The last thing I expected to see that morning was a snowman with a carrot nose standing beside my laptop. Well of course it wasn’t a real snowman – just one of those awful blow-up dolls that you see in cheap shops. But how did it get there? More importantly, who put it there? I live alone with my two dogs and, as far as I know, no-one else has a key to my house.
Category Archives: Fiction
I’m a bit new to writing fiction. I don’t have much of an imagination, so I try to draw on real-life experiences that I know something about. I get my inspiration therefore from the experiences of some of my acquaintances, friends and family, as well as from my own life experiences. However, any resemblance to anyone that I know is purely coincidental, as I also combine or adapt the experiences to embellish my stories. I certainly don’t know anyone who has been a murderer, I don’t think! Please take my stories with a pinch of salt!
Cedar Springs
Sometimes, when it’s quiet, I can remember what my life was like before moving to Cedar Springs, and I begin to wonder what would have happened if we had stayed in England. One thing is for sure, I wouldn’t be here in a police cell, awaiting trial for a crime I hadn’t committed.
It had been my husband’s idea to move to Canada. It was to be a new life, a new country, a new start. There were fantastic job opportunities to be had there, Mark had thought, and life for our teenage children promised to be better in Canada than it was in England these days.
Right from the first, it seemed he was right. Continue reading
Dinner at Mario’s
I touched the little box in my pocket and smiled. I was all ready for our date tonight. I had booked an intimate table in a discreet corner of Mario’s, the top class Italian restaurant in town. I had not told Angela where we were going, it was to be a surprise. I had ordered a dozen red roses which were to be delivered to Mario’s and produced on our arrival. I wanted everything to be just perfect.
It was 7.30pm. Our table was booked for eight, so I just had time to have a quick drink before the taxi came for me. I would pick up Angela on the way. I couldn’t wait to propose, but I needed a bit of Dutch courage. I had been after Angela for years, but she was always so popular with other men that she hardly had eyes for the likes of me. I couldn’t believe it when she finally agreed to go out with me, and we have been seeing each other for three months now. I wasn’t going to let her escape, and now I had the chance to ask her to marry me.
Back to Brighton
This was her fourth ice cream in a row. She was out of control. It was probably because she had deprived herself of so much during Lent, but that was no excuse for pigging out on Easter Monday. Brighton seemed to have that effect on her. First go to Harry Ramsden’s for fish and chips – there could be none better in the world. Then saunter down the pier watching the kids pumping their money into slot machines in the amusement arcades, just like she used to do before she became ‘sensible’. Then wander along the front looking to see how many youngsters were brave enough to take a dip at that time of year, as she had done as a teenager, while her parents were sitting wrapped up in thick overcoats on their picnic blanket spread over the shingle. Oh the memories that came flooding back!
Max, the Tracker Dog
I was sitting with my two German Shepherd dogs at a table near to the water’s edge in the pub garden of the Jolly Boatman waiting for my lunch to arrive, when a rather attractive young couple asked me if they could join me at my table, as there were no other empty tables. “Of course,” I said, “I’d be glad of the company.”
Ten minutes in time
Time is very elusive……….there is never enough of it, or there is too much of it, depending on whether or not your life is fulfilled. Years ago, stuck in a dreadfully boring job, I can remember clock watching at work, waiting longingly for five pm when I could get out of the hot and sticky office and into my air conditioned car heading homeward. Oh how I wish I could have a few of those wasted hours back now!
This time last month I was Continue reading
Dinner at Mario’s (3 points of view)
Dinner at Mario’s – Roger’s Story (First Person p.o.v.)
I touched the little box in my pocket and smiled. I was all ready for our date tonight. I had booked an intimate table in a discreet corner of Mario’s, the top class Italian restaurant in town. I hadn’t told Angela where she was going, it was to be a surprise. I had ordered a dozen red roses which were to be delivered to Mario’s and produced on our arrival. I wanted everything to be just perfect.
It was 7.30pm. Our table was booked for eight, so I just had time to have a quick drink before the taxi came for me. I would pick up Angela on the way. I couldn’t wait to propose, but I needed a bit of Dutch courage. I had been after Angela for years, but she was always so popular with other men that she hardly had eyes for the likes of me. I couldn’t believe it when she finally agreed to go out with me, and we have been seeing each other for three months now. I wasn’t going to let her escape, and now I had the chance to ask her to marry me.
A Lucky Find
Snow was falling lightly as Roger left the diner and made his way down the street towards his grandmother’s apartment. He hated his job. He hated having to inspect the kitchens of all the New York eating establishments. It was a rotten job, and he’d been in some rotten Continue reading
Aunt Molly’s Rabbits
“He is such a rambunctious varmint, that pesky fox,” said Aunt Molly, “he’s fair chewed his way through the roots of my cherry tree, and I never get any cherries any more these days.”
