Novellas, novelettes, short stories
Read short snippets from my books, perhaps one or two will catch your attention.
Happy reading!
Showing posts with label #shortstories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #shortstories. Show all posts
Sunday, October 11, 2020
Monday, February 11, 2019
Hunting Polar Bears by NL Osguthorpe
Hunting Polar Bears
Working with
young children is always eventful. They have a gift for doing and saying the
unexpected and as a teacher one must always be ready to respond, leading the
child down the path which will best suit their learning style, enriching their
understanding and personal development. This being said, there are occasionally
situations which demand an instant reaction and where the route one should take
can be a little ambiguous to say the least.
Have you ever
had a relationship with a colleague which is so in tune that it becomes alchemy?
I have been lucky enough to experience this on several occasions in my teaching
career and it is from one such pairing my story begins. Working with four-year
olds is never dull and it requires a special kind of person, one who is fully
willing to commit to the world of a child and allow the journey to take them.
Those who really understand the nature of young children know that you can
never fully control that environment, your role is not to set the learning but
to find the path which leads there. And so, with this philosophy in my heart I
take my class out into our playground one dreary February afternoon to find my
colleague surrounded by frantically active children carrying crates and planks
of wood and building bricks in a melee of beautifully orchestrated chaos. I
look over to my colleague, she has the hood of her coat pulled firmly up to
cover her face and waves frantically as we come out of the door, calling across
the playground to us. “Do you have any food? Hurry, get on the boat!”
The children of
my class look to me, their eyes twinkling with excitement, as they know the
magic is about to start. “We’ve got no food!” I called back “But we’d like to
get on the boat if that’s alright!”
“We need your
help!” My now frantic colleague and friend cried back to me, “our boat is
sinking, and we’re trapped in this Polar ice!”
Our topic this
term was ‘The Land of Ice and Snow’, with a focus on the environment and
conservation. All week the children had been avidly watching videos of
scientists and adventurers exploring these lands of ice and snow, and so their
play explored their new learning and experiences and their imaginations were
alight with creativity.
“We’ve got to
help them!” I exclaim to the now fully alert host of four-year olds gathered
around me, “Quickly get on the boat, see what you can do to help, don’t let the
ice crush the boat!” The children hurtle
into action rushing over to join their friend in glee, while my fellow teacher
and I exchanged that look of anticipation which so few adults ever get to
share.
For a short
while there wasn’t much for us to do, the scene was set. the play engaged, our
role was now to watch, assess and record. To let the children’s play,
demonstrate their learning and knowledge while building those social skills
which are so important for later life.
“Polar Bear!” a
child cried from the front of our ship. “I can see a Polar Bear!” It was only a
matter of time before the Polar Bear would arrive, after all we had been
learning about them all week and the children loved to watch the videos, read
the stories and play with the collection of polar bear toys on display in the
classroom.
“Get the
camera!” I called back, “Let’s take a photograph!”
“No!” the child
shouted back to me, in exasperation, “Lets hunt it!”
Something turned
sour in my heart, all week I’d been teaching about endangered animals and our
role on the planet to do what we could to protect these beautiful creatures. I
looked towards my colleague and saw the same internal conflict reflected in her
eyes, we both knew the politically correct route, yet turning back to the
children, my mouth agape I could see laid before me the scene of the play we
had set. The children were starving!
Suddenly I was
grabbed roughly on both arms and spun around to face my colleague, whose eyes now
twinkled with mischief. “Are you
insane?” she exclaimed “We’re starving out here! With the cold and the ice!
We’ve got to eat something.” She’d obviously been down the same thought paths
as me only reached her conclusion sooner, the play was now in control of the
teachers.
I paused for an
instant, trapped within a conflict of my own creating. I looked around me at
the fully alert and engaged little faces, all waiting for my next response.
“Can’t we catch some fish?” I asked pleadingly.
“No!” it was the
children who replied in unison.
“The ice is too
thick!” my colleague replied, sadness misted over her eyes as she looked at the
faces of the children awaiting our response, she was a very good actress, “It’s
us or the Polar Bear!”
My shoulders
dropped, the breath I was holding expelled and sadness filled my eyes; “That’s
a dangerous creature out there,” my voice was softer now resigned to the
decision, the direction we would take, “we can’t just walk up to it, we’ll be
ripped to shreds.”
“I know” my
colleague replied and turning back to the children she cried “Get the
harpoons!”
The children
burst back into action, the play moved on and once again my friend and I found
ourselves alone. I allowed my real face to take control and gave her a look of
exasperation “We’re going to hell you know!” I told her firmly.
“I know” she
said cheerfully “But at least we’re going together. Besides, we can’t let them
starve.” I rolled my eyes then laughed, reminding myself this was only play.
