Wheels are Hard to Come By
Wheels Wheels were hard to come by So was everything, for the war was not long over You'd think there'd be a wheel or two all the same, but he'd had no luck Nothing Even at the tip He'd looked and looked, but he'd never found Days he'd wasted rummaging through the rubbish There were lots of things, and a couple of weeks past he'd seen his first pram Well, part of a pram It was the...
The Egg Collector
The Egg Collector The boy hated Sunday school The teacher, Miss Green, was boring All she ever talked about were the Jews She never mentioned the Romans or the Greeks Even the Egyptians would have been more interesting, the pyramids with dead bodies wrapped in bandages, and watering their gardens from the Nile They had lessons about the Romans and stuff in ordinary school, but Miss Green...
Closed for Christmas
Closed for Christmas 'Would you like some help with the decorations for Sunday's service, Father?' 'What are you talking about? Sunday's a bank holiday The church is closed ' 'Closed? But it's Christmas Day, the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ ' 'You trying to tell me my job? You think I don't know it's Christmas Day? I'm looking forward to spending it with my family for once...
Joy
Joy Hergott Springs, Outback South Australia, Sunday, 5 April 1891 Harriet Manning mouthed the numbers as she surveyed the drab hall seven, eight, nine It was meagre congregation today Mrs Sanderson and her husband were absent again They'd only been three times since Christmas, even missing last week and that was Easter Sunday And who's to blame them? The hall was beginning to show the...
Uninvited Guest
Uninvited Guest The snow had not stopped falling all morning and Amanda stood at her window studying the street Flakes of frozen filigree were drifting down like feathers and the skies were oppressive with dark clouds Although mid day, it could have been early evening for all the light that filtered from above The street was deserted and a smattering of the automatic lamps struggled to...
Reading Material
Reading Material It was dark in the lane It was always dark when Tommy arrived home from school in winter, but he didn't mind He liked winter, especially the fog That was full of mystery The fog was like a filmy curtain spread over the countryside that made everything so still and quiet and sleepy And with the fog came the magic Dragons and stuff like that He'd never seen a...
A New Beginning
A New Beginning By Jim Ditchfield 'She looks like she's asleep,' the boy said He was in the parlour with his Uncle Ben There had been more people in and out of the seldom used room than he could remember in the whole of his life The Eldridges from up the lane had been Mr and Mrs Jones had been Billy Rider's father had been He'd brought Billy's mother with him and a big...
The Rosewood Coffin
The Rosewood Coffin Harold had collapsed in a shopping mall Now he watched with interest as the paramedics set up their equipment in the ambulance 'He's a fine figure of a man, but all that muscle is heavy ' Mildred said, gasping from her exertions as they pushed the stretcher into the ambulance Then a look of alarm spread across her face 'I can't feel a pulse I think he's dead '...