Total Reading Time: 15 minutes Listen to audio version Frustration burned within Lisa, fervent as the crackling coals at the fireplace in the study. Reading the threat from the money lenders, she smacked her hand against the mantel lodged one extreme. It was one thing for her husband to spend hundreds of pounds on horseraces …
What is life when the fang of prejudice constantly digs into you, leaving its venom of hurt and pain? A hurt a sixteen-year-old like me has somewhat numbed to. Call me strong and I will refute with the vehemence of my mother watching me snatched from her by members of a sect I prefer to …
Weeks of voyaging the Mediterranean and finally arriving the shores of Akwa Akpa, a town situated to the southern region of West Africa, meant that home wasn’t afar off. The humid air, the lushness of the forest lining both sides of the road on which they rode, the warmth of the sun reminded her of …
The rising buildings of Liverpool and gigantic ships with masts resembling wings of a thousand birds, brought back memories of Rhoda’s first arrival in England. Anxiety however replaced the sorrow of her time here. She had left notes for Henry as well as her other friends stating briefly that she’d be travelling to Africa and …
Something didn’t feel right. Taking one last sip of her syllabub, Rhoda excused herself from the company of old Mrs. Beckley and Mrs. McKinney who chattered about the newborns in the county. A feeling, strange as a snowy spring, was starting to trouble her. “I fear I shall have to leave now. The ladies might …
Total Reading time: 8 mins Did the vicar just confirm her marriage to the stranger? Fanny winced, troubled. She had heard of how people were sometimes wrongly joined in mass Christmas weddings, but never had she thought it’d be her. Perplexed, she pulled at her chemise, pacing back and forth the antique Canterbury cathedral. Had …
Total Reading time: 6 mins Listen to audio version Miriam froze as the missive fell off her hand. She would die if caught devising a means of escape. As though it were hot, burning coal, she picked up the envelope, fingers fidgety and tucked it into her tunic. Palms wet, she ascended the stairs that …
Total Reading time: 3 mins Call me a whore and I will pay you a passive smile. I won’t shove my fist onto your crooked nose, and I won’t loosen my tongue in an argument. Growing up in the backwaters of Makoko, I detested the only cloak I could possessꟷpoverty, and watching Mami wield her …
To Love One More Time Miriam choked on the akara she ate when Mrs. Wells called her a brute. “Me a brute? Then I presume you’re worse than I am because you’re older and of course, you’re my aunt.” She chuckled and drank some apple juice, willing that her aunt let her eat in peace. …
She Wouldn’t Leave. Hannah stomped her feet, moving from one pillar to another, swinging her head back and forth like a pendulum bulb. She stood by a pillar, held it with both hands, and shook it as though she could pull down the temple with her strength. Letting go of the pillar, she spun about …