Chapter 32

The next day was still that constant drizzle that makes the world feel as if it’s been submerged into the North Sea. I sat quietly, catching up with my tablet and emailing Jacquie to see about getting one of the spare rooms ready. Later that afternoon, May took me and Chloe to the school. Chloe led me through to the gym, where Miss Steel was standing with a worried look on her face.

'When will this ever end?' she thought, staring at her reflection in the mirror. Years of fighting had taken a toll on her body, leaving it adorned with countless scars from previous battles. Her bandaged arm now boasted a new one, but she chuckled to herself, knowing it would be a proud scar for any warrior. As she brushed her shoulder-length hair, she noticed wrinkles beginning to form under her eyes. 'I am getting old,' she thought as she looked at the wedding photo on her table. The young woman in the picture had a radiant smile and sparkling eyes full of life. "Nathan," she sighed, wiping away a tear from the corner of her eye. It had been eighteen years since he left, and not a day went by that she didn't miss him. But she vowed to never give up until she avenged his death or died trying.

Rick lets Officer Wolfhart led her to a special worker from the city. The woman that Robyn took Rick too, was part of a new department. The department was setup to help people who have been exposed to the Blue Lace Drug and its derivative a new street drug called Venus.

Sasha watches as her daughter walks away with Rick. She now needed to find out who the magician was that changed Rick Jones and what that cabinet was. She waves goodbye to the people she knew and leave SWAT headquarters.

Accustomed
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

2002

James McAdam had been dating the girl for a while when she told him about the job opportunity that had amounted to nothing.

“It is a private nurse job for this super rich guy, but despite my qualifications and experience he rejected me when I met him earlier today,” she said. “It would be a great job, because is very rich, very old and very sick, and said to be very generous. But he is looking for somebody special, and it is not me. Perhaps you should apply. You don’t have a real job.”

When Jayne and Kathy arrived home the discussion took a sinister turn as there was an envelope pinned to their door with the words ‘PERVERT TRANNY’ in large capitals written across it,

Chapter 31

I couldn’t do any more, so went into the lounge and asked the lads if they had any ideas about a name for my project. There was some hilarious suggestions before Brendon came up with ‘Unicorn Air’ with the logo being a kiddie version of a unicorn, with wings, flying over a rainbow. Bronte went for his sketchbook and turned the thought into reality.

Sergeant Hill had spotted Roberta leaving the HQ of AC-12 and challenged her.
He didn’t wait for her to respond to his original accusation.

"Jess," I hurried out of the car in pursuit. As soon as we parked, she took off, ignoring me as she had done for most of the journey.

The buildings, trees, sky, everything seemed more interesting to her than whatever I had to say.

Our relationship had been positive up until that point, and she'd even taken my side over her husband's a few times, so I was taken aback by her sudden change in attitude.

After a man’s wife leaves him, he falls down the path of sissyhood.

My ex wife lied and took everything from me, so I paid her back in kind.

A Grumpy Old Man’s Tale 56 What You See is Never What You Get

How calt will it get? Who knows. I can’t even hazard a guess because I’ve got nowt to base one on. We’ve never hit minus thirty [-22℉] before anywhere in Britain in recorded history, though it’s said that during the winter of sixteen eighty-three going into eighty-four the ice on the Thames was a foot thick [305mm]. I’ve never manage to find even an estimate of how calt it was, but it’s reputed to be the most severe frost recorded in England. It always seemed daft to me to use the expression worst recorded when there’s not even an indication of how calt it was, how is that recorded? Come to that what was it they were recording? Maybe we’ll hit minus forty [-40℉] this time. I wouldn’t rule it out, but like I said I’ve never bin here afore. Think on, it’s not that long since for the first time recorded the temperature in the UK went over forty Celsius. Forty point three [104·54℉] it was at Coningsby in Lincolnshire on the nineteenth of July twenty twenty-two. So owt’s possible.

Chapter 28

As we moved into the year, I made the final film of the trilogy, ‘Kathleen Cary, the Slide’. It was hard for me to make, with a lot of emotional scenes. If this didn’t win anything I was in the wrong game.

I gripped the sheets tightly, burying my head in the pillow to stifle my moans and avoid waking Jackson. Being with Tom always felt incredible.
 
With each deep thrust, he forced involuntary cries of pleasure from my lips. I've always wondered whether the pleasure I felt when we lay together was typical or if Tom was just that good.
 
I had no way to know because I hadn't been with anyone else since I had my surgery and I could never achieve similar results when I played with myself either.
 

"Don't feel too bad," Cameron said. "Feel bad, yeah, but not too bad.
The good news is, I like you a lot better this way. A *lot* better.
In fact, you should seriously consider never getting your memories back."

Chapter 27

We, in Europe, now think that the influx of migrants is a problem. In Germany, after the war, there were over seven and a half million German prisoners, as well as an influx of thousands more being shipped in from other theatres of war.

On top of that, there were tens of thousands of Displaced Persons, some fleeing the Soviets and the Soviet Zone. The British, alone, had two million prisoners in a space no bigger than Suffolk, on top of the local population. The speech was wishful thinking, at best.

Nailed to Change Part 4

Chapter 26

I did what I had done before, by starting to write it as a story before aiming at the screenplay. I had a lot of it on the computer when Jacquie informed us that we had nothing to go to the Globes for, but a number of nominations in the BAFTA awards this year.

It took Roberta a few days to come down from the high of cracking, or at least being a very small part of the team that had solved, or was in the process of solving a string of crimes that spread all over Europe, into the Middle East and even the USA. Art is a worldwide business, and art theft is just the same.

Chapter 25

When we arrived in Los Angeles, we were swept up in a tidal wave of media hype. As defending champions of the Best Film and other awards, we were a hot topic. We were a few days early, which were filled with interviews and TV appearances. ‘Thirteen Women’ was controversial, seeing that it acknowledged the Devil without a mention of God. The ultra-right was in an uproar, which meant that everybody else supported us, ‘just for the hell of it!’

I tested the microphone by tapping it lightly and feedback rang throughout the tent.
 
"Sorry," I said quietly with an awkward smile then repeated it through the microphone loud enough for everyone to hear.
 
I'd raised my hand to say a few words about Matty because I'd felt like I needed to but up until I got on that stage, I had absolutely no clue what I wanted to say.
 
"Some of you know me, some don't" I began and watched the guests go silent offering me their full attention, "I'm Matty's sister, Ruth"
 

It was around 8 am the next morning that I ferried Jackson downstairs in search of breakfast. He'd already been up for thirty minutes at that point but I'd been up thirty minutes prior trying to decide what he and I were going to wear for the celebration.

Deciding on Jackson's outfit had been simple enough. I'd chosen a button-down shirt and khakis, a timeless choice for any event. Dressing a young boy was easy, if a bit boring.

A bit more difficult though was choosing an outfit for myself.

“This is good. Thanks,” said David as he wiped the last of the Lasagne sauce from his plate with a piece of bread.

“Only ‘good’?”