Category Archives: Creative Writing

The house opposite

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  You think you know somebody – house empty for ages, reduced price, heard they paid for it in cash.  Tanya and Pete.  Graffiti on garage door, ‘Pete’s stash’.

A rough diamond, Dad used to say, out all night, Tanya not knowing where he was, coming and going taxis all the time.  Annoying neighbours, brick wall, electric gate, flaunting money.  Nice though, kids played with mine, gave us old toys, lent us cutlery one time!  Working class background but made good.   Tanya preferred people where she used to live, down to earth.  Well off – bought a place in Thailand for their holidays, his brother there.  Pete beat up bad, in hospital, then they disappeared.  Post box sealed up, teacher came to see the kids with Christmas presents, she said Tanya knew what he was up to but turned a blind eye, good lifestyle.  It was the kids I felt sorry for.

Youngest only about 5 or 6, fancy having to up sticks in the middle of the night and leave your house, toys, clothes, books, everything.  Never even have chance to say goodbye to your friends.

And the eldest girl – fuss to get a place for her at the high school, appeal, got place, they disappear.  I remember the night Oliver was born.

Helped us out – Dad  no contact – came over – Larry to get Dad had key to house, but alarm going off Dad still asleep!.  If things different, she might have delivered the baby!  Bonfire baby, she called him.  Even now that smell of burnt fireworks, woodsmoke, makes me remember that phrase, her…..You think you know somebody, but realize you don’t.

House, house, house …

Their house for sale, her Dad cutting grass.  ..he said living in Spain…don’t believe that.  Why?  Email from a server Thailand.  Another neighbour claimed Pete offered him coke once.  Fell into place,  taxis always outside, excess of cash, graffiti about ‘stash’, Pete’s  frequent extended trips Thailand, more time there than here.  Goes to show.

 

We hope you like the house opposite (Descriptive writing).

Carly

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Carly indicated to leave the motorway at the next exit to join a smaller dual carriageway for a while.

At least the rain was letting up a bit now, we should be back on track for another perfect summer´s day tomorrow, she thought to herself.  Jen stirred on the seat beside her, opened her eyes and yawned.  ‘You want me to take over the driving for a bit?’ she threw at Carly, before stretching her legs and taking a sip of water from a nearby bottle.

‘No, it´s OK’ replied Carly, ‘I am kind of used to it now.  Besides, it helps me to think.  You go back to sleep and when we stop for a break later we can switch then if you like.’  Jen made a noise that sounded like half snort, half grunt, re-positioned her bottom on the seat, pulled her fleece jacket around her shoulders and settled back down to sleep.  No matter how hard she tried to concentrate on where she was going and driving on the wrong side of the road, Carly found it impossible to stop her mind wandering back to the events of the night before, and felt her stomach do somersaults as she remembered some of the things Max had whispered in her ear, the tender way he had caressed her… Carly carried on driving.  Carly carried on thinking.  Carly carried on remembering.

Eventually Jen had opened the door to room 26, and had looked quite pleased to see Carly, which at the time had surprised her.

Zack was asleep on the bed in the room next door, Jen had explained, and Jen had just been starting to wonder about how she was going to get back to the hotel when Carly rapped at the door.  Carly lost no time in taking her to task about disappearing.                                                                                                                                                                                        ‘Where the hell did you think you were disappearing off to?  And thanks very much for asking him to babysit me, just how old do you think I am, Jen?    I can look after myself you know!’ she tried to shout but it came out as a hiss as she didn’t want to wake Zack.

‘Look it wasn´t like that.  Zack suggested going to his room for a drink and when I said I didn´t want to leave you on your own he kind of suggested that Max could keep an eye on you and I…I  … kinda agreed.  Where is the gorgeous beefcake, anyway?’

‘Don´t change the subject’, snapped Carly as Jen had hit a raw nerve, ‘the very least you could have done was told me you were leaving.  I nearly ended up going home with Sergio, who, apparently, is a right snake’.   Jen´s eyes widened with disbelief at this.

‘I would have told you but we both know what would have happened.  You would have started to lecture me about the risks of casual sex, which f.y.i.  I haven´t indulged in any kind of intercourse tonight, by the way, just for the record, and then we would have had an argument, I would have gone with Zack anyway the only difference being that you would have been in a mood at me and probably stormed out of the club without thinking logically about how to get back.’  Carly realised that Jen had a point.

‘But why didn´t you answer the phone?  We have been calling the room all night so that I wouldn´t have to go back to the hotel alone.’  At this, Jen hooted with laughter.

‘He was right, after all!  Zack told me that Max would probably try to call him so he switched off the ringer on the phone!  How did you know which room it was – presumably Max told you?’

  ‘Err…not exactly.  I’ll explain later.  What is worrying me now is how are we going to get back to the hotel, any ideas?  You do realise I haven’t any money left?’  Prompted Carly, desperate to leave the building before Max reappeared and persuaded her to stay.