“Mind you, the reticulation of the ablaqueated roots of that tree has been used as a hiding place for the bunch of rabbits he’s been after, so it could have been caused by them already.”
The documents in the drawer
James was hiding behind a tree at the edge of the forest behind his sister’s cottage. He wondered how he was going to do it now. His sister had told him that Tony would be in bed by now and fast asleep, but here he was, planning a break-in, and there were lights on in the cottage. He could see the figure of a man sitting at his desk writing, under a desklamp.
His task was to break in and steal the documents in the writing desk drawer. Continue reading
Rachel’s trip to England
Rachel’s first trip to England didn’t go as planned. A week before the trip, her horse threw her as she was attempting to jump it over a low hedge. The horse was fine, fortunately, but Rachel broke her leg. It was a compound fracture, and she would be on crutches for months, needing regular hospital treatment. A three month visit to England was out of the question.
The full mailbox
A postal worker notices that the mailbox at one of his stops is overflowing, even though the family’s two cars are up the driveway. He is a temporary worker and forgets to report this fact to his superiors. He gets another job the next day, and doesn’t bother to return to complete his two weeks assignment on post relief.
Colin Cross, the regular postie, had been away for nearly two weeks doing up his house, but now he had been asked to come back a day early because the temp had left. He was not a happy chappy, but the promise of overtime was hard to resist. It was Friday and he could hopefully finish the job over the weekend.
The mobile phone
He hurled the phone against the wall. It had been ringing incessantly for the last five minutes, so he knew it was urgent, but he had checked the phone and it was a withheld number. He presumed it was “him”.
The last twenty minutes were a blur. Continue reading
Preparations for L.A.
Janice was meticulous in her preparations for her departure. She wasn’t going to take much with her to America. It was going to be a new start for her. A new life in a new country. She packed one small suitcase with all she would need for her first few days in L.A. Then she planned to go shopping. Oh how she would shop!
A night in the cave
We were all alone in the cold and clammy darkness. There was an eerie drip, drip, drip from somewhere further into the cave, almost muffled by the crashing of the waves against the rocks below us.
Why on earth had I let Rob persuade me to go climbing over the rocks with him? Even worse, why hadn’t we turned back while we still could before the tide came in? But there was no point worrying about that. We had to get through the night, marooned halfway up the cliff, with no means of contacting anyone. Why is it that mobile phones never have any reception when needed?
The “M” Word
In her madness, mild-mannered Martha mistakenly mixed mustard into the miniature meatballs made for the meal at the Mad March meeting of Manchester Masons. Meanwhile, making sure the musical melodies were meaningful, Continue reading
A sympathetic friend
I wanted to sympathise with her, but inwardly I was elated that they had broken up. Rob had been my childhood sweetheart, later my boyfriend on and off throughout my teens. Jenny, my sister, had taken him away from me when I was nineteen. At the time, I was devastated, but I just shrugged my shoulders, saying that we were only ships passing in the night. Rob and I had been good mates, but he was always one with an eye for the girls, and I knew he would break my heart sooner or later.
She was a wonderful liar
She was a wonderful liar, my sister, always had been. Only I knew the truth.
Now there was likely to be a confrontation, here in my house. Ruth, my best friend, had come round in distress to tell me that she suspected that her husband, Des, was having an affair. My sister was visiting me at the same time, and she sat sympathising with Ruth as she voiced her suspicions. “You can’t trust a man further than you can throw him,” said my sister. “You should kick him out!” I glared at her. I could say nothing – how could I? She was my sister, and anyway, I didn’t want to upset my best friend Ruth any more than she already was.
Shipwreck Rescue
The diver entered the hull of the ship through the gaping hole that had sunk her. No-one had been down here yet since the ship sank minutes earlier, and he didn’t know whether he would find anyone alive or not, but if there was any chance of there being someone in an air pocket he hoped he would find them quickly – the water was icy down here.
There was debris everywhere, and he used the beam from his helmet’s light to pick his way through the hull of the ship to the cabins. As he searched them one by one, he was aware of more divers entering the area. The official rescue team, he presumed. They would know what to do.
The Lamp Post on the Corner
“Well Inspector, it was quite late when I went to bed – about one o’clock. Leaning on the lamp post at the corner of my street, I saw a young man smoking a cigarette. I didn’t take much notice of him at the time, but when he was still there ten minutes later, I gave him a closer look, wondering why he was still there. He was very good looking, with dark brown hair, and heavy dark eyebrows, a little too close together for my liking. However, I did notice that he had a large, jagged scar across his right cheek. I remember thinking what a pity it was – it spoiled his looks. Just then a young girl came along, and they obviously knew each other well, and started larking around.
“I went back to bed and must have drifted off for a while, but I was awoken sharply by Continue reading