Courier
_ **Courier** _ I had a problem. A big one. So carried away, so firmly in the thrall of tourist mode, I'd managed to lose my bearings completely. Certainly, I was no stranger to wandering off and going astray during holiday expeditions, but this was...
Gym Pandas
_ **Gym Pandas** _ Friday evening. A little before 9pm. Standard scene. The gym had quietened down after the post-workday rush. Most folk still hanging around the leisure centre were either busy upstairs in their dance class, or playing handball out...
Gameface: Part 4 (Final)
_ **Part 4** _ I decided to skip our usual post-match ritual long before the final whistle. Usually, I'd have been only too happy to help celebrate a win at the pub with my teammates, especially against a team flying high in the league. Not that day....
Gameface: Part 3
_ **Part 3** _ We broke. Everything that needed to be said, had been. Fifteen of us went our own ways, jogging into our starting positions. The five waiting in reserve joined Coach and Tomas on the bench, Damian included. Our referee for the day, a...
Gameface: Part 2
_ **Part 2** _ Sunday morning. Gameday. Biting cold, with blue skies. The heavy rain we'd had since Thursday had finally moved on, but not without leaving a calling card by way of drenched, muddy parkland. Even the gravel paths were more slick than...
Gameface: Part 1
_ **Gameface** _ _ **Part 1** _ "You've got to have _something_," I insisted, peering past my menu. "Just a little dessert?" "No!" Sam called from his table atop mine. A table roughly the size of my wallet and not much taller. "I'm good,...
Workout
_ **Workout** _ "Are you _sure_ this is okay, Sam?" Marek asked, again, creeping down the last step on the stairway. "I don't want you getting into any trouble by doing this." "How many times?" I chuckled back from my soft, belly-backed seat in his...
Breaking Down
Breaking Down Finally, my heart rate started to slow back down. In the cab of my semi-truck, I wondered if I’d run something over, picked up a slow puncture someplace, or something else. Ultimately, though, how my tyre had blown out didn’t...
Blind Date
_ **Blind Date** _ A wave of noise and a blast of heat crashed into me the moment those automatic doors slid open. I ducked my head to dip inside and escape the gloomy, late-November cold, allowing this new 'VRcade' place I'd been invited to fully...
The Climb
_ **The Climb** _ I'd overpacked my grocery bags. I knew that from the moment I had to lug all four of them out of the store. The decision to do an extra-large after-work shop, thereby granting myself a day off from that part of my weekly routine,...
Rock Bottom
_ **Rock Bottom** _ I stretched my legs, then my arms and back, grumbling as I stirred in this makeshift bed of mine. A faint bar of light seeped between the gap in the giant door ahead, saving me from total darkness at the bottom of this wardrobe I...
Breaking News
_ **Breaking News** _ Some lunatic in a truck swerved into our lane, right in front of us. Mick, the wolverine in the driver's seat, pumped the van's brakes. Finn, the white shepherd in the middle seat, swore blue murder at the truck's rear...