The knock

The alarm wakes Lia from a deep slumber. Her hand reaches to her phone, she presses the button to cease its beeping. She throws back the covers and stands at the side of the bed; with a bounce she makes her way to the en suite. 'Oh shit!' she cries. Matty has already left for…

The Icy Bench

This weekend is the first foray back into netball and I'm just back home. We're in a new level, and the teams have been graded for development purposes. The grading took place last year and was performed by an independent, objective, and non-member of our club. There's no way on God's green earth I could've…

Tea and Cake

Harriet lowers herself into her arm chair. Everything hurts: over the past few years, Harriet's been feeling every day of her age. She's noticed back ache, her legs are shaky and sore, her shoulders hunched. She is old; born in the previous century. And while that seems like an eye-blink ago, it's really not. The…

An Accident

I gaze at the face blankly staring past my own. I am frozen, fear consuming me. I didn't see her coming. She looks about eight years old. Passers-by gather, forming an outer circle, as if by approaching they will become complicit in my crime. Minutes pass like hours before a woman, probably in her 40s…

A friend like Margie

'She's always had a flair for, um...I don't know how to put it,' my voice peters off. Pam and I are talking about Margie, our friend. Margie flies to Spain every July and spends two months there. When she's home in Melbourne again, she is wonderfully generous, hosting parties and dinner for her friends. But…