My discovery took the world by storm.
The university had sent me to South America to carry out research into unfound species in the Amazon forest. The remit was wide, almost too wide, in fact, as wide as the forest itself. After all, where do you start? And, what was I looking for?
The going was hard. Dense foliage, humidity, bugs, leeches, snakes, ants and a million other species that wanted me...for lunch. Then I saw it...nestling in the thick vegetation, it looked out at me with eyes that seemed to be on the end of sticks. I approached it...
1943
Population. 1943
Even painted over, the 2 was still visible if you looked at the sign at an angle. And the previous 1 if you were real close, but from a passing car, residents or the occasional visitor to Sleepy Falls would see, if they were paying attention, that a new resident now inhabited the town. Ted wiped his brow with his customary cotton handkerchief and reseated the dusty Sheriff's Hat.
"It's not straight." said this week's Deputy, who decided to punctuate this pearl of wisdom with an increasingly annoying, yet habitual spitting out the passenger window.
The fact...
She could feel it clawing at her as she sat in the room, nudging her, trying to pull her back.
The fantasy was becoming ever more difficult to escape from. The fantasy of her life years from now, successful job, a partner who was her equal and who she could love for the rest of her life, the promise of children, the happy ending that she had always desired.
It was consuming all her waking moments.
The hope that she held in her heart that she would survive this and everything would turn out well.
She hadn't needed to escape...
It was the moment she'd been waiting for her whole life - she just hadn't known it.
She hadn't known she'd wanted to disappear until she could.
On the one side of her was the crashed train, the people screaming, the police trying to keep control, ambulances - so much chaos and pain. Explanations and stories.
And on the other...just sky.
It wasn't as if she had anything she needed to escape from, but that was the point. There was nothing in her life that meant that much to her. She was trapped by her own monotony. Changing her life...
Mr. JoJo had dreamt of owning his own ice-creamatorium for years now. he had gone into the family business after high school, trading pencils and books for stainless steel and embalming fluid. At first he found it as good as any other job available to him, living in the small, isolated hamlet that he did - 50 people in his senior class. But as the years passed, he grew to hate it with an ever more ferocious intensity. So three months ago he made his decision, two months ago he'd signed the lease for the storefront on Main Street, and...
Some people would call my addiction a "trivial" case, and I would agree with them. Yes, trivia. That is my addiction. I love to learn and memorize totally random trivia. For example, did you know that drinking 16 ounces of ice water, requires the body to burn 17.5 Calories to warm the water up to body temperature? Fasinating! I know that some people would call me odd or insane but it isn't like my addiction is serious or anything. I mean, come on, it's not like owning all 54 volumes of the Guinness Book of World Records is insane or...
Twist.
Once more and the lid would be open and the witch familiar could return to it's home until it was needed again. Sallie, looked around the kitchen and wondered where the animal was hiding, time was of the essence as she'd already started the slow incantation to transform her pet into an inanimate object.
The cat had disappeared and was not heeding her special call. This was bad news. The townsfolk were already suspicious and girls were dying needlessly, suspected of witchcraft whilst she had managed to keep safe.
The cat had been used for a spell against the...
Rain poured down, next to her, the doorway shielding her. She clutched her red gown as she huddled down close to the ground. The tears wouldn't stop flowing. She was terrified. Elsewhere in Beijing, a man was looking through his house. Calling a name, begging for his daughter to come back.
The girl in the red gown knew what he was doing. She was trying not to care. She was not going back. Not after what he did. Was it right, what he did? What she did? She didn't know. Nobody would know. Her phone buzzed in her pocket. She...
That damn tree was going to fall on him, he just knew it.
What use was the open sky, the billowing waves of blue, or the sunlight streaking through the clouds to illuminate his path along the sandy shore, when as soon as he walked beneath that leaning palm, it would crash upon him like the hammer of fate.
Perhaps he would stay where he was. The water was cool, the breeze refreshing. If he traced his steps back, he might rediscover that berry bush and fill his belly with its sweet fruit.
But what was life without a little...
You had me at ox bow lake, knee deep in dark water. "It's not so bad, right?" you said.
"It's no Jersey Shore," I said, "But I guess it's not that bad."
You crouched so that you were neck deep in dark water. "You gotta get your whole body in."
Then, a gunshot. I spun around quick and covered my breasts with my forearm. I heard you laughing behind me.
"City girls. Can't take em nowhere." You leaned back and did a halfhearted backstroke. "Just a hunter probably." I sunk in a little more. "Come on," you said. "Come swim."...