Horton Tarot Card

Myrtle and the Dentist

Myrtle knew that she did not have a life to launch a thousand ships. However, when she looked in the window and saw herself, she was happy within herself. Myrtle was fun at heart but somehow always seemed to end up on the social fringe. Whenever she tried to keep up with her friends, they …

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Smooth Talker

Arnie was depressed. He had just been made redundant from his job. He had liked it there and, although the payout was good, now he had to find a new job. His gloom was lifted when his friends invited him for a leisurely fortnight in their holiday villa in Croatia. He wasn’t mad about them, …

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Horton Tarot Card

Shuttlecock

Nadine and Charles used to play a game of mixed doubles with Samantha and James every Saturday afternoon. The game was always competitive in a healthy way. James and Charles both worked for the same city firm. Just recently James had received a bonus for a deal cut in the teeth of the 2008 crisis. …

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Bill Sykes

T.H. Bill Sykes had been a journalist for a number of years. He never made the transition to the national newspaper. He considered it a dirty world, and, besides, he was a Dorset man through and through. One day, he was in the office penning a routine story about the garden at Old Came Rectory …

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Frissonance

“I never miss a chance to have sex or appear on television.” Gore Vidal Now the above quote is very clever or as we say spiritoso, but it is not the case when it comes to Frissonance, which Astrid who is into these things says is a kind of echo with a shudder. I like …

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The Passenger

Emilie was on her way back to the hotel in Juan Les Pins where she was staying for the duration of the festival. When she boarded the train at Cannes, she went upstairs and found a seat by the window. Plugging in her earphones, she sat back to scroll down the list of songs when …

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Privates!

Anouk and Hans had a little secret. They both loved to go wild swimming. It had to remain a secret because if it wasn’t, all their secret places would be invaded by others seeking the thrill of escape that made wild swimming such fun. Their rules were very simple. They never returned to the same …

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The Crease

Anna K, who was sitting in a brasserie opposite the entrance to the Palais in Cannes, had taken off her sunglasses to wipe the sweat from her nose when she became aware of the young waitress standing over her table. “What would Madame like?” The young waitress was wearing a pair of denim shorts in …

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The Wall Flowers

One summer Laura went on a budget holiday to Spain with her girlfriend June. As soon as they left Essex, they started drinking with some Chelsea boys in the airport bar and nearly missed the plane. The holiday was a real lark. June found a Chelsea shirt to take off every night, but no one, …

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The Boonie

Revenge, they say, is a dish best served chilled. If that is the case, our Antipodean Cousins have a peculiar way of serving it up, especially where cricket and a picnic is concerned. Mark Hughes, known to friends and colleagues alike as Markie, had not played cricket since the under fifteens when he decided to …

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