Image Credit: Unsplash- Wolfgang Hasselman In the dead of night, Stella moved in with her boyfriend and her two children – a six-year-old daughter and a four-year-old son. As an unemployed mother of two, she was expected to do most of the household chores and prepare her children for school. The eldest child was in…

Image Credit: Pexels- Andrea Piacquadio This story is dedicated to my fiancé, Ian Peters. Thank you, Ian, for everything that you do for me and for loving me in so many ways. One cool autumn morning in early September, Audrey was sitting in her living room drinking her morning tea and reading the job section in…

Image Credit: Pexels- Asad Photo Maldives That didn’t take long, I mused. Roseann was bound to be the one to go down first. Shelly had brought her a glass of water, and Juan was telling her what to do from the door. Heaven forbid he step into the room and lend a hand. “Juan, why…

Image Credit: Freepik- stockking Despite the Zwane family’s dire circumstances, the household head seemed oblivious to his family’s struggles. While his wife worked tirelessly to provide for their five children, he spent most of his time at the local shebeen, leaving her to bear the burden alone. Like her husband, the mother was unemployed. She…

Image Credit: Unsplash- Jan Dreams can sometimes take you back in time. Memories make you live through the past; they’re really a time machine. I sometimes wonder if I could ever go back in time, where would I really go? 8th grade? Or maybe Kindergarten? Perhaps before school was even a thing. Maybe I’d go…

Image Credit: Pixabay This story is dedicated to my father, Brandon Perry, because the cat stories I write are his favorites. Every morning, I sit on the beach and smell salty ocean air through my tiny pink nose. I can feel the sand between my four little paws, and some of it gets caught in…

Image Credit: Unsplash- Maksym Kaharlytskyi Nobody noticed the girl in the yellow raincoat until she began stealing time. Not in the usual way—she didn’t distract clocks or cut the wires in wristwatches. No. The girl, who called herself Juniper (because her real name was too sharp), had the quiet kind of magic that made the…

Image Source: Unsplash- Good Days Digital This will be the fourth ship I have sunk in as many days. Usually, I am not so fortunate. I have had bad luck— despite all of the ships I’ve led to their dooms, my end goal has evaded me. It has occurred to me more than once that…

Image Credit: Unsplash- Lucas Andrade Isla and her best friend Marina were driving to their favorite beach, Dolphin Cove, to spend the first week of their summer vacation. As Isla and Marina approached Dolphin Cove, Isla turned on “The Sound of Sunshine” by Michael Franti & Spearhead—a song that had become one of their favorite…

Image Credit: Unsplash- Kelly Sikkema Nancy and Peter’s lives were forever changed when their parents succumbed to a fatal car accident, leaving them orphaned and alone. Forced to fend for themselves from a young age, they had to hustle to survive. Their lives became a daily struggle, with Peter turning to gangsterism, theft, and mugging,…