Thought-provoking

Losses

Mike’s jump into the unknowns of medical school in some ways was not unlike parachuting from airplanes into different countries while in the Army. He had no illusions this new experience would in any way resemble the camaraderie he’d experienced with the international NATO medical unit in Europe with Yves, and Joachim. He kept in…

Only Half in Shade

Image by Jörg Peter from Pixabay July, a heatwave. In the valley below, wind undulates across a ripening crop of barley. A rivulet of sweat trickles down the well of my backbone. You sit on a bench next to me in the shade of a Beech tree in Arley Arboretum. The air sighs a potent whisper, like the…

Blossom

I sat in the huddle with the others around the desk. Bleary-eyed and mind elsewhere, I nearly missed the ward sister’s instruction. “… and staff nurse will supervise when you dress the wound.” Her voice was clipped. Perfunctory. My pulse throbbed in my neck and my tongue felt like sandpaper. I hadn’t cared for Blossom…

Under the Pier

Jake knew it must have been one helluva of a binge; he remembered starting out with a group of his work mates, all cheery and joshing, before the verbal sparring turned nasty, then the evening became blurrier. He’d ended up on his own, after ‘last orders’ in a chair-throwing brawl, before being turfed out onto…

Heavyweight Dreams

“The PureConnect 4 from Brooks is designed as a lightweight running shoe.” “Lightweight’s good,” I say. “It’s just… Do you have the model in any other colour than black?” She smiles and shakes her head. “We can give you neon laces though, if you want to brighten them up.” I wince. “I’ll try them anyway,”…

Checkout Girl

I retreat down the nearest aisle, heartbeat thick with adrenaline. Pink and blue baby grows blur into one. I stalk you, the girl who should be managing the tills. You have your father’s nose, but the rest belongs to me. Customers gape at the waif with the patchy complexion, methadone-finished eyes. You are oblivious, examining…

A Womb of One’s Own

I kept away from WP 468 where the Uterine Disease books were kept with their bloody illustrations. No shelving was done by me that day. Instead I thought of Virginia Woolf and my novel, that lay like an abandoned child, an orphan, in the bottom drawer where I used to keep my secret stash of…

To See A Star

The commuter ferry that sailed to and from Amsterdam Central Station reversed into the northern harbour. Elsa pedalled so hard that a rivulet of sweat ran down the valley of her back. A day without seeing him would be a day not worth living. Elsa’s bike skidded to a halt and a German soldier patrolling…

Trev at Ivinghoe

Trev couldn’t help this feeling of exuberance as he walked round in a circle with the rest of the group on that night of nights. The 20th of December. The last night there would ever be. A minute later and his high dive-bombed. He hit reality. It stared him in the eye so hard he…

1-2-5

The barracks washhouse is quiet now they’ve gone. Bone-weary and bruised, Experiment 125 takes off her stained utility-suit and sets it down beside the cleansing machine. This new model offers a range of programs: Medium-deep, Purify and Freshen-up. So far, 125’s run Freshen-up as instructed but tonight she’s using Start Over, the program she discovered…