"Charlie, come here a minute," his mother called him from downstairs. "Huh?" Charlie replied, pulling out his earphones. "Come here," his mother replied. "We're leaving now. Remember to lock the door." Sighing, he climbed out of bed with great effort and drawled himself out of his room. He looked over the banister to see his parents in the downstairs hallway. They were about to leave for their week-long getaway. This was...

Helen sat waiting in the gym car park. She and her older son Michael had arrived a few minutes before her younger son, Darren finished work for the day. She looked in the mirror at Michael, who was in the back seat with earphones in. "Why don't you apply for a job here?" Helen asked him. "Huh?" Michael asked, taking out an earbud. "I said, why don't you apply for a job here?" Helen replied. "Plus you'll gain a bit of musc...

Val got out of the taxi to her hotel, Her brother, Vinnie helped the driver with the suitcase. The two siblings looked up at the resort they would be staying in for a week. Val thought back to her last encounter with her husband. *** "See you in two weeks. Don't run off with some Caribbean bloke," Valerie's husband Roger joked at the airport terminal. "Oh, you're no fun," Val replied jokingly. Val was fifty-two and was ha...