‘No worries.  Zack lent me this.’  Jen held up a wad of notes which surely would be enough to get them a taxi.   Carly heaved a huge sigh of relief.  They had left the room and instead of taking the lift, curiously Carly had insisted on taking the fire escape stairs instead which led down to the far side of the hotel, which exited on to a smaller side street.  As luck would have it, a taxi was just dropping off at the hotel so they managed to jump in that to go straight back to their own hotel, and, finally in the early hours of the morning, blissfully, to bed.

Max stared up at the ceiling of his hotel bedroom and wondered for the hundredth time, why, why, why had she left like that.  Without even leaving a note or anything.  She had promised him she would stay.  He hadn´t been that long with the courier.  Granted, he had had to check the main points of the contract carefully which, after a few Pernods  and at that time of the night, was not easy.  But he had done it as fast as he could, signed all the contracts in triplicate and the courier had been on his away again after fifteen minutes, tops, as he had raced up the stairs back to the room, desperate to see her again, needing to see her again.

He rolled onto his side, let out a weary sigh and stared at his travel alarm clock illuminating the darkness:  6:22 a.m. and as far as he knew he hadn´t caught a wink of sleep yet.  He couldn’t believe that only three or four hours earlier Carly had been lying on this bed with him, igniting passions and heat within him like no woman ever had before.  He looked hopefully at the tousled sheets next to him, as if just by wishing her there she would appear, by magic.  Used to being in control, paradoxically he felt completely at a loss as to what to do next.  He was an experienced man, he had had many lovers in his life, but never before had he known a passion like this to be ignited within his soul, to consume him so totally and so absolutely from the start.  With previous lovers, granted, there may have been an initial spark which later grew ultimately into attraction, but when the attraction gradually grew less and less, as it inevitably did, he was infamous for never looking back.  He was a great believer in walking away from a relationship when it wasn’t right, when he lost interest, as he always knew he would, sooner or later.  But not this one, not her.   There was something so very different about her right from the word go, some mysterious, magical quality which had held him spellbound, still held him spellbound, as a matter of fact.  His senses were on fire with the memory of her; her golden mane of silken hair, the softness of her skin, the creaminess of her complexion, the warmth of her lips, her mouth…the way her body had moved under his all the time crying out for more…he didn´t understand it, any of it, he had been certain that she had felt the same way as him, maybe more, but if that was so then why did she leave?…and worst of all leave without trace, no note, no phone number, no business card.  And did she get back to her hotel safely, if at all? There was no way he could check, as the subject of where she was staying never came up. The wad of notes in his wallet remained untouched, and he knew that she had no money of her own…he had lain awake most of the night tormented by these insistent thoughts…and the worst thing was he would probably never know the answer to these questions as he felt in the sickening pit of his stomach that he would never, ever see her again.

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Headlines – David & Nick -

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Is David!, no is Nick Clegg’s escorted Jaguar pulled away from number 10 Downing Street, he leant back against the leather upholstery and truly, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

You couldn’t even write a film script of this that would be believable.  Trust Miriam to drop a bombshell like that, you could always rely on her for that.

Still, things could have been worse, he smiled to himself.  The opulent luxury of the car impressed him.  As party leader, he had been treated well in his time, especially during the run up to the election, but this was on a different level.  Leather upholstery, walnut trim, and was that carpet Axminster?  A man could get used to living like this.  Well, actually, if he played his cards right, he would be living like this.  Still, it had come as a bit of a shock when Miriam first announced her suspicions, then later in the cold light of day he had thought that she must be mistaken.  But then of course looking into all the facts her information appeared to be correct…..  God, the press must not get hold of this at any cost.

They would all be finished if that were the case.  Including David.  Especially David.

That would ruin everything for all of them, after all their hard work over the last few days to form a strategic alliance.  As long as the press didn’t have ask too many questions about why on this occasion the LibDems had unexpectedly chosen to work with the Conservatives instead of Labour, and why David Cameron and his team had been quite happy to give up many of the top jobs in the Cabinet to the LibDems, including the office of Deputy Prime Minister.  If nobody asked too many questions or put two and two together they would be O.K.

Still, it rankled when the press gleefully asked them both what they thought about now having to work together when at every opportunity in the recent past they had been at each other’s throats.  If only they knew the truth.  Damn Miriam and her genealogy!  If only she had kept her pet project at bay after they married, Lord knows he begged her too, saying that she would have enough to keep her busy as a politician’s wife.  Clegg commanded the driver to continue straight past the waiting hoards of paparazzi gathering outside the palace of Westminster.  The driver silently obeyed without question, used to being spoken to in this manner.

But of course she hadn’t stopped looking into his family history and what she had found had prompted David to request blood tests.

The irony of it all!  He stifled a laugh.  How many times had he read in the press that they even looked like each other, how many times had he seen their photos side by side, only for the truth to be this?  It was beyond belief, really.  That may be their only saving grace – that nobody would believe it.  After all, who would have guessed that he and David were half-brothers?

