The ground was cold and he could feel the pigeons surrounding his pack. He had half a sandwich in there and they tried in vain to pick it out from beneath the clothes.
The sun was rising and in the distance, he heard shopkeepers opening up as workers trudged through the streets on their way to work. He sat up and stretched with a yawn. He would have to find a shower. He had gone a good four days without one and the smell was starting to bother him. Maybe he would spring for a hostel. Clean sheets and running...
Spinning.
The tiny clockwork bird danced (for want of a better term) in a circle, twirling, singing out its jaunty song.
She sat, watching it sing out its tune, listening to the unique tinny sound of the music box - there was something about that music, that paticular brand, which brought her back to childhood. As a child she had watched the bird, watched it in her mother's palm.
Her mother had, briefly, convinced her that this was a real bird, that this was what happened to them when they were caught, tamed. That you could teach them these songs,...
She didn't look at him. She couldn't. If she even thought of him she could feel the tears welling upp and her throught constrict. How could he be so cold, so uncaring. She took a deep breath and tried to get a hold of her self. Feel nothing she intoned, feel empty. The hardest part was getting into bed at night. Laying down next to him and pretending that he wasn't there. He talked to her about nothing and she responded as evenly as she could manage, still without looking at him. SHe could feel his frustration, hurt and anger...
Bombs were the last thing on his mind. So, when the topic came up, Ben was staring out the window thinking about his date tomorrow with Liz and wondering how much longer he had to sit in that room.
"Ben, could you add something here?" Lou, his coworker begged. Ben straightened himself up and focus on the men sitting around the conference table.
"Um..." He gave Lou a bewildered look.
"About the B-12A's." Lou helped him out, "About the specifics."
"Oh, yeah, of course." Ben stood up and approached the schematic on the overhead, "As you see it's a small...
"Look it's not that I don't like you, I really do. In fact, if your company was you, this deal wouldn't be an issue."
We had been discussing this for weeks, it was a deal to take in a growing company as our subsidiary. My company wanted them, as they were competition. They didn't want in, because they knew they were just that to us.
"Phil, I understand that my company has a tendency to say one thing and do another," I said to him, as he paced from his chair to the window behind it. "But we mean it,...
"I've got a loaded weapon and I'm not afraid to use it!" she shouted, holding the cat in her arms like an AK-47 as the snow swirled around her on the open playing field.
"You touch my snowman again and I will set the cat on you!"she snarled, walking menacingly towards the group of chav-scum teenagers who were busy kicking over her children's carefully constructed snowmen.
"Oh yeah, as if we're scared!" one of them challenged her. She just smiled, peeled back her black balaclava and revealed her badly scarred face. "He did this last month." she said simply, and...
For his 80th birthday he had decided to go on a vacation he had never been to before. He packed his bag with only informal stuff and his favorite hat and sunglasses. He had been dressing up for formal suits for meetings and corporate parties all his life as he could remember. Now at his 80, he wanted to break the rules a little. Go on a trip to remember; in a tropical place as he would feel.. Europe was as tropical as it could get for him. Coffee on small tables by the side walk; pizza by the slice...
They were trapped for seven days. But not seven nights? No, not seven nights. They were able to go their homes at 5 PM, but they had to report back to the avalanche at 7 AM sharp. Tim always arrived five minutes early so he could finish his coffee.
It was an unusual set-up, but one everyone could agree on. After all, who wants to be trapped for that long, and at night to boot? You'd miss all your favorite shows! Cindy couldn't miss the one about mean people trapped on an island together, which she guessed was ironic. They...
We stood watching lights of a city I would soon leave behind. Atop the hotel roof, we clung to each other on my last night in Cleveland. The triangle-shaped Rock Hall was lit beautifully. The river below, the stadium where the Browns played just a short ways away. It had been an incredibly hot day for Ohio; yet we held hands the entire day. Woke up with fans blasting, drinking ice water that had turned lukewarm overnight. My feet stuck to his hard wood floors, making squeaking noises as I walked to the kitchen in my summer pajamas; a night...
I jumped.
and the hard earth was no longer under my feet.
rushing air sped past me and my hair flew above me.
i clutched Marco's hand tighter and heard my self scream.
within seconds, my body was submerged in ice cold water.
Marco was no longer attached to me.
and as i came up, gasping for air, i realized i was alone.
The dark water surrounded me as i breast-stroke my way to the dirt edge of the cave.
as i climbed up i peered around the dark room.
I spotted paintings on the walls, and what looked like...