Lily pinged the go-button and waited for Grandad to appear. Grandad's devices were all old-school and 'slow like me' he said. While she waited she studied the icon on the button. It looked like a handle for something. Dad said it was from an old-school coms called a phone, just

The sun warms my shoulders as I enter another world. With the smell of plum blossom and mown grass in my nostrils, I stand beside a gangly youth at a nineteenth century whaling station in the Sounds, where the stench of blood and death fill the air. He feels the

The harsh sound made no sense. Ruth turned to face the creaking, crunching noise which came from across the river. She stood her ground even though the strangeness increased as she watched the trees whipping this way and that, their erratic behaviour belying the effects of wind, even a tornado.

I. Last Year Your physio says surgery won't be necessary. He gives you an exercise to do, adding, 'Swimming is good.' Seeing your doubtful expression, ' Biking is also good. Even walking is ok,' he says. For most of a year, you do the exercise morning and night,

In the early morning mist of Delhi bus station, Felicity watched as her backpack was hoisted up to the roof of the bus to Nepal. Reaching into her shoulder bag she fingered the plane ticket which guaranteed her return home for the start of her Polytech course. The bus driver

My first memory of a swimming lesson is when I was six years old. Our teacher had us all line up along the side of the pool with our arms above our heads, hands joined as if in prayer. On her order, most dived in. Those who hesitated were pushed.

In our family there's a game we play at times – a kind of 'name that tune' meets 'a penny for your thoughts'. It's about those songs that rise up from the depths of your mind, the ones you hum or whistle as you go about your day, barely aware of

I unhem creation a little, to work out the stitch (Vincent O’Sullivan, 2006 from the anthology ‘Are Angels OK?')You arrive in a flurry of hi-vis, and I picture how you leapt off your bike, docked it deftly and unbuckled your helmet as you ran up the stairs.