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”

There was the phone call from my wife informing me that she would be an hour late. She did tell me not to fix dinner as she would pick up something for us on the way home. This is her women’s business meeting day, so it must be some meeting to cause her to be late.

The pre-dawn light hung like a thin gray veil over Alex's property. Alex and Hazel moved through the covered walkway connecting the house to the equipment garage with practiced synchronicity. Each step was measured, deliberate - a habit born from years of survival in a world where the slightest miscalculation could mean death.

I had the day off, promising to go with my sister and her daughter to the mall. It was her daughter’s birthday and she had been promised as a gift to get her ears pierced.

According to Sis, Haley had been so excited, barely talking of anything else. Greg, her husband, had to use their car today for a business meeting so I was drafted to give them a ride and preserve peace in this part of the free world.

A Step Too Far?

by Suzie Dalkin

This was written without any idea where it was going. As a result, readers may find it funny or offensive – or neither – or both.

Edward Arley was a very organised young man. His parents were staid pillars of the community who for many years had run a successful estate agency business in Sutton Deering, an old market town about 50 miles north of London.

Accessing Patricia
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Part 1

He was a nobody. A laboratory assistant in the testing area at the back of the Padonox complex – a rat wrangler – a tissue slicer. He was unimportant, and he was working in an area where nobody would have known, even if he had been of any interest at all. But he wanted to get ahead. When he had the chance to be important, he decided to take that chance.