Many, many years ago, I deluded myself that I had some talent as a writer.  I was young, naive, idealistic and innocent.

Well 3 of the 4 have gone by the wayside over the years, but I keep these very short stories as a reminder to myself of the way I used to be.

On reflection, they're not really all that bad, especially when you consider that they were written under exam conditions, when I had about 75 minutes to come up with what you're going to see here, in response to some contrived question in an English paper.

I'll let you be the judge as to their merits (if any).

The usual disclaimer : these are works of fiction, any resemblance yadda yadda yadda. You know the drill.