Fire Extinguisher... Magpie Tales#23

Mary quickly drew back from the window in the Card shop as Doris crossed the road. She had that determined look of someone on a mission. Perhaps it wasn’t the card shop she was aiming for, but no the bell pinged as the door opened.

‘Hello my dear, are you hiding from me?’

‘Not at all,’ said Mary as she came from behind the counter. ‘How are you these days Doris?’

‘Well I mustn’t grumble, aches and pains that come with age, you know. But never mind about me, how is your husband, we haven’t seen him at the Writer’s Group for a few weeks now. Not since Willow used a fire extinguisher as a writing prompt. I found it hard myself to come up with an idea of what to write about, but Ted was always one of the first to imagine the most exciting of stories from the most mundane of things. But what could you say about a fire extingisher? It wasn't like your Ted to skip a story because it was too ordinary, he was a very clever writer, I thought.'she added.

‘I think you must be mistaken Ted has been every week since it first started,’ Mary answered. ‘He was one of the founder members.’ And she remembered exactly how Ted looked when he had left for the Writers Group the previous evening, his step had a spring in it as he walked down the front path, turning to wave good bye to her when he reached the gate. In fact, since he had been attending the group, he had almost seemed younger and a lot more attentive to her.

‘I was only saying to Evelyn that it has been awhile since Ted had been at the group and she agreed.’ insisted Doris. And it was Evelyn who remarked that that nice young Lily who wrote the poetry hadn’t attended for a while too. I expect its just coincedence and Ted's lost interest in our little writer's group'

Mary tried to look unruffled, but Doris’s words had stuck home and she knew that the old gossip had deliberately come to tell her about Ted’s absences at the group.
'Yes I think you're right there and he's been to the pub instead waiting for the right moment to tell me,...  and now you’ll have to excuse me Doris I have this card order to finish before I close the shop this evening,’ she said opening the door for her and turning the sign to ‘Closed.’

‘Good bye my dear,’ said Doris, ‘do tell your lovely hubby I was asking about him.’

‘I will, oh yes I will, I most definitely will’ answered Mary as she closed the door. She went into store room and sat down heavily on the chair shaking with anger. She didn’t know what made her more angry, the discovery that her husband was a no good two timer or the way Doris had looked when she was informing her about his non attendance. No wonder he always looked so happy when he was leaving the house on Tuesday evenings, and what about that weekend away last month when he was supposed to be going to a Mills and Boon Writer's Weekend Workshop?
'Very important,' he had said, 'for good male writers to get the women’s angle in stories and what better way than a workshop on writing Romantic Stories.'

Mary felt sick, I ‘ll give him Romantic Stories, she thought. ‘He’ll wish he had never heard of the Writers Group. I expect they all knew about him and that 'Miss.'Isn’t it true the wife is always the last to know.

Tomatoes Magpie Tales#22

Seductive harlot red colour,

Sensuous, slightly sweet flesh,

Bursting with juicy splendour.

Labelled the devil's fruit,

A sinful indulgence.

Bright ruby red,

With aphrodisiac powers

Scandalous.

The Love Apple.

Tempting,

Adam and Eve.

The forbidden fruit that lost Eden

Firecrackers Magpie Tales #21

The fire crackers going off hid the sound of the gun shot and it wasn’t till the man fell to the ground that anyone knew what had happened.  Suddenly the crowds of people separated as the police cars arrived.
Immediately they started to ask people nearby what they had seen and put up a police tape to cordon off the area. The body had fallen into the long grass along side the pathway and it seemed he was alone as no one was there with him.

Betsy had run as soon as she saw him fall, although she had no idea what had happened. They had gone to the open air Concert together and the firecrackers were part of the final act.

George was only a friend but he was always cagy as to what he did and she thought he was part of some dodgy business. She once had seen his emails when she had called around his flat and he had quickly closed the page, but not before she could see that it was in a foreign, language which she thought was Russian.

He did have a slight accent, but had always said he was from Yugoslavia and she had accepted that. Now she wondered where and what he was from. She, like those around her hadn’t heard anything above the firecrackers but went stone cold when George suddenly dropped down to the ground and before others around her had had a chance to see what had happened, she had quickly knelt and could see in the dim light of dusk that George was very much dead. She didn’t need to be told to leave right away and it was others around her that had phoned for the police.

Back in her own flat she switched on the TV to see if it had already been reported or was there a news flash but the programmes were as advertised and no news reports. She threw her jacket over the back of a chair and poured herself a stiff drink, she was still afraid and felt shivery. The chair was comfortable and with the drink and the stress of the event her eyes closed.

The ringing of her phone brought her out of a deep sleep and snatching it up she said a sleepy ‘Hello’

‘Is that Betsy,’ said the voice, in an accent not unlike George’s.

‘Yes,’ she replied rather hesitantly.

‘We saw you with George, before he was killed, did he give you the computer disc?’

‘What disc?’ she asked quite frightened.

‘Don’t mess me around, we know he passed it to someone and you were the last person with him. We will be calling around to collect it, so don’t try to leave we will find you. We found George and he was dealt with, so be ready’ said the man.

Bestsy dropped the phone and panic set in, she had no idea what this person was talking about. George was just a friend she had met in the coffee bar around the corner from her flat a few months ago, and it was he that suggested they went to the concert. Now she was in fear of her life. She grabbed her jacket and left the flat ready to get to the nearest police station, there were plenty all round London, so not too far to go. Putting her hands in the pockets of her jacket she felt something suspiciously like a computer disc and her heart started to thump. Along the road there was a taxi was just idling as though he had just dropped a fare ‘Betsy peered into the cab and asked, ‘ Are you free please?’

