Wet Pet by Mark Shearman

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/WET-PET-Stories-Mark-Shearman-ebook/dp/B017Z4LQSS

Piano Playing Dogs by Mark Shearman

 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B091QF5N8C/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=piano+playing+dogs&qid=1617714609&sr=8-1

 

Extract from Zorro's Last Stand by Mark Shearman

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The crest of the hill emitted shimmering waves of heat, flickering and obscuring a figure. The dark silhouette against the blue haze of the morning sky, not quite in focus yet, resembled someone familiar. The waves of heat depleted the closer he came into view. A Cordebés hat was clear as he spun around — Zorro? A black cowl mask: it was El Zorro. The cunning fox was free, but why was he here on the Costa Blanca?

Zorro's long black cape trailed, flouncing behind him. He sprinted zigzagging in an exhaustive pursuit. Drawing his flashing steel rapier, leapt and spiked a piece of paper— stopped—lifted the note to admire it, and smiled self-congratulatory.

A scruffy grey donkey heaped with baskets of orange nísperos eyed him, chewing from a nosebag like he didn't care. His owner, a chubby, ragged farmer, flipped a pot to his crease-crazed face, pouring without touching his gurning lips. He smacked the rump of his donkey to elicit movement, multi-tasking.

A swoosh of wind fluttered and lifted the spiked paper from Zorro's sword, swishing and rolling in the breeze.

"Bastardo!" Zorro rasped.

He resumed the chase with more teeth-gritted venom. The paper hit and tumbled along the side of the torque body of his shiny, black and rigid stallion. The horse, made from fibreglass, was bolted atop his tired 1969 Volkswagen bus, two-tone creams, rusty and pitted with holes. The van was parked in a residential car park and the horse a prop to his unusual job.

He rushed the horse in a flourish of upward stabbing motions and missed skewering the paper by inches. The paper, a thousand peseta note, swirled off in the wind avoiding capture.

Inside this Zorro'd up van, he lifted his cape, sinking into the seat, flustered from the exertion. Flipped up the black mask onto his sweaty forehead, despondent, revealing a bruised black eye. He sighed, closed his blue eyes as his shoulders sank back deflated.

He slouched into his ripped seat, wiped the sweat from his blinking eyes and turned the key. The tired engine flushed, that familiar water-cooled VW sound, ticked over and then died. He sat back, emulating the engine, fed-up.

Under that unusual work attire, a handsome, albeit rugged man, El Zorro ‒ Danny, when not at work, studied the rings of blue and yellow around his right eye in the mirror. Suddenly something flashed to his left catching his other eye. He oscillated his head, searching for the source and instantly recognising the person he was there to shame into paying her debt.

A breast heavy, rotund woman, the wrong side of fifty, but being Mediterranean could be a lot older, wearing a house coat and slippers, clutching a brown crusty loaf and pinch purse.

The woman peered over the bonnet of a blue people carrier from a crouching position. Her crow's feet squinted, desperation in her dark, Moorish eyes. Breathing became heavy, progressing into a pant. She abruptly stopped; her breath caught in her throat. She stole another glance at her pursuer and flinched.

 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zorros-Last-Stand-Mark-Shearman-ebook/dp/B07879KQGJ

 

My Migrant Hostel South Australia by Mark Shearman

 

In this photo I am with my older sister Wendy, we are in Adelaide Australia fresh off the ocean liner SS Canberra walking across the street where we were first housed in prefabricated Nissen huts.

Pommy Town, a bushland-fringed housing estate. These corrugated huts were designed by a British army engineer, Canadian, Captain Peter Norman Nissen, as portable accommodation and to some, Ten Pound Poms, it was paradise because of its indoor plumbing, a large backyard and, in many cases, ocean views.

In this photo, I'm returning from the hospital. In the middle of the night, I had climbed out of bed in search of water in the stifling heat but couldn’t find any. I unscrewed the top off a French-made Fly-Tox fly sprayer and drank the caustic liquid. My sister saw what I had done and alarmed my parents. My father snatched me up, borrowed next door's pickup truck and drove to the hospital like a twocker.

My parents hated living in the huts and eventually, we moved into a house that was built, exclusively, covered by a mortgage which was also something amazing to them in the late sixties as we had moved from the Victorian slums of St Ann’s Nottingham

Ten Pound Poms (also ten-pound tourist), refers to people from the UK who migrated to Australia under the Assisted Passage Scheme, run by the Australian Government after the Second World War.

The fare for passage to Australia was set at £10. And they could return for free within five years.

