Debra I was borne in Bangladesh but I'm sure I was conceived in an office not far from Canary Wharf. We came back to England a while later - me and Nikki my non-identical twin, and the rest of my family. Well, I say 'family', but that could mean anything and frequently does. We stayed in some rooms over a clothes shop in Bristol for a time while things were being sorted out, and the paperwork completed. We were happy in t...

It's always the way, when you start a local club or society. In my case, it arose from a desire to get more exercise without going to a gym or buying a silly treadmill. If you've got Dartmoor on your doorstep why not go out and explore it? I shared the idea with my neighbours, and even stuck up a notice in the Post Office about it. There was great interest from lots of people to begin with and we all had some fabulous wal...

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking.” That's not what you want to hear coming over the PA system, it sounds like bad news before he even begins. The hen party crowd in the central part of the plane barely lowered their screeches so the rest of us could hear what our Captain was about to say, and the rugby club members who were between me and them weren't much better. I had seat 33A, a window seat in the r...

Alice lay back in the armchair. Having sole access to the one with the electric reclining seat-back and the automatic pop-up leg rests, she sighed with the utter relief of someone who has been on her feet for too long, particularly for someone in her condition. It was now the full forty weeks, and her stomach rose up from her torso like a whale breaking the surface, its stretch marks scoring lines into her perfect skin. T...

When I was a girl, we used to go rowing on the river on summer Saturdays. There were three rivers near us which could go on. The Tamar, the Lynher and the Tavy, and they all joined up into one river just above the dockyard. Which one we chose on any particular Saturday depended on when the tide would be high for that day. High tide was when the river was full of water, and low tide was when the water level in the river wa...

A room, locked from the inside, the key plainly visible on the bedside cabinet. No spare keys. No other entry point into the room. No dodgy recent building work or amateur DIY projects to investigate for exit routes. No loose floorboards or wall panels. All the windows shut and locked from the inside. No murder weapon or anything to use as one. And inside the room, she lay on her back on the large double bed, her eyes ope...

My name is Charity, but I'm not particularly little. I'd like to apologise now for the humorous title, especially if you were thinking this story is about the general goodness of people, or their propensity for giving money to good causes, or even to go and help in person. This story is about that, though perhaps not in the way you were thinking. This story is about me and how I came to be where I am and who I am. And abo...

First through the door this Tuesday evening was my ex, Dave. My mouth dropped open, I couldn't find any words to say. He now looked very different to how he had looked when I had last seen him, in the room in the Tiverton Arms in bed, half on top of someone else in the bed who turned out to be Suzanna. Then, he had looked really really surprised and, for the first time ever, at a loss for a misguided smart-alec retort or...

It was warm and sunny, so Suzanna and I took our cups of tea and some more fresh homemade pastries out into the garden at the back of her house. The nearest neighbour was quite a few yards away and not normally able to see into Suzanna's garden so we felt quite safe in going outside, me with nothing on and Suzanna wearing only her red straps. We sat on her wooden garden bench and let the late afternoon sun play on our ski...

It wasn't long before the weekend rolled around again, and Friday night's No Entry Club meeting would be the last at my house until Monday evening. For all the club members it would be a whole two evenings of solitude, alone-time and watching the telly by ourselves all evening while my bedrooms stayed silent and dark, and the cheerful noise of female friendship did not visit the kitchen twice each night. Rover, the cat, a...

Once everyone had arrived, there was quite a squash at the kitchen table. Someone had to move Jennifer's wheelchair out into the utility room and I'd found some more fold-up chairs from the garden shed. Nicole introduced Suzanna by holding up her hand so we could all see who she was. Except Charity, who couldn't see but still knew anyway. “Everyone, this is my friend Suzanna. She's a solicitor who works here in Tiverton....

No sooner had I finished rubbing Rover's tummy than my phone burbled. Rover was still explaining to me that I hadn't done it for long enough, not anything like long enough, in her words. I shrugged my shoulders and answered my phone. One thing I've noticed about other people's ring tones is that none of them sound like ring tones. The cacophonous racket sounds like their earpiece cable has popped out of their phone causin...

I got up late this morning. My week had been alternately busy and boring, then busy again. And besides, Rover, the cat, had crept onto my bed in the night. She was asleep half on my pillow and half on me and I didn't want to wake her. However, she soon woke up, stretched and went to the kitchen and mewed for her breakfast so I had to get up anyway. Honestly, it's like having children! From what I gather. I was just in my...

Life seemed a bit tame, back at work in the same familiar surroundings, doing the same things as normal. However, Himari and I had plenty to talk about, as did Lindsey when she popped in round about first coffee time. The no-audio office security tapes would have shown three women with their mouths moving a bit more than usual, and stopping to laugh a lot more than usual. However, the work got done and, finally, it was ti...

Today was much the same as yesterday. Happily, the crèpe suzette vendor had moved to a different location. Either that, or the other nearby stands had got together and physically removed it to the other side of the hall. Or to the far end of the Long Stay car park. The day went slowly enough, what with having to tolerate Jake's Japes with each batch of data sheets. But at least the visitor data kept rolling in. It was our...