Enough with the distractions and setbacks, it's time for Aria to get back to work and get some good experience.

71 year old John Dodge, retired military, now sits in a nursing home, his body riddled with cancer, waiting on the grim reaper to come for him when he is given another option.

Story under construction.

The first thing every mermaid learns is that if you see a human you're supposed to swim away as fast as you can. But the girl in the pink wetsuit was right here in front of me, and there was no way she would think she'd been mistaken about seeing me. My best recourse seemed to be to convince her not to tell anyone about meeting me, and as we talked (or rather I talked, while she typed her words on her neat little electronic message pad) this seemed to be working. But there were things Valerie was telling me here that made absolutely no sense. Either this girl was crazy or the whole universe was. Given the kind of week I'd had, my money was on it being the universe that had gone...

Decisions-Decisions 4

Eric made the call to his son from the Managers office. It didn’t take long. When he returned he said,

“John will meet us on Thursday at 10. The problem is that we have to go to see him in Derby. That journey will need an early start.”

He was right. Living in the back of beyond has one huge disadvantage in that it takes ages to get nowhere fast. The roads in the region are crap. Full of potholes and often covered in mud from farm traffic.

I opened my handbag and pulled out the train timetable that I’d used for my trip to Sheffield before Christmas.

Just for once I had managed to get away from the steel mill at 4. It was Friday after all. Coming home tired after a very bad day and opening the door I surprised my 16 year old son getting ready to go out. I was appalled! He was wearing a calf-length dress, pumps with a 2 inch heel, a necklace and ear-rings that had belonged to my departed and sorely missed wife, red lipstick and a little rouge. Where did I go wrong? I had tried to be a good parent but it hadn’t been easy since my wife passed away four years ago.

Alright, as promised, the next chapter of Room in Hell, on time and under budget so to speak. Enjoy as the plot thickens.

Copyright Nagrij, 2016.

It took a little convincing. Not that Matt wasn't open to the idea. Just that he was wary. It seemed too good an opportunity... and seemingly out of nowhere.

“So let me get this straight...” he asked ….yet again. “....you're leaving for your Asian tour....”

“...with the cast of Thornbirds. Yeah. A press blitz. We've already terrorized North America, Europe and bits of North Africa. So yeah... we're off to blitz Asia next week.”

“And you want me to come along as ...staff photographer?”

"A whole week off!" Maisie squeaks in my ear as the bell rings to signify the end of the school day- and indeed, the end of this half of the term.

At least, it would be the end of the school day for me, were it not for the fact that when I arrive home, I immediately head up to my bedroom and exchange the itchy, clingy black tights and knee-length skirt I've worn all day for an even itchier, even clingier pair of pink tights and a black tank leotard, just as I've done every Tuesday and every Friday since the New Year began.