next door and bought a large filter coffee, which they called by some stupid name or other, and along with that a double espresso, which I intended to tip straight into the large white as soon as there was room.

CHAPTER 18
It was Neil who drove me to the airport in the end, Mam eased into the front seat of his car, and it was an emotional farewell in the car park as I insisted she didn’t walk into the terminal building. I wanted to be in control, and tears were not something I wanted photographed at the security gate.

CHAPTER 17
I bustled in the kitchen, catching the odd word or two as he grilled Mam, and the one question I heard clearly was when he asked her how long she had known. I walked back in at that point, just as she told him when I had revealed my Jill.

CHAPTER 16
I took Ian’s old bed that night, as my room was now her sewing and craft room. It was a better evening after the confrontation, and I noticed how much effort Mam was putting into how she addressed me. It was almost as if she had forgotten I was ever called Rob, and that simple act did so much to bring me back from the pain and hatred that Bell had triggered.

CHAPTER 15
We sat for a while, talking. That sounds banal, but it wasn’t, not at all. This wasn’t passing the time, but rather the first time I had ever been able to tell my mother who I was, a moment I had fretted and worried over, and at the same time dreamt of. She got straight to the point.

“What are we having for tea?”

CHAPTER 12
I was still awake at two in the morning, sore where it counted, Larinda pushed up against me making snuffling noises in her sleep. The bedding was seriously in need of laundering.

CHAPTER 11
Once more my mood was swinging, and I was bouncing between elation and despair. Larinda was somebody I could have met years ago, and now I had Siobhan to consider. The guilt was acid in my stomach, only slightly assuaged by the raw animal delight of the sex.

CHAPTER 9
There were, it turned out, more than a few sites that dealt with what I wanted, but most of them, to be honest, were either weird or simply not for me. I didn’t want some Japanese snuff-buddy, nor advice on how to exit with dignity and a terminal illness in Switzerland. Some parts of that country have struck me as a terminal illness in their own right, but never mind.

CHAPTER 8
“Hiya, love!”

The phone had gone almost as soon as I was on the train back from Barnes. Von had been for a job interview that morning, with an eye on finally settling everything in Hampshire and moving home. It was a conversation I really didn’t want to get drawn into.

CHAPTER 7
She looked at me with more than a little sympathy evident in her face.

“Be truthful, then, and tell me what you actually want to do”

CHAPTER 6
She left me with a hug, and I wondered how this was happening so fast. I hadn’t started out that day with the intention of telling anyone else at all, and there I was spilling my guts to the leading light of both Debt Management and Gossip Central. Some small voice was telling me, however, that this was one piece of gossip she could and would contain.

I`m ready now , got my best dress and new lingerie on, I sit down and take up my journal continuing where I left off.

I'm writing this while I'm still able to think clearly, I know I don`t have long to go but felt that I needed to do this.

I`m living in the middle of nowhere in a weather worn and well used tent, my two loyal companions ,dogs Badger and Georgia died yesterday, they`d been with me since they were pups 16yrs ago.

Bridges 21

Chapter 21

*Sam……….

It’s really yet to hit me. I’m staring at the papers in my hand and I’m walking and the only reason I’m not walking into people or things is the fact I’m really familiar with the base. I’m carrying the folder they gave me and…reading it my box with medals under my arm it's why the commander wanted to see me. There's going to be a ceremony once I'm "back" but that was about it. But it's nothing compared to these, this, my papers and I’m still reading the letter over and over again.

It’s happening…it’s really happening!

CHAPTER 3
I walked with them as far as the bike cages, Karen staying close by me. There was a little bit of eye language, and Terry disappeared into the toilets with James. I gave Karen as hard a stare as I could manage.

“You’ve told him, right?”

“He’s my husband. I know you have a problem with that, but if there is one person I will trust, it is the man I took my vows with. You have a problem?”

CHAPTER 2
She sat there stunned for just a few seconds, in hindsight, but as people bustled past us laden with trays and tripod-mounted telescopes it felt like a month.

CHAPTER 1
The weather had held fine for once, with just a hint of a drop of rain as I left home and none at all by the time I rode down past the speed humps to the Barnes reserve. The lockers were waiting, steel-mesh cages perfect for locking up the Galaxy complete with panniers, and as I changed shoes I felt almost happy.