Australians referred to us as “Poms" either because of the acronym for 'prisoner of Mother England' P.O.M.E), or from a rhyming slang term for immigrant, pomegranate (sometimes spelt pommygrant) abbreviated forms pommy and pom.

I was reminded often about the fly spray incident. Did it change me, no I still hate flies.

A Teapot by Mark Shearman

 

According to ancient Taboola, whatever it was you were touching when you die you reincarnate as. When somebody thinks of you, you get to come back for a day. I just put down the teapot, as I was having a eureka moment when my heart jolted to a stop. Hey, I can’t complain I could have dropped the teapot and ended up on some landfill or recycled into an obscure piece of art placed on a wall in some filthy bookmaker’s toilet/masterbatorium.   

Now I get to watch my widowed wife frolic and fornicate with all in sundry. She still hasn’t learned the etiquette of eye contact whilst having oral sex. Mavis, that’s her, no longer uses me for tea after buying one of those fancy coffee machines you order cartridges online which reflects our relationship in the last bleak, sexless years.  

I sit on the windowsill with wilting flowers protruding out of me. Sharing my shelf are various ornaments all who have their own reincarnations. This makes it all the more embarrassing watching her mooching around the kitchen in her flabby underwear and my daughter she’s just the same still living at home at the age of twenty-five, truly the fat grapefruit doesn’t fall far from the tree.  

Yes, I sound bitter, but they always ganged up on me sending me to an early grave with their complaints about my taste in music, how much money I bring home and how much alcohol I consumed to numb my brain from the anguish they bestowed. Now I get an eternity of a different type of torment was this some sick spin off-circle of Dante’s. 

When I’m feeling low, Brendan reminds me that depression is an anagram of ‘I pressed on’. Brendan has come back as a greyhound. Mavis bought him at a flea market for two quid he was an antiques dealer and unbeknown to my wife he is a rare Staffordshire worth a fortune. I shouldn’t take comfort in this but the conversation she had with Beryl, our flirtatious, naturist, sexagenarian next-door neighbour, has me flipping my lid.  

She was cheating on me with the paperboy – fucking paperboy. The worst of it is he is a thirty-year-old flunky who can’t hold a job down and has a drug problem. I know this because the cheapskate bought her a pink vase called Gemma, she’s to my left. He stole her from a charity shop on Greenwich high street.  

“Ain't that right Gemma.” 

“Yes Dave.” 

Gemma doesn’t speak much, we don’t hear from her a lot, I don’t think people think about her that often. Anyway, like I said it could have been worse. I could have come back as the second to last thing I was holding which was an unwashed, gnarly sex toy. A strong ass-smell pulled my attention to the back of the sofa where I found it. I think it belongs to my neighbour. 

“EWW,” said Gemma.  

 I shudder to think about that.

No More Cheek Kisses TV Comedy Drama Pilot Script

 

Spoils of the Moon -- Flashback

 

“Got news for you, son. He’s not your real brother,” said Brian.

“What?” Greg’s eyes pinched. He let out a sigh.

Greg’s a kid again, living in the Midlands, scared. The streets are littered with rubbish. There are strikes and power cuts. It’s bible black – the air’s thick with choking smog.

In the mornings, Greg’s Mum goes to work. If he or his brother leaves and shuts the front door that’s it: they have to wait until she gets home to be let back in. It happens often. Sometimes they sit on the damp doorstep and talk. Other times they cuddle, freezing, hoping she’ll come home soon but knowing she’s more likely gone off on one of her benders.  

Pitch black, a glimmer of light from the remnants of a fire smouldering in a tiled Victorian fireplace. There were piles of shoes spilt over each side, drying out. Latchkey kids, grey jumpers, junior school ages, fumble and toeing the shoe pile, hurriedly rushing out the door. Rain tensed their shoulders as they stood there thinking.

"Have we got everything?" said a young Greg.

Smaller boy Jordi, nodded yes, shivering.

"Sure, gonna shut the door? She took the key this time," said Greg.

Jordi turned to walk, as the door slammed, he stopped, turned and stared at Greg who looked down at his own shoes.

Jordi saw the horror. They both knew what this meant. He was wearing one brown shoe and one black, and even worse...

"Our Sunday best. Mum will go mad," said Jordi.

Silence between them as they splashed through the rain. Jordi leapt every puddle. Due to the massive holes in his soles; his socks were already soaking.

The whispers about Greg’s dilemma spun through the school playground. A crowd gathered at a rack of steps that went up to a bricked-up door. There was a gap between the stairs and a wall creating a tunnel. Boys already took position on the steps, ready to kick him in every part of his body, vicious and lusting for violence. Greg approached as the chants from the crowd got louder and intimidating. He hated being the centre of attraction. Jordi didn’t mind. He grabbed his arm and saw the fear quivering on his older brother’s face. Jordi removed his shoes and swapped with Greg, who ashamedly let him.

