WishItWereMe

Victor walked along the dark Parisian street. As a budding (but successful) artist, he had come to Paris with the romantic idea that he would draw girls as they stripped in the clubs. He thought that although he was sure that cameras would be unacceptable, no-one would object to some discreet sketching with pencil and paper. He had found an address of a less ‘touristy’ strip club but it was eluding him. In front of him, an old woman stood in a doorway. He paused. “Strip club?” he enquired. “Troisièmeàdroite.” she growled without looking at him. He went on without thanking her. ...

Mary flopped down in the nearly empty train carriage. It was late in the evening and the rush hour was long over. At the end of long day stocktaking and a walk to the station through the sudden summer downpour she felt spent. Thank goodness she now had a week off to recover! She rested her hand on the next seat to change her position and realised that she had placed it on a discarded magazine. She picked it up and looked at the cover and blushed. The front was taken up by the title “Pony Experiences” and a large picture of a naked girl dressed in a strange harness. ...

(story continues from Pit Pony 3) Part 4 The routine of working in the mine during the day followed by an evening of restraint for Emily continued. During the day she was a working pit pony and at night she was forced into the role of a pet. After a number of weeks, John announced his regular run into Zulu to ship more ore. As usual, Diane arrived the next day and immediately set about reducing Emily’s freedom of movement as much as possible. ...

Emily‘s eyes closed as she dozed on the train. On impulse she had taken her redundancy pay and set off to explore the world, but the overnight flight had taken its toll and overtaken the excitement of the journey. The trip was inspired by the last book that she had returned to the shelf in the library where she had worked. In it was a business card doubling as a bookmark. She took it out and read “Zulu Taxis. Zulu Halt and Zulu City”. The last line was a telephone number. What a strange name! She had taken the business card and looked it up on the Internet that night. On impulse she had called the number from the airport and booked a pick up from Zulu Halt for later the same day. ...

(story continues from Pit Pony) Part 2 It was nearly dark before Emily heard the sound of an approaching vehicle. To her surprise, she saw that it was Diane’s car and not John’s. It stopped near the farmhouse and Emily saw Diane walk round the car and help John across to the house. Because of the approaching darkness, Emily was unable to clearly see John’s face and his condition. After a long wait, Diane came over to her with some food and explained that he was not as fit as he thought he was and she was remaining for a few more days. After Diane had returned to the farmhouse, Emily realised that she had not released her arm binder and she was obliged to eat the food from its bowl on the floor like any animal. She was surprised to discover how used to the binder she had become and that she had not thought about it until it was too late. Climbing into bed some minutes later, she was forced to pull the bedclothes up using her teeth. ...

(story continues from Pit Pony 2) Part 3 They spent a restless night, but for the wrong reason. At dawn, Emily lay on the mattress ineffectually trying to dislodge the many ants crawling over her body, which was difficult without the use of her hands. Eventually, she sat up and struggled to her feet. Her movements woke John, who appeared impervious to the attention of the ants. “It’s no good,” she cried, “We’ll have to find a way of stopping them before tonight.” ...