Marília had been found at a few hours old abandoned in a slum in Brazilia and the church had her taken to Lisbon under a ‘special’ orphans’ program. Neither the church, nor life had been kind to her, and she wanted the prize money, third prize would do, to pay for what she needed to be able to live with some dignity. She had all the requisite parts of a woman, but she was self conscious and would never let any, least of all a man, see her naked self, because she had more than the requisite parts of a woman.

Few people came to know him because when he was there the university was empty, the young men were away busy dying in the trenches of the First World War.

.

Jacques died smiling. The token Christian priest in attendance, who had been seriously disturbed by the pagan nature of what he had witnessed merely said, “Of a surety God will assoil him.” He maekt no mention of Jacques’ likelihood of entering heaven, which those there considered to be appropriate given what they knew of Jacques’ beliefs.

Where necessary or possibly helpful to some, there are notes at the end on word usage.

You either do your best to put a babe under my heart or you sleep on the floor.

NOTE. For those familiar with Castle from elsewhere, this is a new backstory that takes place forty-eight Castle years before the incursion of 568 after the Fell year by which time Travisher has long since dien and Will is the sixty-two year old Master huntsman and about to retire.

For information on spelling I refer you to Castle The Series - The Title Page. You are not looking at typos or mistakes it's supposed to be like that!
Unagreeän, single, unmarried, one without a marital agreement.

Author note:
I wrote this as a VERY short story in 1987 and placed it in the city of Carmel, CA.
Well, I decided to ramp it back and place it back in the town I lived in when it was conceived: Papillion, Nebraska.
The concept is sort of like “Come Back to Texas”, but with a high school freshman vibe.

And yes, Sharon tolerates them due to all of them being in the same class since Kindergarten.

I was filthy after having serviced a Massey Ferguson combine harvester

My legs all by themselves had found the station and my feet had found themselves on a train for the highlands.

Amidst the roars of laughter Gladys arrived with a tray of fresh pints to exchange for empties. “Sasha, one of these days someone is going do you a serious mischief for your tales. Have you even heard of PC?”

Denis took a good pull on his pint before saying, “Teaching an all girls class is different. Teaching sciences to an all girls class is definitely different. You have to have a sense of humour and remember not to take their flirting seriously. They’re just practising.”

There were a couple of hundred brassières in every style and fashion from the last seventy-odd years, including ones with cups that couldn’t possibly have reached as high as the nipples which I thought were like what my sisters called quarter cup bras, but Mum told me they were referred to as décolleté brassières in their day, and Granny had worn them with some of her evening gowns.

 
 
The sound of footsteps distracted her, very heavy sounding footsteps and Nyssa turned her gaze toward the front of the cave to see the dragon coming right toward them. It was the single biggest creature that she had ever seen, or even imagined, and could easily swallow her whole. How did those people not notice it? She needed to get them out of the cave. Aris preserve me, she prayed silently to the Goddess of life and light as she unsheathed her sword and dropped the sheath as she leaped out of the crevice, placing herself between them and the massive creature. "Go!" she shouted at them. "Run! I'll keep it busy!”

In an isolated laboratory, a biologist creates new animals and new species. But to the disappointment of the authorities and the possible approval of wordplay enthusiasts, something goes slightly wrong...

Rejuvenation

A story in the MORFS universe

The honky-tonk roadhouse was rocking when she rolled up on the vintage hog. She walked the motorcycle back towards the stairway that led down from the front door and porch. Taking the mirrored aviator shade off, she surveyed the area for people standing around and spotted only two. They were on either side of the entrance. Both were over six two and looked like they had played linemen on the local community college football team.

She wasn’t six stone wringing wet through, but she’d run a taxi office day and night in a city centre for ten years, starting the day she left school, and could handle herself.

“So how come you’re here starring at the weekly bullshit session?”

“Belinda went out to get her hair done this afternoon. She got to yacking with another lassie in the hairdresser’s, and seeing as they were both going shopping at Tesco after they had coffee together. This lassie Gwen mentioned her old man was going out to the pub tonight. She said it was the men’s story telling night and invited her round for a girls night in with some friends and a bottle of wine or two. Now I ask you, how many retired professional liars do you know called Sasha? She found out which pub and here I am. I only live twelve miles a way. Christ, man, it’s good to see you. I’d wondered if you were dead.”

“Nah. Mark Twain had the right of it when he said, ‘The report of my death was an exaggeration.’

I volunteered to make sure we always have a country to die for.

I watched the flies explode as they set it off by landing on it

I can settle for a draw. For a bloke, I’m not overly competitive.
&
Elle with her knickers down screaming ‘It’s a bloody snake.’

To win at anything you have to know the rules and out play the opposition using the same rules. Though cheating from time to time can pay dividends. Now, there’re little ones needing bedtime stories. Off you go. I’ll bring you a cocoa.

The carrion crew aren’t the nicest of folk. They’re all vultures from the wrong side of the tracks and I’m not much better. I’m a bit brighter and can actually read, and I do, but that’s about the limit of our differences.

Your mum is the archetypal Yiddishe Momme, poor, the only survivor of her family from the holocaust, genuinely caring and loving, incapable of guile, immensely respected by all who know her, Jew and gentile alike. She’s the epitome of an eastern European Jewess. She could have have come straight out of Fiddler on the Roof. When my mum and dad are at outs he accuses her of only marrying him because the obliteration of his family at Auschwitz makes her feel respectable, and he provokes her by saying she would eat a bacon sandwich if a Rabbi told her it were kosher.

Most of my mates still can’t believe that I’d managed to pull a drop dead gorgeous, university educated girl from an upper middle class family who spoke with a veritable bag full of plums in her oh so entirely kissable mouth and she actually married me. I get on with her family though her parents don’t totally understand the way their daughter chooses to live, permanently pregnant and surrounded by kids, even if she is living in more affluence than they are. Hey don’t look at me. I just do what I’m told and earn the money.

The young maiden sat between her parents as they traveled to a foreign place. She was kept in the dark of their destination. It was only the three of them, as the young lord of her dream has become a disparaging memory. He was to stand beside her…to defend her against the unjust; to fight for her honor and to stay united against the dark foe. Alas, the dark foes were their own families and he bowed in defeat to his father than to renounce his name.

The only person who made a socially acceptable living out of posing pre-pubescent girls and horses in the same tableaux was Norman Thelwell.

Agnes, an attractive woman who appeared to be about thirty, had dressed carefully but conservatively for her interview. The job was working in a children’s day care centre managed by a twenty-eight year old woman who introduced herself as Sharon. She didn’t provide a surname, but Agnes already knew who she was and a lot about Sharon because she’d done her homework for the job. Agnes considered it incongruous that the manageress of a large nursery looked ill kempt and like she could do with a good meal.