Then I noticed a
small child had quietly come up beside us, eyes cowed and face sad. Perhaps
this little one was disturbed by the brutality of the play. “Are you ok
sweetheart?” I asked her softly.
Her eyes sparkled
as she realised that I had noticed her, and a smile spread across her face. She
held out her hands towards me, cupping them like a bowl. “I brought you some
Polar Bear stew.” She beamed proudly, before skipping off back to her ships
galley.
I would like to
state that no Polar Bears were injured during the course of these events, and
that all issues raised were most fully dealt with upon return to the classroom. I also feel I should apologise to the Polar
bear, for our compliance for this fictitious act. There really was no other
choice we could have made we had to feed the children.
As
I said the life of a teacher is never dull.
NL Osguthorpe
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Friday, December 14, 2018
Book Release: Rainbows and Clouds
New release: a short story collection
Short stories about life’s humorous, happy, and dark moments.
Some of the stories are from my years in nursing, Steve's clumsiness and my cooking disasters might make you spit out your coffee laughing. The stories of my pets will put a warm smile on your face, and the stories about life's darker moments might make you wipe a tear or two.
Rainbows and dark clouds are part of life,
Without darkness, there can be no light.
Without moments that make us cry,
We can’t enjoy moments that make us smile.
Without moments that make us laugh,
We can’t get through moments that make us sad.
Enter the Amazon GIVEAWAY:
Editorial review:
The Rainbows and Clouds by Erika M Szabo is a collection of fun anecdotes, heartwarming stories, and slice-of-life tales that evoke a wide range of emotions. It's impossible to choose a favorite story because I loved them all, particularly the tales that explored the challenges of having a pet. There are several stories within this collection that explore the best - and the worst - of humanity. We are reminded that not everything, or everyone, is what they appear to be and that the best things in life are often surprises. I would absolutely recommend this book to everyone! It truly is something special.
~Tricia Drammeh
TEASERS:
From the story of Mean Streaks:
I used to live in an apartment building, way back when. Working evening shift in the Hospital as a mental health counselor, I usually arrived home around midnight. As I was running up the steps to the barely lit front door I heard a muted cry.
“Ouch!” The voice came from below, close to the concrete steps.
I looked down and saw Daniel, my upstairs neighbor, on his hands and knees. I realized that I didn’t notice him in the dark and stepped on his hand.
“Oh my God! I’m so sorry!” I shouted, feeling remorse building up inside of me, imagining the pain I had caused.
“Yes, Ma’am. No… no problem,” he mumbled in his drunken stupor. “I’m just gonna sit here for a while until my head stops spinning.”
He is drunk as a skunk, again, I thought. I can’t leave him in the middle of the night on the steps.
“Let me help you up and walk you home,” I offered.
“No Ma’am, please!” he begged. “There will be much bodily harm coming to me if I go home now. She will be very angry.” I almost burst out laughing, but then he looked up at me and I saw fear in his eyes.
What could be going on in your house? I thought, alarmed. I recalled seeing him bruised all over many times since I’d moved into the apartment house. I was aware, like everyone else in the building, that occasionally he drank himself into a stupor. After the binge, he stayed sober for weeks at a time. He was the sweetest, most helpful guy in the neighborhood. He was always there when anyone needed their door or dishwasher fixed. We started calling him “golden hands” because there wasn’t anything he couldn’t fix. He always had a smile and a nice word for everyone. I had seen him many times with bruises after his drinking binges, but I always assumed he had fallen when he was drunk. But seeing the fear in his eyes, I started thinking. They seemed to be the perfect couple, but I wonder… He said ‘bodily harm.’ Is she beating him when he’s drunk and can’t defend himself?
Although his wife was friendly with everyone, I had detected some mean streaks in her personality. It occurred to me that I had never seen love in her eyes when she looked at her husband. I only saw calculated and cold glances. People gave her a lot of compliments about Daniel’s “golden hands” and even then, she just nodded coldly.
Continue reading the story:
From the story of Nurse's Voice:
A large man in the ER screamed bloody murder after two nurses tried to insert an IV in his arm and failed. The guy threatened to call his lawyer and sue the hospital. He called the nurses incompetent fools, so, because I was the supervisor on that shift, they called me to deal with the angry man.
I walked into his room, introduced myself and told him, “Sir, I’m going to try to start your IV.”
He yelled, “This hospital is full of ******* idiots! I hope you know what you’re doing!”
I put my nurse’s face on and said in my soothing nurse’s voice to break his foul mood, “Don’t worry, sir, I just watched a video on YouTube and learned how to start IVs.”
The surprised look on his face was priceless and I heard the nurses taking sharp breaths outside the door, ready for another angry eruption.
Continue reading the story:
PLAYSTER
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