Terrified, Bodie summons me to his cavernous office. “They want me out,” he says, scrutinizing all those dazzling backstabbers and hangers-on through thick glass panes. “Calm down,” I say. “Calm down? Are you shitting me? You hear what I’m saying?”… Continue Reading
The same year rationing finally came to an end in England, Peter spent a small fortune on a big American refrigerator. While his neighbours coveted television sets, he yearned for food that wasn’t as bland and grey as London on… Continue Reading
Grampa Don hated houseflies. To hear him talk you’d think there weren’t no flies in Chicago, but we visited once and there were flies a’plenty, I assure you. But when Grampa stayed with us he was forever complaining about flies… Continue Reading
There was uncertainty in the land, as the great empires of Asia and Europe sought to win the allegiance of a bachelor monarch. Not that the King took any notice. Henri-Luc the Third, the Most Christian Majesty of France, was… Continue Reading
Hikaru squats on his ankles in the mouth of the furnace. Moisture steams from his body. Sweat distills into salt stains on his shirt. A square of fabric is tied around his head and tucked into a roll in lieu… Continue Reading
The tree was old, but not as old as the soldier lying at its roots. When the Armies of the Cumberland and Tennessee slaughtered each other in the forest by the river, the tree was only a sky-blue berry. Trampled… Continue Reading
The mournful wailing froze Conn O’Neill’s blood, as it always did. People said the sound the stuka dive-bombers made came from sirens the Germans fitted to their planes. Well, maybe. But Conn, fighting for Allied forces in northern France, knew… Continue Reading
Abydos, Egypt Second year of the Pharaoh Khasekhemwy 2704 BC Merit-Ptah heard the shouting first, and then the struggle as two guards pushed a man through the door-flap of her house. “I’m with a patient,” she began in anger, but… Continue Reading
There is a kind of fog in this city that seems to put everyone on edge. Sometimes too there is a cold hard rain, and not just in the winter months. Between the fog and the rain it can be… Continue Reading
At night, the sulphurous fog grew thicker, and the women took their usual positions under the doorways and gas lamps of Whitechapel. Molly’s shoes clicked against the cobblestones as she tried to catch the eye of any passing male. She… Continue Reading