Bakerloo line

  • Three Stops to Greenwich

    Each time she passes through the station, the same flow of thoughts: that film, the character saying that it was three stops from Charing Cross to Greenwich, Mike letting it bother him, Mike showing her the map in the back of his diary, her not caring, them arguing anyway. But today she isn’t passing through….

  • Water Wings

    She ducks under the water, a pair of goggles revealing the rippling bodies beneath it. Rise, suck, duck, she bubbles along the bottom of the pool, propelled from the edge she pushed from, undulating like a stingray. She forces herself lower, as close to the tiles as possible, even though every atom of air in…

  • The Lambeth Walk of Shame

    It was that time of the morning. The commuters were making their way to work, shoppers were hitting the early morning January sales and I was just trying to make it home as fast as possible. My head was pounding and my cheeks flushed with the embarrassing recollection of last night. I had never even…

  • Circus Folk

    It’s not in Oxford – it’s not a circus. All those people dressed in bright tartan trousers, they’re not clowns. They’ve just been to the nearby Golf Sale. You know, the Golf Sale. No one seems to know exactly where it is, it’s there somewhere. There’s always this guy on the street outside the station…

  • The Eye of the Beholder

    Anna ran a fingertip over the smooth quartzite cabochon in her palm.  Her reflected face looked rounder on the stone’s convex meniscus, her eyes almost protuberant. Flecks of gold, caught in streaks of river-brown, winked in the weakening Sunday afternoon sunlight.  She addressed the taciturn stallholder. “What’s your best price?” she asked, feigning mere half-interest. He…

  • Values Laid Bear

    I alighted at Paddington station and bought a cookie from the stand. White chocolate and raspberry, crunchy and crumbly and casting delightful smells from its snug paper bag. Before I could walk and enjoy my treat I spied a teddy bear sitting alone and forgotten against a pillar and decided I would do my good…

  • The Lovers

    They kissed on the platform with absolute abandon as if the rest of the world did not exist. Commuters and tourists tutted, pushed and milled around, oblivious to the arrow that had pierced the lovers. Fate. Eros. Passionate love. Their souls and bodies now forever joined; the iron arrow connected them. It gave them both…

  • A Great Escape

    Once upon a time in Fibula Castle lived Princess Crystal. On Thursday morning in the east tower she asked her long-suffering maid Susanna “Is he here yet?” Susanna looked out of the narrow slit window for the eighth time that morning. “No, Your Highness.” Princess Crystal flopped onto the pile of satin cushions and re-read…

  • Josephine & the Detective

    At first, Josephine had suspected her pretty young dresser Maxine.  Who could have blamed her? They were such beautiful creations; any girl might be tempted.  But Maxine had beat her fists against the dressing room mirror and sobbed, protesting her innocence. A month later, three more exotic costumes went missing, including her famous banana outfit….

  • In the Snake Pit

    Key to staying alive in a snake pit is stillness. People who do it for religion or sport have learned to pare the repertoire of the animated entity down to its basics. They can only allow themselves the motion of breathing. Of seeing: in the snake pit, looking is a luxury. Now and again someone…