"Alla Prima, hey. Greg."

"Alla Prima. Jordi."

Jordi rushed the tunnel of death, stopped at the back wall, paused and took a moment to reflect on his decision. The rain had stopped and through the chinks of sunlight he felt a modicum of hope as he breathed in the petrichor. He stuck his chin out and made his way back out. The further you went through, the higher the steps. Jordi pushed through a gauntlet of wet leather shoes and fists. He emerged out the other end, red-faced, dishevelled, blood-smeared, fat-lipped, and black-eyed. As he was patted on the back from some of the older boys for going through with it, he managed a smile at his brother. 

"I watched in fear. He said he did it because he wanted a day with dry feet and said he was amazed at how many of them also had holes in their shoes from when they were scuffing his face. Don’t tell me he’s not my brother," said Greg.

The things I learned when I was seven and eighty five

The year my grandad died; I met a troll crossing a bridge the day I became a scout. I stowed aboard a pirate’s ship of which there was no doubt. The captain wore a wiry beard and preferred to swish and shout. I foraged for a pot of gold and made a pot of tea. I learned to laugh, sing and cry and ponder why we go to heaven. I learned all this in my grandma’s stories the year I was seven.

 

Summoning fourscore and five I crawl out of my bed – age is golden I’ve heard it said. I fish my teeth from a whiskey glass and pull my trousers over my... hips. My skin no longer fits. As I get smaller so does print. I curl on my specs and head for the loo. I sit and ponder; we learn too late as the night falls how close we came to distant shores. Snatching at the sky, desperate to see a sliver of hope of a world that could be. Don’t give in if the pace is slow success achieved with another blow. Regardless, I’m able to grin is it too early for a sip of whiskey or gin.

Crime in Spain’s Tourists Hot Spots

 

Where there is mass tourism there will always be purveyors of controlled substances as the masses hope to self-medicate whilst on holiday. These drug gangs under pressure to cope with supply and demand, constant competition, the threat of arrest and lack of therapy end up shooting it out in the busy streets causing the inevitable, stray bullets to hit innocent tourists.

This isn’t a common occurrence, but it does happen. Last year’s example in Benidorm of a Derry man and his girlfriend witnessing a mass brawl, which included the discharge of firearms, a stray bullet hit the man in the leg and hospitalised him – holiday over.

'You’re more likely to see a fist fight between rival taxis firms or drunken Brits,' according to one local man. Even though the police clear the streets regularly, like herpes it never fully goes away just lurks for a short time and then springs out unexpected. On the whole Spain's tourist spots are safe destinations for travellers and tourists.

Violent crimes are uncommon but there is a massive den of thieves targeting, specifically, foreigners the old and the weak looking. Weak looking refers to those who walk around flashing their cash leaving their bags and personal belongings unsupervised and open.

With an estimated 82 million tourists visiting Spain every year that’s a lot of provocation for those who buy into the belief that the quickness of the hand deceives the eye, pickpockets, bag snatchers, con artists and the tic-tac-toe men are targeting their prey as soon as they arrive at the airport.

These gangs are foreigners themselves and travel to busy hot spots. Hotel lobbies, train and bus station and the most popular - people standing in queues, a favourite the supermarket, open handbag showing a fat purse.

Distraction tactics or misdirection criminals working in teams, one asks for directions drops their keys or coins even spilling something like a drink on the intended victim and offering to clean it up. Or what’s more despicable acting like a victim and asking for help. All this to allow their counterpart to steal from them their purse, cell phone, room key.

Bag snatching is very common, sat on a bus or train as soon as the doors open a kid, quick on his feet, would leap up grab your bag and he was gone out the doors and cross the platform. People watched as another lad with the speed of a Mumbai urban-macaques-monkey snatches your bag from the restaurant table then dived into a car or mounted the back of a revving motorbike.

Sexual assault does exist albeit statistically low compared to some countries. Authorities warn about date-rape drugs, which are widely available and used in certain late-night bars and clubs. Drugs, including GHB and liquid ecstasy, are obtainable along with cocaine and marijuana.

Street harassment from touters has declined in recent years due to the demise of the blanket trip wars. A push by local police to rid the streets of timeshare street inviters offering scratch cards and promising a prize. Merchandise hawkers or sub-Saharan looky - looky men as they are commonly called still do the rounds along the seafront and in the evening bar touters - AKA props - clog up the sea front walkways.

Remember just say no!