A shopping cart mysteriously arrives on the front lawn. Its arrival is shrouded in mystery.But as mundane and uncomplicated as the object is, its presence has a profound and lasting effect.A short story about the search for a meaningful existence.

Lying underneath the floorboards of Delphine's home, he watches her. He doesn't know why, he doesn't know anything, but he is compelled to watch. The intimate synergy between someone imprisoned and someone free, but who is trapped in her own dark emotions. This is a story about depression, how tough it is to feel connected and even when there is someone right next to you, how you feel so isolated and alone and helpless.

Johnson, a vital cog of routine and schedule in society, is joined on a park bench by a woman. Communication between the two comes about in an usual manner but Johnson persists to try and find out more. The woman carries with her an old typewriter that is steeped in history but yet it has an important message about the future.

A short story about how fate may control our lives. A lucky penny is found and it helps keep the routine of the protagonist's walk home, uneventful. That is even despite the tragic wreckage that plays out in front of them. How much luck is there to go around?

Coming home after many years way from home, what is left there? The pictures from memory and those he holds in his pocket, don't recreate what is being looked for on his return. Regardless, he has returned, looking for things that he knows are no longer there. But the memories of the night that he broke the cardinal rule of the town are a powerful and poignant reminder of his wars gone by.

Jimmy receives an unexpected letter of invitation. But it's more than that, it is finally a way out of the coffin that he's been stuck in for the last six months. But what awaits him on his escape? This short story was adapted from a previous idea I had about interviewing the Devil's Administrator. It changed and transformed into a very short, light-hearted twist of what could lie beyond

Not every family gathering is one full of joy and cheer. Erin stares bleakly at the walls of ice which exist between members of her family, particularly those between herself and her sister. It started years ago in childhood but then the Nut Stuffing and the unwanted gift under the tree takes it all to another level.

After another night of heavy drinking, Archibald fails to notice some important clues around him as he faces up to the daily grind again. They are clues which would have warned him of impending danger. His wife Janet however, is feeling on top of the world with everything in place to take care of some important household business. But her devious master-plan to make sure that Archibald never finds his way back home again fails dramatically because of extenuating events.

Alex had wanted change, had wanted to be noticed, but there was a price to pay. Increasing horrors mount for her in the aftermath of her procedure.The crawling sensations inside her give rise to an ominous blackness which overcomes her and leads to terrifying consequences.The paranoia from the shadows that Alexis glimpses trailing her every move is heightened when she hears them in her flat.With her domain no longer a safe place, she has only one choice. She has to run...

The falling degrees of Archroy's ill-fated journey into town. Dazed and confused in the white world of snow, Archroy looks to shake off his fever and hangover but the winter weather is his biggest enemy. The townfolk are no help either.

Are you listening closely? Pay attention as you are taken on a guided tour down to the basement by the artist who has created his most wonderful spectacle yet. It is a very intimate, very intense one-on-one with the artist, but what lies in wait at the end of the story that you are taken through? Is the art installation which is hidden underneath the stairs an aberration or a sublime beauty because of the source of its inspiration? It's for you to decide.

Five short stories about reaching out for something, trying to get somewhere. The stories range from not being able to reach a destination, such as in the Everyman who experiences the outside world vicariously through those he watches, to trying to reach a place of acceptance that Poppy turns to the Worry Tree to find, to the lingering effects of past destinations and where they leave us in My War Gone By. These are five short stories which will take you on your own journey.