Weddings
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Wedding Number One

“Come on, it will be fun,” Maggie McMullen said. “It will be them against us. The McMullen ladies against the Cavendish gentlemen.”

“You have to see how crazy this is,” said Rory. “Why the hell does Charlie want us to turn up to your wedding in wigs and frocks?”

Goat
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Rob and Maria Dunleavy had lived next to Dean Rusbatch for almost 10 years. Rob and Maria had achieved an ambition in setting up a milking goat farm on 20 acres at the bottom of Whistledown Valley, and further up the valley road Dean kept cattle. They lived with their two pre-school children in a small farmhouse that Rob had largely built with his own hands.

Obsession
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I know what obsession is. I used to live with it every day.

I just thought that I was a person who just did not like dirt. Dirt harbors germs. Germs cause disease. Disease causes death. Dirt is deadly. You should be clean. I just pushed it a little too far.

Lady Luck
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

It is the dream of millions, but for us it came true. We won the lottery. The three of us, toiling away quietly in the huge warehouse where I had gone to work for a month or two and ended up staying 6 years, won the lottery. Me, with old man Gus, and little Paul, won the big one. 54 million dollars in one lump sum. $18,000,000 each.

Cheer Coach
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

To me, it was a natural extension from gymnastics. At college I was a gymnast, but injury put an end to my career.

Prison Therapy
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I never shared a cell with Saus Solnick. I like to think that if we ever had, if we had talked this through, none of this would have happened. If I knew who he was, I never would have followed him on this path.

Squaddie
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

The Special Air Service is one of the most prestigious of special forces units, if not the most prestigious. All other special forces units have been modelled on it or some of its practices. One key element is that membership is on merit as assessed by a secret and non-reviewable internal selection process. This has always been seen as a strength. But it has been observed that it may also account for the fact that no woman has ever been admitted to the unit.

False Memory Syndrome
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

You have to understand why I did it. I had suffered more than anybody I know. Even if I had not been convicted, the shame of it would have been enough to ruin my life. It did ruin my life. I was accused of molesting my own daughter. Who could imagine such a thing.

All of the accusations were based on “recovered memory”. Have you heard of that?

The Poet
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

You may have heard of my Uncle Cyrus. He was a minor celebrity of sorts, a few years back. He wrote a small book about how men could charm women. It was a book based loosely on the assistance that he gave my cousin Chris in winning his lovely wife Roxy. It sold quite a few copies and Uncle Cyrus was interviewed on radio and local TV.

Rehabilitation
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

“I am sure that you have the best of intentions, but I have to tell you that I do not approve of what you are doing.”

“Why?” she asked, although she did not appear hurt.

Swiss Clinic
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Part 1

“Gil, Is that you?” The voice on the phone seemed to be his, but a little higher.

“It’s me, Kane” his client confirmed, clearing his throat. “I’m in Switzerland.”

Cruelty
A Short Story (with images)
By Maryanne Peters

Call for Help
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I could hear the distress in her voice, my little Hannah: “Help Daddy. Mommy is really sick. Please come.” A heart-rending call for help.

“I can’t do that sweetie,” I explained. “Daddy is not allowed to be with you without the special ‘yes’ that I told you about, remember?”

“Please Daddy, please,” she said. I could hear Melody crying in the background. The sound of both of my children in distress was too hard to stand. What father could refuse to act, even in the face of the Court order.

Underage
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Everybody knew about Grace. My sister first created her when I was just 13. I wanted to get into a movie rated 16 and above and she suggested that we go together as 16 year old girls. I could never pass as a 16 year old boy, that was for sure. I had to pay for her as well, but even at that age I was earning money from some of the websites I was creating. I went to the movie as her sister Grace.

St Beatrice
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

It was a combination of things that saw Lenny and I become schoolgirls.

Firstly, my girlfriend Hannah, was sent to St. Beatrice by her parents. Hannah and I were close. We had begun to have sex and we were in the throes of not really love, but that early sexual rapture that seems just like it. I did not believe that I could be parted from her. She felt the same about me. It was tragic.

Prisoner 45816
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

As a man, I could never think of myself as pretty. When it was revealed to me that I was, only then did I understand how horrific that could be.

Prior Lives
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I regained consciousness with McLennan’s voice in my ear. I looked around his office to get my bearings and noticed the clock on the wall – 4:30 – I had apparently been asleep for well over an hour.

“Well I have to say that it was most interesting”, he said, flipping over some notes in his hand. “And I can tell you that I have reached some conclusions and some possible solutions to your problems.”

Gypsy Healing
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

“Before I answer your question, I must tell you that I am not a religious person, and I do not believe in miracles,” said Dr Solander. “But spontaneous remission is a fact. It does happen. It happens rarely, but it does happen. Even without treatment, cancers can disappear.”

“But that is exactly what I am asking,” said Emmet. “How can it happen? Can there be some external influence? I am like you – not at all religious. I am looking for a rational explanation.”

She Wanted a Daughter
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

My mother had always dreamed of having a daughter, but she had four sons instead. I was her youngest, named Timothy after her father, my grandfather. But she always said that my name was the only male thing about me.

Big
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Guys my size can never become girls. That is what I thought.

When I was little, I would cry myself to sleep wishing that I had been a girl, but then I would wake up and face the reality. I was male, just like my father and my two brothers.

Frontier Bride
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

If it were not for the disturbances that I had caused, and the trouble thus delivered upon me, I would not have gone West. I was a young man who favored the gentle life, though I could not afford it. I was certainly not ready for the challenge of hard work, it having been avoid assiduously for the first 27 years of my life. But needs must, and I was in need of escape.

Dinner with Polly
A Short Story
(and certainly not an AR fantasy)
By Maryanne Peters

Maggie Dawson looked across at her husband Brian and smiled. They had been married for 26 years and he was still a good-looking man. He was also slight of build and not ruggedly handsome, and his hair was prematurely white, but his skin was remarkably unwrinkled, although thin and pale. She had far more wrinkles than him. She loved him now more than ever. There life together had been much more interesting lately.

“Is Polly coming for dinner tonight?” she asked.

My Father’s Legacy
A Short Story following upon “Legacy”
By Maryanne Peters

Do you remember me? Some time ago I told the strange story of what happened after my grandfather, a famous drag artiste, died and the heirlooms that he left behind. Things that changed my life forever. Those things and meeting my grandfather’s … well sort of his adopted son, I think – Rodney Gaspard.