Watergate Bay

  The Stuffed Rabbit  It had been a long day for Darrell Rivers.       She peered into the cot. A branch tapped irregularly against the windowpane in the nursery. They had decided, during the overhaul of the house, this was the best room for the nursery. Darrell inspected the chubby creature lying in the cot.       She had been on the planet now for twenty months.       Darrell had bought the toy rabbit, which she had named St. Leonard, when the girl was born. She watched the toddler chew the ear of the now tatty rabbit and wiggle about. She wondered when it would be moved out of its cot. ‘Surely, it’ll be too old soon. She must have a proper bed.’ But Darrell was not all together knowledgeable about young children, which was one of the reasons she was hesitant to spend any time alone with it. She took off her yellow party hat and let it dangle by her side, her grip loose and uncaring. ‘Does the child,’ Darrell asked herself, ‘have a genuine attachment to the toy or has it only been pl

Malory Towers Winter had set in early in Cornwall and sitting in the church froze Darrell to the bone. Darrell, Sally, Sally’s mother and father, and Sally’s little sister Daffy, were staying in Aunt Mary’s house. She found it rather creepy, and so did Sally.       ‘Well, Sally,’ Darrell had overhead Sally’s mother say the night before the funeral, ‘where would you have us stay?’ That was the end of it.       Daffy was eight now. She was a well-mannered but quiet girl, and Darrell never felt completely at ease with her. When Darrell had given her condolences to Daffy, who was a rather intelligent girl for her age, Daffy had been insolent and simply ignored what Darrell said. ‘Perhaps,’ Darrell had thought to herself later, when she was brushing her teeth and staring at herself in the glass, ‘I shouldn’t have mentioned it to Daffy.’ Darrell wondered if Daffy knew how Aunt Mary had died. No one had mentioned it in Darrell’s presence, and she wondered if she was even meant to know. She im

Off the Cliff Edge  It was an unhappy week for Mildred Pierce. Her tennis racket was shot, and Sally hadn’t kissed her for days. Mildred slept in her own room the night of the play. She said to herself, ‘She needs space.’ She was sure that Sally would come around sooner or later. Mildred had a niggling suspicion though that Sally was slowly pushing away from her. She was also aware that by worrying that Sally was pushing away from her, she was inadvertently pushing Sally away too. Mildred had hoped the night of the play would be an opportunity for them to bond again, but once again Mildred and Sally had been disrupted by that hot-headed Darrell Rivers. Mildred looked at it like a double edged sword. Sally and Darrell seemed to come as a pair, and whatever happened between them, they seemed to be drawn back to one another. Mildred took her broken racket and left.       The snow had only lasted a few days. Rain had set in around St. Andrews. Mildred was meeting Simon, a boy from the Shak

  The Winter's Tale  Mildred played Hermione in Shakespeare’s wintery tale. Darrell could tell, she hated playing the statue. Darrell couldn’t concentrate on the story at all. The difficult Shakespearean verse was not an issue for Darrell, but still she struggled to focus. She was sat beside Sally. When Mildred appeared in any scene, Darrell noticed that Sally would sit forward in her seat and pay a little more attention. This was to be expected.       The university theatre was poorly heated. Darrell wrapped her arms around herself to keep warm. At the end of the play, Mildred met Sally and Darrell in the dingy foyer. Mildred was accompanied by other members of the cast. Darrell thought it was odd; these people she’d never met, who she had seen performing Shakespeare for two hours, were now standing next to her. ‘We’re going to the Bucket and Moon,’ one of the cast members announced. Mildred cooed. Sally agreed. Darrell noticed how Sally stood close to Mildred as soon as they met

  Sally Plaits Her Hair Again  The day had started badly for Michael. He was late for work. The cherry on top of the cake would come now. Michael’s foot tripped over the curb. His face hit the ground. Michael touched the bridge of his nose and felt blood. He’d fallen head over heels. Michael collected himself. He brushed his trousers, then crossed the street to the café. The ruined cathedral sat above the small café, where Michael worked, and whenever he felt gloomy, which was quite often nowadays, he’d look out of the window to the ancient building to find himself feeling a little calmer and more collected.       ‘What happened to you?’       ‘I overslept,’ Michael said, collecting his pad of paper from the till, so he could start taking orders. But the café was quiet.       ‘What happened to your face?’       ‘I tripped, Catherine, alright?’       ‘I’m going for a cigarette,’ Catherine said, giving Michael a sideways glance. ‘Your nose is bleeding,’ she said, and pointed toward the l

 A Smack in the Face for Darrell  Darrell walked briskly away from the scene. She went home and locked herself in her bedroom. Darrell gritted her teeth. She pushed her face into the pillow and tightly shut her eyes. She heard conspiratorial whispers from the hallway. There was a knock on her door a moment later. Something possessed Darrell to get up from her position on her bed and unlock her bedroom door. She found Sally Hope with a pained expression on her face. Her mouth was contorted in worriment. She kneaded her hands. She tried to straighten her back, before she spoke. ‘Hello, Darrell.’       ‘I saw you.’       ‘Your hair is nice,’ Sally mumbled. ‘It looks fine short. Why didn’t you show me? We could have gone together to the hairdressers. We didn’t mean to upset you, Darrell, you aren’t upset, are you?’      ‘Samantha cut it for me.’       ‘Are you alright?’       ‘I don’t want to talk with you, Sally, I’m perfectly fine on my own.’       ‘Darrell.’       She shut the bedroom d

  Darrell Goes to the Football Over the next two weeks, the four girls settled into a steady routine of tutorials and study sessions in the library, followed by walks on the beach and reading in the living room by the fire. One Sunday, after breakfast, Darrell, Sally, and Mildred went for a walk together on the beach and found that hidden cove. It had started to rain, but the girls had promised to each other that they would explore the cove another day.       It had been a drizzly start to the year; Darrell hadn’t had a chance to sit on her balcony with one of her books from the library or even take the long walks she was used to.       It was not unusual for Darrell to slump out of her bedroom in the morning to discover Sally and Mildred laughing in the living room, stretched out on the scratchy settee. They had taken to playing games for two, like chess or dominoes. Darrell did not realise it, but whenever she saw Sally and Mildred together, in their own bubble, it niggled her, so wh