The Listening Zone

A collection of thirteen cameos with a twist in each tail.

WAITING FOR DOLPHINS by Pat Hopper

The bay had been polluted by an oil slick, but Dad remembered better times and kept his dream alive: “The dolphins swam up to feed from my hand, tail-dancing across the waves.” He insisted, “They’ll be back.” In the meantime, a young man calls into the hotel after a motorbike breakdown, and Lisa had dreams of her own. When the time was right he’d be back.

SPILT MILK by Joan Stanley

A comic tale of an ageing greying man, who believes himself to be more attractive as the grey hairs increase, ignoring the ever growing waistline. He is quite shocked when an attractive young woman in the office makes a pass at him, and seeks the security of his dowdy wife. To him she has become the perfect mate: a drab old hen in contrast to the confident cock.

(Contains a swear word: bloody)

PURGATORY AND PARADISE by Pam Weaver

This light-hearted story tells the ‘joys’ of taking a young family on holiday. Having decided to travel overnight, with the children asleep in the car, the parents face the problem of occupying their offspring the following day.

THE MAP by Pam Weaver

Dad is driving and Mum is navigating from a map, but he has his own ideas about which roads to take. Inevitably they get lost, but is it his fault? No, of course not. It is a lousy map!

EMILY by Susan Wright

“I can’t paint with you in my life, Emily… I need to be alone.” And he was on the TV being interviewed about a new exhibition. She would go to see it, with the intention of meeting up with him again. Invited to the after show party she was horrified to find that he was now married. But Daniel is also there, and offering to befriend her…

FRESHFIELDS by Susan Wright

Fifteen years before, Peter had been famous: his face and body had advertised the after-shave Leo. But when the sales and his popularity dropped he became a misery. This story tells how his young talented wife copes with his moods and seeks a diversion at a Horse Rescue centre. Begrudgingly, Peter tried to pull himself together and his career is revived, but he will ever be self-centred.

SADIE’S SECRET by Lynda Wakeling

Sadie worked in a hairdressing salon. Apparently not very bright, she was used as a general help and bullied by her boss. The clients loved her, especially the elderly ones that she pampered and cosseted. But Sadie had a secret; these favoured clients were lonely old ladies with no one to whom they could leave their money…

SEEING RED by Lynda Wakeling

A powerfully written story, which portrays the fear a young wife feels of her violent husband and how she tries to pacify him. As he goes up stairs to their son’s room, she feels their unborn child move, and there wouldn’t be just two of them to suffer his blows… but three. She touches the kitchen knife and imagines murdering him, but then she finds a new strength. “If you go near the boy, I’ll call the police.” And when he leaves for the pub she takes her son to a refuge.

BIRTH PARTNER by Joan Stanley

A factual story which is both comic and emotional.

Mother of four, Carol, the sober friend on whom Sharon depends, is asked, “Would you be my birth partner? …Grant’s down the pub.” Much to the relief of the maternity staff Carol goes to the hospital to befriend Sharon and keep Grant in order. When things go wrong they turn to Carol for assistance, but they do not know that Carol’s children are adopted and the child born to her died soon after birth. “It’s been a hell, at times, today, Holly,” Carol told the baby, “but I would not have missed this for all the tea in China.”

APRONS by Joan Stanley

A light-hearted look at the author’s Aprons and those of her grandmother.

WHERE THERE’S A WILL by Susan Wright

After his father’s death, Nigel encourages his mother to spend her money on the house: for her benefit or to improve its value? Imagine his shock when some years later his mother dies and leaves the house and it’s contents to her friends and the bank balance to her son. A satisfying comedy.

WHERE ARE YOU NOW? by Joan Moules

“Its time for our ‘Where are you now’ spot folks. And this week we have a bumper bag. If you are listening Jane, your old pal Helen would love to relive those days when you were in the WAAF together.” And so Jane, and her grandson, Michael, visited Helen. Later in the day Helen’s husband arrives home. But he is also Jane’s ex-fiancé…

IN A HOLE by Joan Stanley

Walter is a young country lad who finds his humble and simple upbringing an embarrassment at school. Wandering in the woods near his home he finds a snared animal in a rabbit hole, a puppy. Boy and dog return home plastered in mud. His earthy mother is certainly no social asset, but she lets Walter keep the animal, and he decides that after all she is the right kind of mum for him.