FREEDOM JONES; AN INTRODUCTION

He remembered a time when he had been ordinary; when he had played with the other boys. A time when he ran, fought, laughed, and scraped knees with the other boys. When they had climbed trees and stolen fruit and snatched apple scones from the kitchen…[Read more]

Yesterday evening, me  in mindless  mood, scrolling between television programmes, and phone an Instagram a reel came up, featuring the ever- crumpled face of Mick Jagger. He answering some question about song writing, where he got his inspiration from.

His ‘Everywhere! -Sometimes I only have to look out the window –‘  spanne…[Read more]

FICKLE HEART

The small fluffy Cumulus clouds at dawn had promised a fine day, but by eight o’clock they’d grown into dark, lowering beasts threatening a thunderstorm ahead.  I resigned myself to a day indoors and this did nothing to improve the already black mood that had descended the night before when I received th…[Read more]

Thanks for the theme, @Seagreen. It certainly made me think hard!

Congratulations, Libby.  Well deserved.  As I read, I could almost feel myself in the cha…[Read more]

@Jill: you gave me exactly what I asked for – an insight into the mind of a killer – in this case, a victim of domestic abuse who was finally pushed too far. Your words paint a quiet picture of an unseen tempest.

@Sandra: Your words pai…[Read more]

It’s not as though this is the first body I’ve seen, and it’s not as though this is the first person I’ve killed. As a death it was unremarkable: quick, expected, and I imagine she knew nothing about it. A clean shot through the back of the head in mid-conversation. Only a few of my targets have been so lucky, but my intenti…[Read more]

Kick a corpse to life and you’ll inevitably disturb carrion.

Tao knew this but only recalled it on attempting to leave his inn-room. The body that had earlier impeded his exit messenger for the man whose name Tao had evoked in hope of boosting his financial standing, believing those who…[Read more]

444 words excluding title

Behind Closed Doors

Neighbours stood around gawking.  I saw them from the window as I stood handcuffed to a policeman.

Our quiet cul de sac was a scene of mayhem with ambulance and police cars; blue lights flashing.

The paramedics stretchered him…[Read more]

It was adopted by the Den when the Cloud finally closed

https://australis.eocampaign1.com/web-version?ep=2&lc=f8781b16-01c8-11f1-82c9-6dbe39b3a791&p=73063d3a-a20b-11f1-8471-0d8778dd4b7d&pt=campaign&t=1788260504&s=2e7939182f1b0d843e4b788f91b732e3d93a4739fffcb3526c7f265bf8507035

I hope to stretch you now…

There’s a body.

Whether…[Read more]

And I second Jill’s call for virtual medals all round! 🙂

As usual, I loved all the very different and well written entries which embraced the theme so well.  So virtual medals to all!

John.

This is the strangest holiday ever. Chris should have been here. She even did all the bookings for us, and now I have to explain to everybody why it’s only me. The weather is perfect. Not too hot, not too cold. She’d have loved it—walking along the coast, looking down on the seabird colonies. Salt, warm seaweed on the narro…[Read more]

It was more than a holiday; it was a ritual, starting with the drive north. The choice of music; what the kids called my soppy stuff – Savage Garden, Beautiful South and sshhh, don’t say it out loud, Barry Manilow – and the way I always packed the car with a hundred and one things I wou…[Read more]

‘Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself…’
Shakespeare, Macbeth

British technology has been so dominant in motor sport for so long now that it is hard for many to imagine the time before World War II when British motor racing was an insular, gentlemanly affair (‘The right crowd and no crowding’ was the slogan…[Read more]

In July 1953 we  – Dad, mum. brother and me, left  our  now-echoing  and curtainless home on the edge of Dovercourt Bay – an Essex seaside town dominated by a pair of cast iron  lighthouses whose clean, and well-protected sands were sectioned by sea-slimy black wooden groynes within which squatted large black crabs. There was  also a…[Read more]

You are right – I am old enough to have gone through quite a few similar challenges in my time, so do echo your thoughts.  A lengthy training and practice of counselling and the p…[Read more]

I wrote quite a long reply, but cannot find it anywhere.  Blaming the heat or perhaps the computer thought my reply far too long!!!

Anyhow, thanks for asking.  We are coming th…[Read more]

(Immediately inspired by July’s theme)

When I was a little girl the high point of the school Summer break was our family holiday by the sea.  It was only for a week and very often to Goodrington near Paignton in Devon.

Just writing that paragraph has immediately brought back so many memories of carefree, happy times…[Read more]

Secondly, I echo Sandra in the fact that childhoods now past have been vividly evoked here in rich words worthy of Denizens!  In addition, thank you Sandra for introducing me to a word I had never heard before and one which is impressive in i…[Read more]

The much faded five inch Quality Street tin I inherited from my mother is near-filled with  buttons, their variety in part due to them having been donated by my aunt Muriel, who was a dressmaker and her mother Dora who was a tailoress. Needless to say, had there been such, I would’ve won ‘best-dressed child’ many a time had…[Read more]