Conviction

As the song says, it's been a long strange trip.

It started on an ordinary day, the last ordinary day I would have.

I was walking home from work when I heard a scream.

I froze, and couldn’t figure out what to do. Part of me wanted to go help whoever it was who screamed, but the rest of me wanted to ignore it and not get involved.

But before I could follow through on that cowardice, a man came out of an alley - from the direction of the scream.

It was a little unusual for a meeting of going on forty men and a couple of women to be held at a scrapyard, but naytheless they were there at Connaught’s Yard. The incongruously pretty and well dressed woman in four inch heels who opened the meeting was maybe in her early or middle twenties and despite her apparent ease with her anomalous surroundings she looked to be seriously out of place.

Saddled 3

She handed me my pants and tee and said that I should get dressed as we would be going into Tours today as she needed to check in with her work before she started back on Monday. Giselle just started getting things out her drawers and dressing as if it was just a normal day.

Part 22

When I woke up I was in another world. It was a world of pains, strange feelings, more pain, indignities and pain killers that did not seem to work. Birgitta was staying with her cousin of a cousin and came to see me every day. I was very glad that no-one else saw me in this state. I was not a happy person for a week or more.

A short story...

Copyright © 2021 by AuP reviner

Part 21

On Monday I had a call from Gaurav who wanted me to meet him in town at lunch time. We met and he took me for a nice meal and then we went to a jewellry shop where he wanted me to choose an engagement ring. It was about time he had got around to it!

Introduction by the Author: This is the second chapter of “Genesis of a Cosplayer”. Again I would like to express my most profound thanks to two well known Mississippian authors. The First one being William A. Percy who wrote Lanterns on the Levee. The second one is William W. Morris who wrote North Toward Home. You took me from beyond the realm of fiction and planted me firmly in the coffee colored soil of my native land. This chapter continues the story started in chapter one. Again writing this story took a lot of effort.

I really should have known what a mistake it was to try to drown my sorrows after being dumped (again). And this time I had made such efforts to make it work.

I really shouldn’t have let Rolf take me to a bar to seek oblivion in the bottom of a glass, or more precisely lots of glasses.

We really shouldn’t have tried to chat up those two freshman girls from The Other University and thus by definition losers.

The only good thing was that Rolf had chosen a bar where we were unknown and unlikely to meet anyone we knew nor ever to return.

Leader of the Pack Part 5

We had a good dinner and I was starting to appreciate the finer things in life. He told me to call him Jim and introduced me to the finer points of a good whiskey. When it got to the point of why we were here, in the city, and not down south there was a strained silence until I decided that we should really come clean.

Leader of the Pack Part 4

After we had kissed the guys goodnight we walked back to the apartment. Kelly was very quiet and went straight into the toilet when we let ourselves in. When she came out she remarked that it had been fun getting screwed standing up but the juices tended to run down her leg as we walked home.

Graphic created by Patricia Marie Allen.
Background from Pixabay, model photo by Spencer Russell on Upsplash

My name is Rose. I’m about five foot eight, and I’ve got light red hair; pretty close to strawberry blonde. All in all, I'm a pretty normal woman.

I was at the SWEET (South Western Exposition for the Embetterment of Transpeople) convention along with eleven other women named Rose. Each of us had given a nickname so that we could be distinguished between each other. One of the women was dressed like a cowgirl, or at least someone from the country, and seemed very reluctant to say anything. When she insisted she be called Jeff, I figured whatever was eating her must have a terrible case of indigestion. I figured she wanted to be left alone, and was chatting with a woman sitting beside me, when one of the women suggested that we all give our stories of how we came to be called Rose.

Part 18

Balnoor snorted “No way!” He folded his arms and carried on “it would never work, you must be mad. Besides, I am a proud Indian man and proud Indian men would never stoop to that level!”

Tavleen glared at him and said “So you think that being a woman is a lower level, just like all those haughty rapist men in the old country?” “No, I didn’t mean it like that” he was on the back foot from her attack. I said “OK. Proud Indian Man, just take a look around the table and tell me what you see.”

Nurse Joe
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Just because I am big doesn’t mean I am stupid. In fact, I am pretty smart. I was just a big guy from an early age; big and too strong for all the other kids. That got me into trouble, and trouble kept me away from classes.

This is the last ghost story of Ghost Stories and Urban Legends of Benton. There were a number of stories I wanted to include in this collection but could not because of the cost of printing. I'm sure those stories will appear in the sequel to this collection Ghost Stories and Urban Legends of The Yazoo Delta. A collection of ghost stories centering on the Yazoo Delta at large. This story was told to me by my mentor Lily Potter the older sister of my best friend Jamie Sarah Potter.

Leader of the Pack Part 2

Before we left we sat around the kitchen table and I was forced to call out the slogans and try to talk in a girly voice. When I was able to do it to their satisfaction my mother gave each of us a hug and, with a smile on her face, said “Go and change the world, my daughters.”

Author’s note: This story is sort of a crossover fanfic, although it could perhaps stand on its own. Being a crossover, it includes people from two television franchises. I can safely say that I own none of the people from either of those “worlds” included herein, nor do I intend any copyright infringement.

It was tempting to simply post this as is, but considering how much trouble it was to write without giving away identities, but still have people act at least somewhat correctly, I decided to post it as it really is. Decipher the story within reason, and the title, and you should figure out who these people are.

And now, on with the story!

-=#=-

The Offspring of Backward Rodents Long Journey to the Fabled Land Encircled by their Cousin's Cemetery

Leader of the Pack Part 1

I have to admit that seeing my picture on the front page of the Sunday paper was a shock. For most people it would be a pleasant one, the fifteen minutes of fame that is often promised but hardly ever given. It was not, for me, very good news at all.

The Helper
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I had not realized how far the house was from the main road until the taxi finally drew up beside it. It was a large house with a veranda on all sides, even larger facing the sea. Mr Golbenkian was waiting for me near the front door. He was seated in his electric wheelchair. I had not met him before then, but his warm brown eyes were as friendly as his voice on the phone.

Nelson’s Raceway, New York:
Terry drives the rollback that was carrying Wraith’s prototype on it through the gates of the raceway. He heads down to the pit area he normally uses when he comes up to either race or test any of his vehicles. He felt at home at the raceway. It helped him overcome what had been done to him.