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Showing posts from June, 2018

Legend Tripping

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  1. Most of the children of Carlin High School were engaged in the usual playground activities, girl gossiped rapidly sounding like a thousand busy typewriters; youthful first years laughed and chas ed each other around the yard, burning off energy; older kids from the rough end of town hid behi nd the toilets, smoking weed. Steven was sitting alone, perched on the fence like a hawk, watching all the normal mayhem when he spotted Simon Anderson take a nosedive onto the concrete. The boy just went white and dropped, and even though the other kids were making a godawful din, Steven definitely heard Simon’s skull crack like a heavy egg as it smashed onto the ground. The noise was a sickening, hollow sound that made his heart jump in his chest. He immediately jumped off the fence and rushed to see if the older boy was alright. In the seconds it took him to move to where Simon was, there was a large crowd around Simon, some girls were screaming, an older boy was shouting, “Get a tea

A Walk in the Park

If it had been up to Dawn she would have had the fucking dog put down, though she would be the first to admit she was biased. She hated the thing. “Guvnor”, Peter had called it. The thing stank to high Heaven,  spent most of the day either barking or loudly scoffing away at its genitals or whining to be taken out for a walk. As annoying as the dog was, she never thought it aggressive. That changed last night when it bit Peter. It wasn’t a savage bite, little more than a nip but it did draw blood. If that wasn’t bad enough it had done the same to her right on the meat of her thumb. She was not happy with Peter’s method of discipline. A gentle tap to the dog’s nose with a rolled up newspaper. The dog skulked away into its bed under the table in the kitchen and then they had argued for hours. He kept saying Guvnor had just gotten a bit excited. She was convinced the old mutt was going senile and it would be a mercy to end its miserable life. In the end , she knew if she gave him an ulti

Prelude

You should have seen his face when he opened the envelope. The perpetual frown was replaced with raised eyebrows of curiosity. Then he opened the little white card with silver writing and Alec’s face lit up. It wasn’t often you’d see him smile, mostly he’d just grin that vindictive grin of his when someone who’d stepped out of line got what was coming to them but that day Morton gave the most authentic and delighted smile I’d seen from him since we were kids. “ Look at that Willie, is that no’ just lovely?” He said handing me the card. I already knew what it said. Sammy Wilson’s eldest Terry was getting married and Sammy had invited the whole crew. He’d been a good earner for us had Sammy, mostly legit. He ran a couple of places with fruit machines and pool tables, with a side order of loan sharking, but discreetly, and without any need for violence. In many ways, he was like the Provie, but without the exorbitant interest rates and state backing. He kept a clean house, so to s

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