Breaking Point

I should have known something was wrong when the trees started talking back.

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…because I won at a poker game. He was the ringleader, the star of the show, teaching us newbies how to play our hands, how to hide our emotions, when to place the right bet. I proved to be a quick study, surprisingly good. Or just…

By Slyvia Rose

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In Threes

…stared down into the mouth of the open grave. The name engraved on the coffin lid plaque may have read the name of one of his closest friends but he still couldn’t believe it. It couldn’t have been Tony lying down there. The service was over but he remained. The rest of the mourners were heading back to the cars, to follow the funeral procession to the wake being held at a local social club. Jamie still could not take it…

By Chris Platt

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Expected Visitors

…opened his front door to find his neighbour Sally on his doorstep. She smiled awkwardly and seemed to be in a hurry. They were not the kind of neighbours to call round for a brew and a catch up. Sally would knock on to discuss repairing a fence that the wind had blown down. Phil and his wife Ellen would call on Sally…

By Chris Platt

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Barfquake

…does not adequately describe the apocalyptic disgorging. Though the sink is right there—all I have to do is tip my head forward—contents of my stomach spew forth in firehose fashion. Kitchen window, fringed by lace curtains, rendered opaque by the first heave, completely blown out by the…

By Robert Morgan Fisher

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Waiting in Line

Waiting in line can be soul searching

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…line of people stretched ahead of Jess. The people in front of her seemed not to be moving, but she did not care because her mind was busy remembering her journey to get here. Had she done enough, and was she ready? Should she get out of the line and go…

By Nancy Lou Henderson

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