The first thing Elle saw when she woke that morning was her favourite turquoise vase, the sunlight bouncing off the top as it streamed through her bedroom window. “Forgot to close the blinds before I went to bed last night” she thought to herself. She closed her eyes and imagined she was back in her hotel room in Los Angeles where she spent her last holiday, watching Good Morning America on TV as she ate breakfast in bed, glancing occasionally… read more
Everyone was talking about the party at Ben’s last night. It was his End of the World party. Only two days ago, watching his regular dose of morning TV Ben caught an interview with Edgar C. Whisenant, a former NASA engineer and Evangelical Christian who predicted the Rapture would occur sometime between September 11 and September 13, 1988. Ben figured Monday September 12, 1988 would be the perfect time… read more
Holiday romances always seemed to happen over a long hot summer. Lazy days at the beach, pool parties, stolen kisses in the back row of the cinema and those inevitable good-byes at the end with promises to keep in touch. That summer Lucie accomplished three things: she celebrated her nineteenth birthday, she grew out a particularly bad haircut, and she lost her virginity to an American boy named Chet… read more
Marion had broken her arm two days ago. It was one of those weeks that had been sent to test her. On Tuesday morning on her way to work a man had yelled at Marion, accusing her of shoving him as she tried to manoeuvre herself out the doors of a busy and over-crowded tram. He was rude, obnoxious and unreasonable given the circumstances, and on any other day Marion would have simply moved on and not let him… read more
She had been abducted and held here for a few days. It had happened at home, at night while she was watching TV. The last thing she remembered was a white light, a piercing sound and a ringing in her ears, and then she woke up here. She is in a small room which is white and clinical, and smells like fresh pine needles. An image of a small wooden cabin by a lake is projected on one of the walls, it seems vaguely familiar to her… read more
She is counting down the minutes, watching the clock, longing for the bell to ring and signal the end of another school day. The hour where schoolbooks are left in the locker, a guitar is placed firmly in her hands and band practice begins. She had recently joined an all girl rock band and while the other girls were busy cultivating their image, borrowing from Bowie, Blondie and Suzie Q she already had hers. All she needed… read more
It was that time of the evening, the party was in full swing, the music had been turned up a few more notches, voices were suddenly raised, and everyone had an air of drunken, flirtatious confidence about them. The energy in the room was intoxicating. For the romantic in her it was that particular point in the evening she liked to call “The Electric Hour”. She had known him for a number of years. He wasn’t… read more
