Two middle aged ladies clattered with confidence into the lounge carrying shopping bags and handbags. “Hello dear!” the first one said, without a care. “We’ve come to see Charles, is he in? I hope you don’t mind, we saw the lights were on and there was someone in the lounge.”

Charlie rapidly realised that while his Aunty Lilly had not immediately recognised him, the other lady, his mother surely would.

‘Sink or swim’ thought Charlie. “He’s here, please sit down both of you.”

David must have caught her happiness. He whispered in her ear, "Ten thousand dollars was too cheap a bet. I should have bet a hundred thousand we would get in tonight."

Raven stops a few blocks away from the garage to gather herself. She was still pissed after seeing one of the men responsible for sending her to jail. She tries the breathing exercises she recently learned from Barbara.

Barbara had found her crying and upset about a memory that resurface from her time in prison. She instructed Raven on how to center herself and let the emotion flow out of her, instead of letting it have power over her. She needed to get her emotions under control before she got back to the shop.

The phone was ringing and Henry put it on speaker as he answered it. "Department Fifty Four, Karen Long speaking, may I help you?"

Boy, was he good. Karen thought he sounded just like her.

"Karen, this is Bill Chambers secretary. Mr. Chambers wants you in his office immediately. Do you understand?"

Henry hesitated as he contemplated telling her, no, he didn't understand. For a fact, he was tempted, except he was sure it would cause trouble for Karen.

Karen picked up the phone. "Yes Betty, I understand."

The same accident that caused the loss of his leg at age six also stimulated the latent genetics that ran in his family to trigger a mutation. Although becoming one of the ‘exo-humans’ the government monitored would prove to be the least of his worries once he stumbled upon his family’s secret.

I am terribly sorry guys, but I had my preparations wrong so what I put here first was chapter ten. I have changed it now and apologise. Please if you read chapter nine before read this and then return to chapter ten, sorry sorry sorry. :( Monique.

An attractive brunette was standing in front of Bob's looking at the model Karen and Henry made that fateful night. Hanging back behind and looking everywhere was a teenage girl. She began tugging on her mother's purse.

"Mama, she's alive."

Her mother reached back and slapped her hand. "Would you stop that? She only looks real. She’s a dummy."

Tizzy and Keith head back to the station to see what they could dig up on Daniel Covern. While Tizzy runs his name through DMV, Keith was looking for any past convictions.

“Well, this is interesting.” Keith had found out he had been arrested for raping a ten-year-old girl in California.

Which turned out to be his own daughter. He was arrested again for four counts of statutory rape and kidnapping in Washington state.

“Man, this guy is a piece of work. He’s a sexual predator.” Keith couldn’t believe he was out of jail and walking around.

Karl Adder was in a rage. He had made a big show of letting everyone know he was being promoted to head of the duplication department. All his personal things were still boxed up for the move. His just rewards had been taken from him more times than he could tolerate. He made everyone within reach pay for his misery. Verbally abusing those around him, he soon had everyone in his department filing for a transfer. It didn't do any good. They couldn't transfer out because no one would transfer in to take their place. There were only two ways to escape the hell Karl was spreading in his department. One was, quit the company, or two, if someone hired on and you happened to be the worker with the most seniority then maybe, just maybe, you might get a transfer. The new help would take your place in Karl's little office of hell.

Christine watched as Nora, Ginger, Melody, and Kelly boarded the Lear Jet. She was going to miss them as she watches them lift off into the air. She wishes she was going with them, but Kelly and Nora were going to be busy to spend time with her while she was recovering.

Tizzy, her husband Ikaika, Krisha and Cheshire watch as her private Lear liftoff. Cheshire was proud how Nora’s life has turned out. She knew at one time because the nature of the assignments Nora was sent on had taken a toll on Nora.

“So, who’s hungry?” Tizzy was feeling hungry.

Carol couldn’t believe she was given an important lawsuit to handle. She had been asked by one of the partners to take the lead on the case involving the abuse of inmates from the Rockingham Correctional Center. One of the inmates that had been incarcerated there had been killed.

Snapshots
By Ellie Dauber

This is another of my older stories, appearing on Big Closet for the first time. I hope you enjoy it.

* * * * *

Retirement is a time to pull back, to take a much-earned and welcome rest after more than forty years work. But for those people whose work has become their life, it's an early death, the end to any useful purpose, while they still have the minds and the heart to continue.

For Lillian Wagner, it meant the sorrow of watching her newly retired husband, Ed, sink into the despair of imagined uselessness. Things, however, aren't always as bad as they seem. Ed and Lil will find a reprieve in a very common place that just happens to lie at the edge of... the Twilight Zone.

A short story...

Copyright © 2019 by AuP reviner