Inspector Wiley looked at the dossier before exiting his vehicle.  He rubbed his face, weary from the drive.  Four hundred and seventeen kilometres to Gentle Harbour, pretty much the end of the road.  The village of perhaps 200 people clung to the rocky shore, houses lurching steeply up from the harbour. Wiley unclipped a photo… Read more »

Roland walked the same route to the supermarket every Friday.  The same streets, the same storefronts he’d walked past for decades.  What was different now is that he walked alone. Sabrina had loved this walk.  She’d peer in all the shop windows and sometimes pause to have a lingering look.  Roland often had to tug… Read more »

Carol looked wistfully across the sandy beach to the ocean beyond.  A gentle surf lapped against the shore.  She found the sound relaxing, but what she really wanted was to immerse herself in the salty water.  She wanted to feel sand squishing between her toes and the froth of the waves splashing over her shoulders…. Read more »

Thomas was a portrait painter by vocation.  Until he met Ellen.  He’d been commissioned to paint her portrait for her 18th birthday, and that painting marked the end of his portrait career. It’s more complicated than that.  He did paint her portrait.  Over the course of many sittings, Thomas and Ellen fell in love.  She… Read more »

All Aden wanted for his birthday was to ride on a bus.  All he had ever wanted was to ride on a bus.  But his parents told him that walking everywhere was better.  Aden didn’t think walking anywhere was better, and he thought it had more to do with money.  But money is something you… Read more »

It all started, as these things often do, with a well-intentioned gift. Marcia received a secret-Santa gift from one of her co-workers.  At first Marcia didn’t even know what it was, but another co-worker helped read the printing on the box. It was a paella pan. Marcia didn’t know what a paella pan was, but… Read more »

Her hands were sweating against the Jeep’s steering wheel, the desert stretching for miles around her.  She wiped one palm on her jeans, then the other. She checked the parched landscape for signs of movement, pivoting her head and using her mirrors to get a full 360° scan.  Nothing, from horizon to horizon to horizon. … Read more »

She was first at being born, but that was the last time her sister let her be first at anything.  Felicity was born at 04:38:12 after a long labour, and her twin Fiona gushed out only seconds later.  While Felicity was still gasping for her first breath, Fiona began to wail. The competition was on…. Read more »

I sort of knew the day wasn’t going to go well from the moment I got up.  Wicked hangover!  I’d stayed far too long and had far too much fun at the pub last night.  Also, far too many drinks for mid-week. Traffic on my way to the interview was wicked.  Some cow wouldn’t let… Read more »

Ka-thunka, ka-thunka, ka-thunka.  The train’s steady sound was usually soothing, but today Natalie found it jarring.  She wanted the one-hour trip to be over.  She also wanted to put off her arrival, put off making a decision. Learning that the cancer was back was a gut-punch blow.  Everything had been looking up.  Every month since… Read more »