‘Ok hop in lady,’ he said.

‘Thank you, oh thank you, can you please take me to the nearest police station?’ She said as she sat down.

‘Now that might be a problem little Betsy,’ he said.

Betsy froze, she tried the door handle and it was locked, she was inside with the very people she was trying to get away from.

The taxi had stopped down a side road and the driver looked at her in his mirror.. ‘People like you shouldn’t mess with things you don’t know about. ‘ he said.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she said.

‘Come, come,’ he answered, ‘Georgio had said he had an accomplice, he didn’t have the disc on him, that’s why he had to be eliminated... now unless you cooperate you will be joining him.’

Betsy started to scream and the driver turned in his seat and hit her across her head, she fell forward on to the floor of the cab hitting her head hard on the door handle.. ‘Silly girl’ he thought ‘Now how am I to explain to the big boss that I am the cause of two bodies and no disc? I just hope the police won’t find out too much about Georgio and it lead back to this girl.’ And he put his cab into gear and drove off towards the river. ‘That river had hidden other mistakes he had made,’ he thought and this one body will be just one more.

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Tooth brush Magpie Tales#20

Lying there heart thumping.

Light blazing in her eyes.

Hands over her,

Needle gleaming.

Pain pain!

Grinding and pulling,

Hands gloved and huge.

In her mouth

Pulling hard... tooth out.

Rinsing, spitting

Blood, red blood.

The folly of not,

Not using that brush.

The Knife #19 Magpie Tales

Two men have been found guilty of taking part in a random attack on two students, in which one was killed.


Peter Daniels died from a stab wound to the heart, his friend Alec Timms was taken to The Universal Hospital with serious head injuries. Matata Onokah, 19, from Barking and Terry Lowe , 25, from Ilford, were convicted of wounding with intent. The other youth who was 16 at the time of the attack admitted to murder.

Both the victims had been out celebrating Mr Daniel's 20th birthday on 16th January 2010 at Solo’s, a bar in Covent Garden, London. The young men left the bar at 0220 BST to wait to get a lift from Mr Timm's sister, when they were attacked by the three men. Mr Timms, from Chigwell, Essex, was punched in the face and head and was stabbed.

Mr Daniels, from Buckhurst Hill, Essex, had his jaw broken and was stabbed in the heart - he never regained consciousness.

The knife was retrieved at the scene of the crime and was described by the police as a 6 inch knife that was the sort that folded into its wooden handle. It has been traced back to a secondhand dealer with a stall in Brick Lane, who specialised in French items.

Even after a three-week trial, it was not clear why they were attacked, said Det Ch Insp Tony White.

Mr Timms a medical student at Durham University, described the attack as a '70-second frenzy'.

‘At the time of the attack, Pete and I were just standing there, chatting and laughing remembering our holiday and talking about his 20th birthday celebrations,’ he said.

‘We had just enjoyed a night out in Covent Garden with our friends and were waiting for a lift home from my sister when we were attacked. Seconds later Pete was dead. I still can't believe it.’

Lowe and Onokah, both labourers, were cleared of murder, but convicted of wounding with intent and causing grievous bodily harm.

A 17-year-old youth from Stratford, who was 16 at the time of the attack so cannot be named, has already pleaded guilty to murder and grievous bodily harm with intent.

All three are due to be sentenced on 23 June 2010.

The death of Peter Daniels is the 5th knife attack already recorded in 2010 in London.

(Reported by E. Lisse for The Evening Echo)

Magpie Tale#18 A Coronation Mug

It all had to be straight.

The desk, the laptop, paper and the office chair. She straightened the two baskets on the desk, the one basket with new paper and the other one ready for the typed story. She straightened the pot of pencils, in the coronation mug and the memories came flooding back. The mug had come from her Aunt’s china cabinet after she had died. It had stood in that cabinet for as long as she could remember, along with a George V plate, and a George V cup and saucer, the Elizabeth II coronation mug and a mug commemorating Charles and Diana’s wedding. Given the choice of which she had wanted, she had chosen that mug, because it reminded her of Edward VIII. It was her pencil pot and as she looked at it, she smiled. Such a romantic story of love when he gave up the throne for Wallace; she thought it would inspire her to write her romances that were her income. What would he have thought she wondered, if he knew that his short-lived life as King had been reduced to pencils in his commemorative mug? She shrugged and looked again at the blank screen, it was no good, her publisher had phoned and phoned for the next three chapters, and writers block had set in, not one single idea came to her. She moved the mug with the pencils; it wasn’t quite in the right spot. Everything had to be straight otherwise she couldn’t concentrate and the ideas wouldn’t come. She moved the corner of one of the baskets, it had to be straight, she looked at the mug again, and turned it so she could see the crest fully, was it in the right spot? Her fingers hovered over the keys and still her mind was blank. She fidgeted in the chair, was her laptop straight to the edge of the desk surface, perhaps she should sharpen all the pencils again? What was wrong, everything was straight but the ideas just wouldn’t come.

Magpie Tales #17 Stone Face

The stone face screaming stood in there,


Greenery all around.

Tall ferns couldn’t soften the raw look.

Small white flowers at the base smiled, but not she.

Did she die like that?

Is that why she is cast in stone?

Horrible, horrible stare.