Worthing Flash

She plunges her paintbrush into the jar of turpentine and shakes the sleeping dog’s leash at her. Lamia wakes and scrambles to her feet. Want to go for a walk? Susan says. It is 2 a.m. and this is their routine since Susan’s brother left and never came back. Try not to let her miss me too much, he’d said as he handed the dog over. But she did. One night Susan was going through her old voice mails and the dog heard her master’s voice. She jumped up whimpering and knocked the machine out of Susan’s hands in an effort to free her master from it, in the process erasing his message. Susan moved into his house mostly for the dog’s sake, Too much change was no better for dogs than children, and Lamia bonded hard with Susan. Followed her everywhere. After a night of painting, Susan was relaxed enough to take the dog out. It was almost an apology for inverting Lamia’s schedule and synching it with her own, but Susan was a night owl. She needed the simmering down of the day’s noise to access...

 Hind and Stephen King My sister was a precocious reader, and our mother would let her read Stephen King novels at age 10. One night, when my sister had nightmares about Firestarter. Mom ripped her beloved book in half and threw it in the garbage as if her reaction was sinful. Mom was teaching Hind that she was to blame for fear, that emotion was shame and because Firestarter created an emotion, it should be destroyed and shoved into a trashcan and buried under coffee grounds and lettuce that had gone bad three days earlier along with the evil weakness that was her feelings. by  Salwa Emerson Writer/Editor/Owner Emerson Ink LLC Writing Services for the Discerning Author

A Short Study of Friends a response to In the Studio by Marie Bashkirtseff (France) 1881 As I stood there painting, I wondered over my artist friends at their different preoccupations around the studio. Anne had been halfway through mixing the paint on her palette when Georgette came by, putting some short, quick remark to her from behind. Anne looked up over her shoulder at her, dark eyes puzzled and searching. I made out a sense of disbelief in her face that said Georgette had crossed a sort of line saying what she had. For her part, Georgette stood there tense, as if to sympathize with the shock she knew she had given. If only I knew what it was about. A short way from Anne, Giselle dabbed at the small canvas on the chair before her. She held her extra-long brush near its end (a difficult way to paint in my mind) as she filled in part of her portrait. After making a few strokes, she stared at the top of her brush, then the half-finished picture on her canvas, as if weighing some ...

Family Frenzy A quick crack, shocked silence, then a half-heard sob. Beloved Nanna, mother’s Mum, rubbing her cheek. I saw it, I heard it, I was there, aged eight. Her son-in-law – my father – pacing guiltily up and down. My father, who hadn’t raised a hand in anger against his own, nor ever would again. Impossible to forget that moment, yet Mum claimed years later that she had and my brother was a baby. No other witnesses. A peaceful country drive, a perfect picnic spot – now marred for ever in my memory. Pauline Fraser 14/09/2025

 Six Months by Roberta Beach Jacobson Nobody mentioned all the doors would be locked, but Sarah sensed it from the moment the nurse left her alone. She's signed and dated the intake forms. Six months might feel like an extended stay. It would be summer before Sarah stepped outside again. She cursed the silence. Now what?

BBC News “ This is Radio Two. The BBC news read by John Thomas.” “ Good Morning. Following extensive public consultation, the government this morning removed the reigning monarch formerly known as King Charles the Third” “ Over to Robert Starling at Buckingham Palace.” “ Good morning, John. Mr Charles Windsor was arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police in the early hours of this morning and he has been taken to what they describe as a 'safe palace'. “ An hour later, a chauffeur-driven limousine arrived at the palace to deliver a canary, who has been named as 'Binky'. Members of the public at the gates have been turning up dressed in yellow; some of them have had yellow face paint and hair dye too; as a mark of respect. The yellow flag is flying over Buckingham Palace for the first time. “ This will be Britain's first avian monarch. The closest analogy was when George the Third made his tree prime minister. The government has announced that the...