Maddie was getting worried. For the 100th time, she went over in her mind what Susan had asked her to do. Take the keys, lock the main doors and then meet me at the staff entrance at the back of the library. That is exactly what Susan had asked and exactly what Maddie had done.…
It started just like any other day. She got up at five, scrubbed her face and brushed her teeth, ate her usual bowl of rolled oats with sliced bananas and 1 percent milk. She dressed in her navy blue uniform, pulled her mousy brown hair back into a tight bun, put on the same coat…
The house at 322 Dixon Road looked much like all the others in the neighbourhood: semi-detached, two-story, brick — painted white, dark grey door, enclosed front porch, with a bedraggled end-of-March-looking front yard covered in dead leaves, depleted-looking soil and straggly shrubs with the odd snowdrop peeking above ground as if to say, “Don’t give…
Edith was washing dishes when she heard Aggie Thomas calling from the front steps. “Oh for goodness sake,” said Edith, “can’t she just leave me alone? She`s here to share gossip, mark my words.” “Jack,” she said to her husband who was lying on the couch demanding his second cup of tea, “you’ll have to…
Toronto 2024 It was a cold, damp and miserable grey day. Feels like London, Dianne thought as she pulled the hood of her jacket over her thinning, almost pure-white hair. In fact, it’s just like that day I first saw her; that girl on a motorbike. My goodness me, that must be fifty years ago…
She was in love with Murray. They went to the same church and she couldn’t help staring at him during the services. Looking at Murray helped to relieve the monotony. Linda was sure sometimes he smiled at her. He was 16, tall and skinny with thick, wavy, light brown hair that stood straight up from…
It started as an ordinary, late-November day — no sun, no snow, no wind, no rain, no leaves, no flowers. There was nothing that brought joy, nothing that brought excitement, nothing that brought fear. It was one of those days when you couldn’t imagine anything but dull and grey. It was noon and I was…
When Susan was eight or nine years old, all she wanted was a doll house. She’d only seen doll houses in Collinsons Department Store, and certainly never played with one but all the girls in her class had a doll house and talked constantly about them. Their doll houses sounded so much grander than the…
Olive was elegant. There was no doubt about that. She was tall and slim with alabaster skin, bright blue eyes and jet black wavy hair. Even as a little girl she chose her clothes with great care. “Do you think this colour matches my eyes?” she would ask her mother. Her mother said to friends,…
In mid-summer, new neighbours moved in. Before I met them I noticed they had attached a bird feeder to their deck. It swung out to sit in the branches of the willow tree that had spread across the fence from my yard. “A bird feeder, that’s a good sign,” I thought.