The Motherhood Contract by Laura Besley
You must not tell the mother-to-be that she may not instantly love her child. On the second of April 1997 Elspeth is standing in her dimly-lit kitchen doing the washing up. Don’t…
You must not tell the mother-to-be that she may not instantly love her child. On the second of April 1997 Elspeth is standing in her dimly-lit kitchen doing the washing up. Don’t…
A month into travelling, your first week in Spain, and the three of you have hired a tent with a hole in the roof. A car with a hole in the floor.…
Your tension releases like a breaking dam as you wrap warm, beefy hands around my long neck. Days spent toiling on engines and mufflers have left your palms rough, dark lines tattooed…
Mim asked me if I knew the cigarette trick and I said yes. I didn’t but figured it could only be one of a few things. Smoking it backwards, flipping it lit…
On the tailgate of the black pickup truck in front is a silver badge of a snorting bull. The truck is waiting for the red lights to change, its exhaust pipe vibrating.…
Maddie’s mother was kicking her out of the house again. She’d shown up last night, drunk, knocking into the flower planters, ringing the doorbell when she couldn’t get her key to work.…
A trail of shimmering silver follows the waning moon in its wake. The sea mascerates in the pale light. Sways ever so slightly in the gentle gulf of the night. Minnie Marsh…
After that boy died in 1955, no one was allowed to dive from the lift bridge, or even ride it. Each boat going through served as a reminder. For twenty minutes people…
It is a hot day, and in natural consequence, the high street is a hive. The fruit stall sits behind the pavement, a beacon, Mother Nature’s exhibit of all her colours. You’re…
Cut to the inside of a car, speeding along a coastal road at night, oncoming headlights occasionally whiting out their faces. “It’s cathartic.” “It’s cheap. Kill off a kid, a wife, a…
There is only one story. It always takes place in a haunted house. Terrible things happen to the unlucky people who find themselves in this house, but sometimes one of them gets…
I told you in our coffee shop. You squinted and with flint-eyes said, ‘That’s a mug’s game.’ You said I should have been protected… I always thought you would protect me. The…