First Stories

Marooned in wartime, you can't teach your students English 24 hours per day. You can't even be the teacher for that long. Oh my!

A romantic story about two young teens. He loves her, she isn't sure. He joins the army and then comes home on leave. She has a secret.

A father, his teenage daughter, and her best friend get stuck in a roadside motel after a snowstorm closes the road. There's only one bed.

Nick is sitting in his garden, listening to the cricket with a glass of ice cold cider. His peace is disturbed by the rattle of his back gate, it's Vicki, his neighbour's daughter, she's just finished her last high school exam. Nick thinks nothing of it, as Vicki often visits when she's at a loose end. Today is different though, as she needs him to take her cherry before the boys at school get to her first...

Fayard knows he’s young, too young to have all the answers, but he reckons life has already taught him a thing or two. Having returned from boarding school, he intends to while away many long, leisurely days in his hometown before setting off for university. He certainly doesn’t foresee any drastic upheavals looming on the horizon. However, life has other plans in store, with new stories to tell and secrets to share, starting with those he believes he knows best. / (Reviews)

Originally titled 'The Server'. This romantic short story is about two young people finding each other.

Told in the style of the Decameron, but featuring Sister Bertrille, a young nun in the '60s. She alights before an old man who takes advantage of her naivete -- several times. A short, quirky story. (Celeste's score: 10, 10, 10: "This is an excellent story.")

A study in international relations / (Reviews)

When fourteen-year-old Tony's mom takes him to the Family Practitioner for a check-up, he doesn't really think anything of it. But the doctor is beautiful... and then she says those eight terrifying and yet thrilling words. / (Reviews)