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Fear – trying to calm my mum’s temper

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I steeled myself before I rounded the corner into the side ward: trying to calm my mum’s temper after she had had a day of doctors prodding and poking was not a task to be relished.

As we approached her bed, she nodded her approval for us to sit down rather than risk removing the lifeline of the ever present oxygen mask in order to speak.

‘Thought you would have come earlier’, she managed to grunt in a kind of gaspy way.  It never ceased to amaze me how she could turn any comment into an accusation, even with much reduced lung capacity.

‘Look, Mum, I thought we could have a game of dominoes to pass the time.  You used to like a good game of dominoes’, I attempted, in a placatory manner.  She rolled her eyes skyward and her eyebrows followed.  Lucien began sharing out the dominoes, competitive streak liberated.

‘You should have seen what they had the cheek to feed me for tea.  Not fit for an animal, I’d say!  Foreign muck!  Had to make do with a sandwich in the end, and I didn’t eat that.’  She was off.

I tried probably unsuccessfully to ignore mum comments as I fixed my gaze on a damp patch on the wall that was very nearly completed covered by a camouflaging pot plant.  I studied my dominoes, play had already begun.

A frail hand with paper for skin reached out, decades of smoking clearly documented in the yellow nicotine tattoos visible at the ends of the fingers and nails.  A beady blue eye stared at me and a slight nod indicated it was my turn to place the domino.  A trembling hand lifted to remove the oxygen mask again.

‘And she was up again all night, none of us had any sleep’, she added, indicating the lady in the opposite bed who, mercifully, seemed to have developed selective deafness.

‘They brought the commode to her in the middle of the night but my God!  The smell was terrible!  I don’t think there wasn’t a person on the whole ward who didn’t get a whiff of that.  How they expect us to get any sleep under these conditions I’ll never know.  Your go.’

A rosy cheeked chubby nurse appeared.

‘Afternoon, Betty, how are you feeling today?’ she bravely ventured, her well-sewn value for money NHS seems splitting.

‘Oh, don’t you start trying to butter me up again.  I don’t need you.  I don’t need any of you.  Leave me alone.’

The nurse opened her medical notes, a sympathetic expression on her face.

Silently, and without warning, Lucien dealt the killer blow.  He placed the winner domino on the table.  Slowly, realization dawned.

‘You bugger.  I don’t believe it.  I’m not playing with you anymore, you cheater.  Think you can come in here and cheer me up well I’ve got news for you go and shove your dominoes somewhere else!’

Clearly in a rage, she flung the remaining dominoes across the table, one of which bounced and narrowly missed hitting the departing nurse on the head.  She rested her weary, greying head back gently against the pillows, her shoulders shrunk, defeated.  She spoke out loud, to nobody in particular.

‘You know, it comes to all of us in the end.’

 

 

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One day in town -mum and dad-

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The people were pushing, pushing, harder and harder I knew mum was scared ‘cos she held onto my hand really tight…..like this…..she only does that when she ‘s  scared or ..or..she tries to get me to cross the road before the cars come.

It’s true.   And then there were people all over.  All I could see was legs and legs….I’m only small you know.  I’m the smallest in my class.  But mum says that doesn’t matter.  But sometimes I wish I was a bit bigger…….Anyway that day in town like I said people were pushing, I remember seeing a policeman on a horse……it was so big and I remember it had white stuff coming out of its mouth and lifted its front feet up in the air as if he was going to jump a fence, I was really scared when I saw that, scared to my heart.

I squeezed my mum’s hand and had to run a bit faster to keep up with her.

And then there was funny blue smoke in the air and everybody near us started coughing…me too…and mum too, too.  It was that bad it even made my eyes start crying!  Mum said we had to get away quick, so I ran as fast as I could to keep up with her.  I’m the fastest in my class, you know.  Well, Matthew is as fast as me but most days I can beat him.  It’s true.  And then….and then….when we got away from all the people I saw that a lot of them were wearing red shirts, all the same.  I think I’ve seen them before, when my Dad was watching football on the television.  The last time he watched football he shouted a lot of square words at the television and mum told him to shut up.  I know some bad words, you know.  But I can’t say them in front of mum and dad ‘cos they’d go mad and start shouting at me, saying things about soap and washing my mouth?  Yuk.  Sometimes at school at playtime me and my friends see how many bad words we know.  Anyway, we kept going away from the people and then we got to the train station and got on the train ‘cos we couldn’t wait to get home.  And then we sat down and then one of those men in the red shirts sat down next to me……I was a bit scared but I wanted to be brave for mum.  But you know what?  He had a massive cut on the side of his head and there was all blood dripping down the side of his head even on his neck…you should have seen it….I’ve never seen so much blood before.

‘Here, take this and keep it pressed on the cut’, my mum said to the red man ‘cos she gave him a scarf out of her bag ‘cos she knows all about things like that, my mum, she’s a nurse in the hospital.

‘Are you OK?’ I asked him but he just nodded his head.  And do you know what?  At the next station he got off and when our train was moving off again he just fell onto the floor………and I saw a guard go to help him.

 

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