It quickly became routine, as she more than pulled her weight around the house. Two of us would go to work, One would go to school, another to college, and the last would wander around Perth, gradually getting to know the layout. She seemed particularly attached to King’s Park, often borrowing a pair of binoculars and a bird guide for the day.

CHAPTER 41
As we walked off towards a nearby pub, Elf and Wildcat drifted back so that they were walking either side of me.

“Elf says good things about you, Jen. You ever ride?”

“No, not my thing, really”

“Well, be welcome at the clubhouse---ah”

Magnolia Blooms & Sakura Petals
By
Rebecca Anna Coleman

Epilogue

CHAPTER 40
I had hands holding both of mine by then, Tom reaching over to squeeze my shoulder, as another witness took the stand.

“Verity Hallam, doctor, St David’s hospital trauma team”

This chapter includes part of the inquest on Angela's death, and may be upsetting for some.

CHAPTER 38
Marlene saw us off after a simple breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast, with tea, of course, calling a taxi for us that dropped the other women off at the hostel before running me back to Tom and Connie’s. I couldn’t face a fry-up, so just settled for multiple more cups of tea to try and rehydrate.

God alone knew how much I had put away, but the two older women had gone at the job of getting blotto as if it was just that, a task to be completed as quickly as possible. And they had indeed been models of efficiency.

For both Dido and Trish, the ten-hour flight was just so different from any other flight that they’d ever taken. From the glass of bubbly that was kept topped up to the choices of food and its availability whenever they wanted it, and not when the flight attendants decided that it was meal time.

Two people pass each other in the darkness of a stormy night, courses locked in for separate disasters. Fate intervenes . . . but is it for good?

CHAPTER 37
We went to the Smugglers, of course, just four of us, Tom driving and promising to collect us if needed. Sod discos and stuff, we took a table in the usual bar. It had been occupied by a group of twinks, but Marlene had simply walked over and said something, quietly for once, and they had picked up their stuff and left for one of the other spaces.

She waved us over, and as we sat, she simply asked if we were her sister’s family.

I woke up with the sunlight blazing through the window, which it normally would not do until around nine.

I was late for school. Really late!

“Mom! What’s happened?” I yelled as I moved to throw the covers off, but there were no covers to throw. I sat up and looked at a bedroom with a lot of whites and grays with some shades of blue on a comforter that still covered the bed. I planted my hands on the mattress, vaulted myself off the bed and onto a hardwood floor.

I did not have a hardwood floor.

This chapter does NOT contain any more horrific incidents. The previous one was more than hard enough to write.

Mark Lansing never wanted to stand out. He was perfectly happy disappearing into a football huddle with the rest of the team until one play made him the talk of the town. Thrust into a spotlight he never wanted, every choice can reshape his future, and every decision could transform him in ways he never believed possible. Mark’s destiny will be determined on the field … assuming he can figure out how to dress the part.

Having just married both Nancys, she was the focal point of my dream the next night, though I kept seeing Nancy change between my Nancy and a version of Victoria’s Nancy who had the most outrageous of the tattoos and piercings of the guests at her wedding. On Sunday, December 3, it was my Nancy who I found in bed with me.

CHAPTER 16
The night ride was as silly as usual, with a sizeable pick’n’mix of children, either riding on tandems or their own bikes, if tall enough. We rode out in the dark, stopping at a particular spot to play Headtorch Pooh Sticks, then convened for CAIK at Pluto (and Charon). It may have been demoted officially, but Pluto still marked the end of the Solar System for us. There was an obligatory Comedy Offroad Section down some dirt track or other, and then we looped back round to visit Saturn once again, and the ride back onto the racecourse. The Fisher was standing out against the predawn glow, but we still had our lights on, as the day’s first skylark took wing.

CHAPTER 34
“Mum, this is Jen, my fiancée”

We had had to make all sorts of allowances for the extreme time difference, staying up past midnight, and god knows what time it was in Christchurch, but there was Mrs Meads on screen, and she seemed to be smiling.

“Hiya Jen! Call me Raewyn, eh?”

Part 15 The Shiny New Penny

Monday morning arrived on time and so did Sam to take me to the studio. Odette went in Tonys’ Porsche and Tanya went with Steve, via his place so he could get a change of clothes. It looked like the penthouse had gone from housing one tenant to now looking after five, at least.

At the studio we had a cast meeting to talk about the direction that the show would go next. We ended up with a good set of scenes that would take us beyond the halfway point, and we would think about the further plot lines then.