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He pushed through the doors of the train and ran along the platform, up the escalator, to find her, to kiss her, to tell her that he would never hurt her again.

Crowds passed by in blurred motion as he pressed forward towards their meeting place, Jimmy’s flower stand. But she was not there. He spun round and searched anxiously through the moving groups of anonymous faces when Jimmy called out, “Hey mate, are you Richard? Some woman left you this note.” He looked down in the dim light and read h… Continue

I brush my hair with the large round bristle brush until it leaps out with static. I try to tame the cowlicks above my forehead but they spring back round, defiant. I look into the bathroom mirror at the hair, the sunspots, the wrinkles, and notice how I’m aging. I feel tired, aware that my body tells all my stories like a schoolgirl who can’t contain secrets. And at that moment I realize that I’m no longer a girl but a mature woman, whose face is etched by the lessons of life. And I discover th… Continue

It’s been a year since he died. And while you plan a ceremony where we all throw flowers into the water from the jetty, all I can do is lie awake at night remembering how empty his last days were; how distended his stomach, how pale his face, how gaunt his cheeks, how bony his hands. But you remember him differently; a young man with wild dark eyes who held your hand as you walked along the beach and sat with you on the jetty as the sun set low in the sky. Now, when I see tears of love for him w… Continue

Fighting sleep is an art she has perfected. First it’s the toilet. Then she’s hungry. Then she wants her favourite dolly (and the teddy that’s still in the car). Forty minutes later she cries she’s dropped her dummy and I discover she has an assortment of things in bed with her including her new shoes placed neatly next to her pillow and a snoring toy puppy next to her head. What next!

Clea checked the house number and slowly pulled into the curb, parking her car outside her father’s house. There it loomed, an intimidating structure of brick and glass and winding steps leading up to the front door. She slid off the seat and eased herself out, locking the car then throwing the keys in her handbag. She observed the carefree way in which she threw the keys into her bag and made a mental note of how different it was to the way she felt – panicky and tight in the chest. She quietly… Continue