Bright Future

(When I was very young I had a friend called Elliot who died of cancer.)

When we were little Elliot had the whitest blonde hair. Now we're in our 20s and I'm watching his latest music video on television. He is sitting in the sun playing his acoustic guitar and singing. His hair hangs over his eyes and shines like a halo.

Zombies and Aliens

The world has been taken over by zombies. The entire town of Chepstow is hiding out in half ruined shops on the high street.

An enourmous silver ship appears in the sky. Lucky for us aliens have come to save us. They gather up all but two humans and herd them on to the ship.

Me and one other person are left. They promise to come back for us but we're not sure whether to believe them. We go back into hiding, zombies banging at the door.

Killer Chickens

I am being held hostage in a dusty basement with around eight other people. Through a small window we can see that we are being guarded by fierce animals. There is a pack of chickens and a turkey, all trained to kill.

A few of us squeeze out of the window and make it past the poultry. We come to a fence that borders a dark pine forest. In the blackness we can hear killer horses waiting to attack.

Nose to Nose

My husband dreamt that his face was being licked by a dog. He woke up nose to nose with his wife.

Butterflies

Butterflies start to appear. More and more, until a fluttering cloud is all around us. Someone suggests that we exterminate them. I say no.

A friend asks if I speak Welsh. "Only a little bit," I reply and list all the phrases I know. My friend waits impatiently, I can tell he is annoyed. I say I'll get lessons and he promises that when I've learnt Welsh (all of it) he'll take me for a ride on his organic motorbike.

Vanished

It is a bright sunny day and the world has just ended. I am alone in my home and worried because Tom has vanished.

I go to another house, the place I saw him last. The family who lives there is panicking because they have also lost someone. In the exact spot where Tom and the other person disappeared is a weird looking telephone and a small plank of wood standing up on one end. I pick up the phone to call Tom's mobile. It is like one of those baby-toy steering wheels but made from metal, all tattered and scratched. When I dial the number the phone goes crazy and starts to writhe in my hands as though it is alive. I press a big 'cancel' button but it doesn't work. I drop the phone and it and the plank of wood both fall into exactly the same positions they were in to start with. The family cry, "Look! Look!" and spray the objects with glue so that no one else can move them.

Tom has vanished. He is either in another dimension somewhere. Or just. Gone.

There and Then Gone Again

Tom and I are on holiday with separate groups of friends. We just want to be together and keep bumping into each other. But I keep losing him.

I meet him at the beach one time and we swim in the sea. The water is bright blue but the waves are rough and the floor is concrete and painful. We are separated again as he is washed further down the shore.

I am staying at someone’s house and I can’t find the bathroom. What I thought was a bathroom turns out to be just an unattached shower and toilet in a garage. In this garage there are also kayaks and sheets of tarpaulin.

I eventually find the real bathroom.