Unpaid debts

‘Look! Such a big juicy watermelon! Do you want it?’

Big brown eyes wide with wonder gaze unblinkingly at the giant fruit. Hesitant nodding of a small dark head indicates acquiescence. Clad only in a thin cotton vest and a black string around his rotund little waist, the small boy toddles off after the delectable temptation, his podgy fist held fast around a guiding finger, all his faith vested in one single assurance.

While the boy is occupied with the watermelon, his father and mother hurriedly get onto a waiting bullock-cart and begin to ride away. The tell-tale clip clop of the bullock’s...

Read the full article in the February 2016 issue of Scarlet Leaf Review

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550 words
Nonfiction
US publication

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Words from the Wise

"We like your style... From my point of view (and not only because all of us had the same impression) your work is of very high quality."

Roxana Nastase

Editor

Scarlet Leaf Review

Ironing irony

I love car boot sales. It’s always nice to know that there are other people in the world who collect as much junk as I do and even more people who are willing to buy it from them. The last such sale I attended was a goldmine – I got five Calvin & Hobbes comics at the price of one; I also got an iron, a sweater, two spoons, a strainer and a blister in each foot for walking around so much. A real bargain.

I don’t usually get along with electronic equipment, but the iron that I bought turned out to be even more temperamental than these things usually are. It had its own ideas about when to get warm and to what extent ...

Read the full article in the January 2016 issue of Scarlet Leaf Review

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Request to read the original article via email for just 99p! (T&C apply)

800 words
Nonfiction
US publication

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Words from the Wise

"We'll be delighted to have your story in our magazine. We like your style."

Roxana Nastase

Editor

Scarlet Leaf Review

"Really interesting and fun"

Rose Eveleth

Editor

The Atlantic

"I thoroughly enjoyed reading this!"

Janet Kim

Publisher

GirlWorks

Many a sleep between the cup and the lip

The clock shrilly performs its duty and haughtily announces the time. It reads five a.m. or thereabouts. I can’t be too sure since I don’t have my glasses on. Even if I did have my glasses on, I couldn’t be too sure. It’s kinda hard to tell the time with your eyes shut. My hand strikes like a snake to strangle off the alarm mid-scream. Nervously I glance at the two sleeping forms by my bedside. The larger of them stirs, licks her lips and turns over noisily twisting her sheets around her three-year-old frame tighter than a lock of hair caught in a bad perm. The other continues sleeping. Whew.

Putting...

Read the full essay in the May 2015 anthology Motherhood May Cause Drowsiness

915 words
Humour
US publication