Hello ... is anyone still reading this?

I found Carolyn waiting outside the conservatory. She was wearing the red cocktail dress from last night, and she was sulking. Through the doorway, I could hear Aunt Martha fussing over the seating arrangements: were they too far? too near? should the chairs be arranged in more of a semi-circle? And Uncle Lawrence's odd, monosyllabic nods towards ( Read more... )

I was standing on the beach as the tide rolled in, with only a flimsy pair of trunks between me and the elements. The weather forecast had said that it was going to be hot; but at six in the morning, with a chill wind blowing in over the Atlantic, that was a little hard to believe. Eastwards, small swells in the ocean grew in size and power as ( Read more... )

He did not merely court disaster, not he, nothing so mundane. He stalked her down dark streets late at night, prowled under her window muttering bad poetry, ingratiated himself with her parents with all manner of insincerity and fairly bludgeoned her gates with little Russian matchmakers. He showed up on her doorstep at 6 in the morning with a ( Read more... )

Danger is like stress: some people -- perfectly good people -- have no stomach for it, while others take it in their stride, and still others thrive on it. And then there are the select few who cannot live without it. Case in point: me. I'm tightly chained to the nose of a specially modified cruise missile, pointed straight down through the core ( Read more... )

The Anglican minister had invited Caleb to concelebrate at the funeral, but Caleb had declined. He hadn't officiated at Benj's funeral; he saw no reason to take a place at the altar at Kate's. He sat in a front pew, rising only to say a few words in her memory, and otherwise faded into the background ( Read more... )

....yeah, I got nothin'. Anyone else want jump in?

VicVic was in a sour mood, and Vic in a sour mood meant Vic hitting the gym especially hard ( Read more... )

Nine years agoOfficially, they were boning up for the next day's exam. Unofficially, "boning up" was pretty much all they were doing. Caleb was sure his brother Benj knew what he was up to -- it would be years before he discovered how wrong he was -- and he was secretly terrified that Cindy's parents would find out. They preached abstinence, as ( Read more... )

"The Witches' Corner, charms and curiosities shop!" Cindy answered the phone with her usual cheerfulness ( Read more... )