Mythofilia

Just because When I was young we used to have swimming lessons with the entire class. Once a week all children between the ages of eight and ten would be loaded onto a bus and taken to the sports funds swimming pool. Till this day, I don't know what brought on the events of that particular morning. I got on the bus with my swim gear; talked with a few of my classmates; muddled through the exercises. Nothing out of the ordinary. After lessons, we were allowed to goof around in the water for ten or fifteen minutes. Suddenly one of the boys grabbed my head and shoved me under water. I quickly shut my mouth. It felt like I was about to burst. I flailed with all my limbs trying to understand what was going on. I could see his pale torso and legs in front of me. Try as I might, I couldn't get to the surface. He kept pushing me down. Panic seized me once I realised he wasn't letting me go. I clawed at his back with my long fingernails. I'm not...

Today it's Good Friday. Because of that I'm moving the publication date back one week. Thanks for your patience :) Check back next week for the new story! Veneration of the Cross on Good Friday aka Holy Friday

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...

What if... #5 What if bananas refused to grow? Pedro was staring intently at the trees. He didn't see Ignacio approaching. 'Well?' Ignacio said. Pedro jumped and turned around to face the owner of the orchard with a dark look in his eyes. 'They are not bearing fruit, but this isn't Black Sigatoka and it doesn't look like TR4 disease either.' Ignacio scratched his head and sighed. 'Spread the guano anyway. I'm going to talk to Enrique. Maybe the cooperative knows something.' Ignacio got in his old jeep and headed to the office that served as headquarters for the cooperative. Almost four hundred family farms were united in the cooperative known as Asociación Mis Guineos . A few years ago Ignacio had made the switch to organic cultivation. Now he was starting to wonder if it had been a mistake to abandon the heavy pesticides. When he reached the office a crowd had already formed. Farmers were coming in, with the sam...