The day that Ms Sondra King started work at Briggs and Co., Engineers would last a long time in the memory of most employees.

The Bar

Just another night at The Bar. The cities change. Copenhagen, London, San Francisco, Omaha, Tokyo. But somehow, The Bar stays the same. The same sights, smells, sounds. The same faces, or close enough. Different languages, but the same lines.

[At a village pub in mid-Wales]
The door to the bar opened, and a man walked in, followed by a young border collie dog. He was wearing a fairly clean set of overalls and a decidedly muddy pair of Wellington boots. He removed the boots and left them close to the door. The dog stayed at the side of his master. This scene had been played out hundreds of thousands of times at this and many other Public Houses all over Wales for decades.

A little bit of History

I've been thinking about where I am, and where I have come from.

But I don't know how to share it, other than to use metaphors, so I hope that's okay.

It start's, as it must, with the abuse I suffered when I was a child.

But I've talked about that, so lets move on to what happened next.

The abuse had created a lot of anger, anger that scared me, and I labeled it The Monster and tried to lock it away.

At long last she said, "I hope you can enjoy this time you have: to sit, to think, to watch."

"I am," I replied. "I do. A little. Some. When I'm not afraid."

Char knows going to a support group is what he needs as it can be hard to break the habits of a lifetime. We all need help from time to time. Sometimes, we could use a little magic too.

I clapped a hand over my mouth to prevent more giggles...

CHAPTER 28
He was back with Vic in under an hour, the smell of the chips strong in the kitchen. Vic dished them out as Keith poured mugs of tea, and I simply waited for what they felt they could tell me. Vic looked drained, so after a few minutes of his almost mechanical intake pf chips, I changed my mind and risked a question.

“You okay, Vic?”

He looked across to Keith for a moment before turning back to me.

“Not really, Mike. What’s Keith told you?”

"William!" My father hissed quietly. "Look at the camera!"

"Sorry, dad," I whispered as I turned my attention back to the photographer, who was ready to capture today's visit for posterity. Though in my defence, as an eight-year-old boy, it was natural for me to be distracted by the visitors who came to my grandfather's home — after all, it's not every day that you have your photograph taken with the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.

Sally and I continued working out how we could downsize our lives smoothly and simply. It soon became evident that once you have put down roots in one place for any length of time, those roots spread out and it all gets rather complicated.

"The point is..." Jen insisted, turning a slight shade of red,
"the point is, that now we — you — don't know anything.
Everything is potential, right? The sky is the limit."

"That's only the upper limit," I countered.

The lingerie and swimwear gig didn't pan out. The lady in charge was a bit too much to handle and ended up letting me go because of a certain incident she reported to Mistress Athena. I admit, I made mistakes too. But there was this strange urge in me to explore wearing lingerie (maybe hidden desires), so I indulged in it secretly (after work hours, of course). I couldn't resist and kept doing it until I was caught, leading to the lady's anger and betrayal. Mistress Athena was not happy, and I felt the need to redeem myself.

[TW]

The months that followed for Elara were worse than she could have ever imagined. She could never prove it but she believed Catalina or one of her ladies were spreading rumors about her. Rumors made all the more believable by Olmund who favored her presence more and more and disregarded that of his betrothed's.

3

The next morning, Tommy woke up feeling the warmth of his wet diaper and of the sun streaming through his window. His mother greeted him with a smile and a loving hug. "Good morning, sweetie! Let's get you changed and ready for the day," she said. Once she had finished, his mother lifted him into her arms and held him close. "There we go, all fresh and clean," she said, pressing a gentle kiss to his forehead. "Now, let's go have some yummy breakfast, and we can talk about what fun things we can do today."

"What if my memories don't come back? What if I forget even more?"
I didn't mean to panic; I didn't want to panic... and yet... panic was there,
waiting to pounce, ready to devour me.

Jekyllase is in the news again as several states are considering decriminalizing its possession; some referenda, such as Proposition 118 here in Oregon, would go farther, making it effectively an over-the-counter drug. It occurred to me that I could dust off a memoir I started writing some time ago, edit it to focus more closely on my experiences with jekyllase, and offer it to the public (anonymously, by necessity, as these propositions are not law yet) as a contribution to the debate.

The only plane I had ever been on was a Tiger Moth, on a twenty- minute joyride out of Shoreham, which was only an airfield, not a proper airport.

It didn’t make me feel like Phineas Fogg, more like a descendant of Biggles or the Red Baron. Besides, I was just a kid when I had that first flight.