Tag: family
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BALEFIRE

Jonny stuffed his cold hands into his coat pockets as he watched his father make the final preparations. He had been helping stack the wood in the back garden for the last week. Every year he had asked for a bonfire, every year his mother and father told him no. But not this year. This…
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SURROGATES

Black and white images from the past. Not hers, someone else’s. The smiling portrait of a young woman, an elderly couple in front of their house, a grandfather, a brother and sister. A family, a historical document of a happy life. $1 for the basket. The seller had no idea who the people in the…
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A MURMUR

He watched the black mass moving through the dawn sky. Backlit by the sun’s orange-yellow glow, the sweeping and swooping birds danced in uniformity. It was, he mused, a stunning example of the beauty that could be found in the world. But not for him. For him, beauty in life had ended. There was only…
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WRATH UNBOWED

The dust swirled round the field. The earth had given them nothing in return for all their hard work again. Aggie stood on the porch. No sign of Al returning, the urge took him every few weeks. She knew he would be home eventually. They were all that was left, the last remaining links of…
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HOME ALONE 13: HOLIDAY IN THE HACIENDA

Being abandoned by his family every Christmas as a child had set off the downward spiral. Thirty years later, he had finally hit rock bottom. Cassandra lay naked on the bed, her skin blotchy and bruised, the needle still hanging out her arm. He shelled out the notes from his wallet and left them on…