Ashley Lazlo

  ‘What’s your story?’ He says ‘It’s a long story’ I say ‘I like to listen’ He says and I’m thinking at least it will keep him quiet. ———//——— Even though I arrived at Malaga airport first thing that morning I took the redeye flight back to London, not to save money you understand, I always fly scheduled first not cattle.  I never can resist having one last fling in arrivals before I leave, well who could resist with all those wealthy snowbirds beginning their winter season in the sun. All arriving with pockets full of euros and purses full of the family jewels. I keep promising myself that I will work a winter as well one year then a good summer season comes our way and I think what the fuck and head back to pudding island to relax and get ready for spring.  This year just gone was a landmark one for me in two ways, first it has been our best year to date financially, second I’m all booked in for the last step of my journey. The rest of the team are always going on at me

It is our anniversary — not a wedding anniversary, people like me don’t marry. Today is the anniversary of the first day two lives began to be lived as one.  We met in a pub named The Fox and Hounds. It’s not the idyllic country pub people imagine with a name like that when we tell them. It is a scruffy run down pub in the middle of an industrial estate. Each year when we go back to celebrate our anniversary it is as if time has stood still, the pub always looks exactly the same as the day we first met. Both in our hearts and in our heads, and just like The Fox and Hounds, we are still the same as the day we first met there. The Fox and Hounds had already adapted to the needs of its customers before my first visit there. Substantial, cheap and basic food was served twenty-four hours a day to shift workers and lorry drivers delivering to one of the many nearby factories. Above the bar were rooms each with a bed and shower that could be hired by the hour. Long distance lorry drivers miss

‘Don’t lock the door, Julie will be here soon’ I called out as David came home from work. I was still upstairs unpacking the spoils from my shopping trip. Our front door swelled in its frame every autumn and stayed jammed shut until summer. We could have gotten a carpenter to shave the door down but somehow it never seemed that important. Friends automatically came to the kitchen door even when spring had passed weeks before. Close friends became accustomed to coming in without needing to knock if the door was unlocked, they would call out to announce their arrival if our farmhouse style kitchen were empty.  Excited with my purchase I slipped on the new dress I had bought for work before going downstairs. David is a real sweetie and would say I look stunning if I was wearing a grain sack. ‘It needs shortening a little, Julie will be here soon to pin it for me’ I said. Even though he does not like me wearing what he considers to be ‘too short’ dresses to work David knows better than to

  I had walked past the store many times before, the shops location on the route I walked between my office and the railway station meant that I had a reason to be passing if anyone noticed me. I could, and often did, casually pause to check my iPhone without arousing suspicion. The shop was from a time long past — an old fashioned shop selling old fashioned underwear. Located right on a street corner the entrance door was on one street and the display window on another.  It’s layout was as familiar as my own apartment even though I had never plucked up the courage to go in, over a period I had taken in the smallest of details through the glass door — how the long thin shop had a display window to one side and opposite a long glass topped counter that ran the full length of the shop, at the far end were two changing cubicles with mirrors and curtains that, for privacy, could be pulled across.  At various locations along the counter stood perspex busts where bras were displayed. B

I hadn’t seen my brother and business partner James or his wife Elkie since they headed off for a gap year. Part of the time they spent living with Elkie’s family in Korea and the rest traveling. James had still worked remotely on rare occasions when I needed his help with any difficulties in our joint website design business. My longterm girlfriend June said she wanted to keep her distance from Elkie but would not say why, now they were back I wanted to spend my every waking moment with James and Elkie. We had exchanged harsh words about her unfriendly behaviour towards Elkie then June decided to spend the weekend alone at the beachside apartment that I half owned with James. When I arrived at their house James and Elkie were busy in the kitchen, Elkie insisted visiting with a picnic basket would be a perfect surprise for June which is how the three of us came to disturb June in bed with a man I had never seen before. After June and her lover had left the three of us watched sunset fr

Reginald was always at his happiest in the library although not at ease. He wondered if people purposely put books in the wrong place, surely they could not fail to understand correct order and the beauty that the Dewey Decimal system imposed. He had even seen the assistant librarian misplace books on occasions and although he said nothing he felt calmer once he had secretly placed the books in their correct positions. Reginald was on the waiting list to be a library helper like Joan, Reginald liked Joan and she had helped him get a volunteer spot at the charity shop in town. Joan was an empty-nester, a mum whose children had now left home. Just like many middle class couples her husbands high paid job left Joan free to undertake charity and voluntary work within the community.  Gwen, a single parent with one daughter worked as a full time manager for the charity and like Joan she was a generation older than Reginald. Gwen was pleased with Reginald’s work, once soon after he beg