The Written Word Group

       Bishop Davies was disappointed that Sister Louise had turned his offer down, disappointed, but not surprised.   He felt that he was pushing his luck with her, his proposed offer wasn’t really indecent, or was it?   He hadn’t reached the stage of leaping to his death in the abyss, yet, as there was still time for her to change her mind.   He realised that it would be a long shot for her to do that, I mean she hadn’t come straight out and said no, what she had said was that she would think about it, which was a good sign, wasn’t it? In the meantime he would carry on with his daily routine of getting up at five in the morning, showering, to cleanse his earthy body, then an hour of prayer, to cleanse his mind of all the forgotten dreams and overnight feelings, followed by breaking his fast with a simple meal, and then down to the inevitable pile of paperwork and letters received, and replies to write. He knew that he wouldn’t see Sister Louise a...

Do you play chess? Do you remember when you learned to play? I do.  I was about fifteen, living with my parents and my sisters sharing the same room in the Hotel Rich. The hotel was well-known by  Chilean refugees in Buenos Aires. The accomodation and food was provided by the Hotel and the U.N paid the costs.  The Hotelier, Pipi provided food for us, but as most businessmen he cut corners to make more profit  in the food and cleanliness. When I think about it now, the food was so bad I wouldn't even feed my dog that food.  Those three long years;  that period of our lives I wouldn't call it living, I'd call it  existing, we felt we were in an Abyss.   Time went  slowly back then, no schooling for my sisters or me and my parents weren't allowed to work. We received from the UN, a monthly stipend as a family to spend it on  essentials such as clothes and toiletries. Mum kept control of the money we received, and on the odd...

                                                   Best Served Cold ‘You’ve lost weight, Bishop.’ The screw was right. John’s suit, which had fit snugly when he last wore it a decade ago, now hung on his angular frame. John glared at the prison officer and tightened his belt. ‘Yeah, well. Ten years in jail is gonna do that – ‘specially given I’m innocent.’ The prison officer sighed. ‘Change the record, Bishop. You’re getting released. No need to keep on with that fairy story. You were convicted - and you lost your appeal.’ ‘Only ‘cos the other bloke had better lawyers.’ ‘Whatever. Now shut up while I finish your paperwork.’ *** John was luckier than most prisoners. He had money stashed away; enough to start over by himself. His wife had called time after he was sent down. She didn’t believe him either. Her lack of faith had been a disappointment, so John plan...

  "Seamus, look its coming from over there." "Jazus lets spend some time in the woods, she said. It'll be cool she said. Some relaxing downtime. Put your feet up. Now you're telling me there's a spooky light in the fucking woods. Stop it! You're scaring me." "Quiet, you moron, you'll scare them away." "Scare them. What about fucking me. Calling me, a moron. A few minutes ago I was the love of your fucking life. I hate the fucking woods. The fucking Ants. The fucking snakes." "Quiet down! Look! It looks like some sort of craft. Yea, I can just see it. It has a revolving light. And look, two children are working on something, at the side. Now they don't look so scary do they." "Christ one of them looked our way. Jazus! Did you see its evil eyes. That is no fucking harmless kiddo." "Lets move closer." "No fucking way. I don't intend to get fucking abducted by mini monsters masquerading a...

           What we did when the power went off.   We carried on as per normal, except we had to boil a pan of water to make the tea, we have a gas hob so we weren’t inconvenienced in that way, the oven is electric, but as we only use that on a weekend when the electric is cheaper it didn’t really matter  At five in  the morning I had to carry a torch around and when I needed both hands, to feed the cats, I had to hold it in my mouth and seeing as it was bicycle front lamp, it turned out to be a bit awkward.   For lunch we had salad, which I had planned for anyway, and the evening meal on Monday was all cooked on the hob, although the curried chicken drumsticks would have cooked better in the air fryer instead of a frying pan.   But, life went on.           With no TV or computer I wrote a bit on the challenge of the month, to copy it to computer as, when, or if it came back on and went ...

Scene.             A soup kitchen somewhere in London. Cast.                Princess.       A tramp between twenty six and thirty.                         Old man.        A tramp, indeterminate age but about fifty.                                                 ----------------------             Opens.   Old man sat at table.            ...