“I know why you keep me around. It’s so you have someone to hate. Because if you didn’t have me, you’d start hating yourself. You already do. You loathe who you are.

Fred and John were playing chess. John glanced at Fred, and then at the security camera Fred was staring at. “The camera?” John asked, not hiding the slight irritation in his voice. Fred’s preoccupation with the newly installed security system was s…

Old Mr. Isaac Strickland clicked off the lights, shut his rickety front door, walked across the porch and down the path to an old tire planted with petunias — 41 steps. via Pocket

The streets here are steep and narrow, helped along the way by occasional staircases. Ouch! I find it’s hard to walk on cobblestones like this, up a hill that the locals seem to climb so easily. via Pocket

Alkina opens wide one eye against the cold steel of her late husband’s telescope and remembers on a clear night, less than three months ago, Mare Fecunditatis, appearing so close she would have sworn water lay there. via Pocket