Mythofilia

Imagine: being lost The sun shone warm upon his face as he lay on the grass. From a distance he could hear singing and laughing. A frown formed on his brow. He would need to open his eyes soon. He didn’t want to. Whenever he did, it seemed like he fell through the cracks of the world and into some other place where he didn’t belong. Leo opened his eyes and reality shifted. He found himself standing in a cobbled alley. The sky was grey and all he heard was noise. Not knowing where to go, he just walked straight ahead. The alley gave onto a road filled with people. Looking around he turned left on a whim. It had been like this for days now. Maybe longer, he wasn’t sure. Leo couldn’t remember how he’d gotten here. He felt it to be a big city though he had no way of knowing. The oncoming stream of shoppers pushed him to the right hand side of the road. He walked on staring at the iron railing with signs indicating restaurants by the water below. He could see them on the wh...

Imagine: The Crime Of Silence Ellen combed her hair in silence. It was a habit for which she had been punished often. Yet she refused to do otherwise. She had no problem with combing her hair per sé. Nor did she mind sitting on a rock to do so. But she could not bring herself to sing. As a little girl she had gone to choir lessons along with all the others. Her mother had taken her to the lagoon of the clear blue waters. There had been at least twenty girls in the group of four and five-year-olds. Mistress Bubble stood at the front and explained that in a few weeks they would be singing on the beach. Ellen had felt daunted at the idea. But kind faced mistress Bubble with her soft yellow hair and blue eyes had assured her she'd be allright. And she was. She liked singing in the choir both in the sea and on the beach. When she was seven her parents had arranged for her to get private lessons with Madame Whirl. It was common for girls to have both c...

Imagine: one of those days As Theodore looked out into the black emptiness of space he realised this was going to be one of those days. An amber light flashed on his communicator. Emergency staff meeting, obviously. He called Arjina to take over doing the inventory and made his way to the staff room. Up until a few minutes ago their Holiday Liner had been en route from Krithika, an industrial colony, to Demyan. An agricultural planet that offered a range of affordable family holidays. Things like living on a farm for a week or going on long nature walks. The kind of family vacation destination their company specialised in. But now for some reason, they were somewhere on the outskirts of the mapped universe. When Theodore entered the staff room captain Thompson was already there. She'd gotten the coffee going and was making tea.  Though the way she slammed the cupboard's doors told Theodore this was not going to be a nice little chat. “Easy on the doors...

Imagine: happiness Happiness. It was not the usual subject of stories Helena thought. Which was a bit of a shame because it was hard to come by. Most people only ever had a few moments of it in their entire lives. So why shouldn't they be able to pick up a book or go see a movie that gave them the illusion of it if only for a little while? She supposed it wasn't an easy subject to write about. Honestly, if you had to write something about a person who was perfectly happy with their lives, how much could you tell? What could you possibly say to keep an audience interested? Helena pondered these questions while lazily enjoying the sun in the garden. She had cleared the rocks from the hard packed dirt so she could use the rocking chair without difficulties. She loved this time of day. The afternoon sun always had the exact right temperature. Warm but not too hot. She wondered what being happy would look like in a painting or a sculpture. It seemed to Hele...

Imagine: tracking Sara listened intently to the sounds of her prey. She had come to the right place. The first few weeks she had been bewildered trying to keep up with the herd. But after following them around for some time, she began to see the pattern.  She had guessed where they would go to next. It was hard to keep still. She'd wanted to do a little jig when she realised her guess had been right. But it wouldn't do to let them get away now. The herd was not complete yet. A few stragglers were still passing Sara's hiding place. She had to stay hidden. She couldn't see the one she would be aiming for. It made her nervous. She'd tried to make the butterflies in her stomach go away, this wasn't helping. Finally the last of them passed. She allowed the sound of footfalls to recede. Sara popped her head round the corner to see how the herd had spread. She marked her target's location and retreated into her hiding place. She closed her eyes to im...