Life can be very hard living with an ‘alpha’ male and when that man gets himself a tough-looking dog to match his image it can be a recipe for trouble, but not necessarily the trouble you expect!

A Dog’s Life

He didn’t need much of an excuse; if there wasn’t a beer waiting for him or his dinner on the table, he’d had a bad day at work or just had too much to drink; I was always the one that bore the brunt of it.

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Things can get hard, and sometimes promises don’t materialize. But when Karen feels let down by her sister, her daughter Rosie reminds her that love and loyalty are the most important things, and that Christmas is a time for the family to be together.

Christmas Decorations

My sister Karen would try the patience of a saint and I am no saint. My halo had become an anklet a long time ago and had definitely slipped off my foot somewhere. Perhaps, when I find it, I can trade it in for some Christmas presents. Because after the bombshell news my sister had just dropped, it might be the only way we would be able to afford to purchase any gifts this Christmas.

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Jimmy, waiting for his parents outside Hamleys at Christmas, encounters a little boy, they go to meet his granddad in an old-fashioned toyshop, but all is not as it seems.

Christmas Shopping in Regent Street

Christmas shopping in London with my brother Jack and Mum and Dad – what a drag! Of course, I didn’t want to go, so I was hanging back, dragging my heels. By the time we got to Hamleys in Regent Street I was sulking.

“You just stop this nonsense and behave,” Dad snapped.

“Wait here with your brother and watch the robot cat demonstration, while dad and I go upstairs,” Mum said, giving me one of those ‘stay put’ looks.

‘As if,’ I thought.

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Tommy loved his granddad very much and did not want him to be lonely, but was meeting the formidable Janet Price the answer? But they did have a lot in common, dogs, a love of the countryside and rock and roll music, it could work.

First Meeting

Janet Price leaned heavily on the gate to the old field and pointed with her stick.

“These fields used to be under water at this time of year, before the course of the river was altered. This was a flood plain,” she said, “now the river just floods further downstream; they call it progress.”

Emma and Tommy exchanged glances. They liked Janet and Bobby, her old black and white collie who was her loyal and constant companion.

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Dad loved a bargain, and it sometimes drove his family a bit crazy. But when the family pet died and they acquired a very feisty new dog, the supermarket special offers paled in comparison. And mum got her revenge for all those extra packets of stain remover.

Get One Free

“Did we really need six packs of stain remover?” my mum said. “They weren’t on the list.” The question was as inevitable as the response each time my dad went to the supermarket.

“They were on special offer – two for the price of one. You can’t miss an opportunity like that,” he would reply.

Mum would look at me and raise her eyebrows and Jimmy would giggle. This conversation was routine, like the steps of a well–rehearsed dance.

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Linda’s staying with Tony prior to going abroad to University; but he never noticed the evocative, unfamiliar and unexplained drifting smells, the items that moved independently, particularly in the kitchen.

Lingering Aromas

I felt a shiver go down my spine and the small hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as I entered the kitchen. I quickly backed out and went into the living room.

“What’s that smell? I said, as I walked through the door.

“What smell?” Tony replied.

“I can smell violets and there’s another smell, like tobacco. It reminds me of my old granddad.”

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When Danny started nursery school his mother could not understand how he was so enthralled by the escapades of his disruptive class mate, the notorious Tommy.

Danny’s parents were keen to find out why this boy was such a hellion but they were in for a shock.

Pre-school Scamp

It was the day my son Danny was to start pre-school. He had always been a good boy, well behaved and polite to his elders. But this day he renounced his shorts and began wearing long trousers with a belt. I watched him go, that first morning, with the older girl from next door, and I saw my life ending; my sweet-voiced nursery school tot was replaced by a long trousered, swaggering character who forgot to stop at the corner to wave me good-bye.

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Valentine roses go astray. Jayne cannot believe her luck and is devastated when she finds that they were not meant for her, but some mistakes have unexpected and positive outcomes.

Roses for Jayne

It was very early in the morning for someone to be ringing my front doorbell. I jumped out of bed and flung on my dressing-gown.

“Jayne Davies?” the delivery man asked. He was holding a box of long-stemmed red roses.

“Why yes,” I answered, bleary eyed and in shock. “Are those for me?”

“They certainly are; that is if you are Ms Jayne Davies. Somebody loves you,” he grinned.

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Gillian, a freelance writer, looking for inspiration, dismissed the school reunion, thinking, it unexciting; she gets a surprise as an old picture of a Viking warrior comes back-to-life and seeks revenge.

School Reunion

“You hardly look any different, Jane. What have you been up to?” Gillian asked.

“I have my own business now, and you?” Jane replied. “You look much the same too. How did you keep so slim? – Which is more than I can say for Linda – I love the hair.”

“Hey you, I like to be different,” Linda said flicking her scarlet tresses.

“Hey red, I love it.”  Gillian shrugged. “What have I been up to? Oh, a bit of this and that. I’m a writer, but not a very successful one at the moment. I hope to get some ideas from this reunion.”

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It’s a leap year, the villagers are getting together to celebrate an old ritual, in a backward community on an isolated Island, the climax of which will knock your socks off.

The Draw

February 29th was a sunny morning with a few small clouds in the frosty sky, and the first spring flowers were just popping through the grass that was rich and green. Around eleven thirty, the people of the village began to gather in the square in front of the Post Office and General Store. On some islands there were so many people that ‘The Draw’ took place outside the village in one of the neighbouring fields.

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