Jennifer Claire Pulling

“SALOME” by Jennifer Claire Pulling

Submitted to Contest #252

                                         Kimberley told him she could pinpoint exactly when their relationship changed. It was that week in September when he bought Salome. Life had been free and easy before then, bumbling around in the old Austin, even though they’d broken down on an ambitious trip to Cornwall. But with the delivery of the...

8 likes 0 comments 0

Read story

“DEVOTION” by Jennifer Claire Pulling

DEVOTION               Ten years almost to the day since Stefano and Giovanna first set eyes on each other, they agreed to take a walk together in the piazza. Perhaps it was the fine spring evening, laced with a hint of jasmine, a glimpse of swallows nesting in the eaves that brought them to this important decision.             Their families’ houses were directly opposite one another: identical, whitewashed bui...

0 likes 0 comments 0

Read story

“ONLY A ROSE” by Jennifer Claire Pulling

                                                                     ONLY A ROSE Six months after they met he suggested they went to stay at his parents’ apartment in Spain. It seemed to her a sign...

0 likes 0 comments 0

Read story

“The Land of Might have been” by Jennifer Claire Pulling

Submitted to Contest #183

The land of might have been can be paved with regrets and lost opportunities, of choices made and their consequences. On the other hand it can be a place dreamers and ditherers can inhabit and never be forced to face reality. For dreamers a love story incorporates adventure and impulse. They don’t subscribe to others’ warnings it is irresponsible and unsustainable.  That afternoon when it all began they didn’t go to the press conference in the end. The casual conversation deepened and darted over many topics and they continued to talk u...

7 likes 0 comments 0

Read story

“LUCKY ME” by Jennifer Claire Pulling

Submitted to Contest #140

 If you were a first time subscriber to Bright’s Lending Library you might be excused if you thought you had wandered into the drawing room of a country house. There were comfortable armchairs and sofas, a deep piled carpet and overall the genteel atmosphere of neatly dressed helpful assistants. Bright’s offered a haven to bored housewives, retired military men and titled gentry. Here they could browse, climb sturdy ladders to reach a desired title, or settle themselves for a good read. The library had existed since Mabel Bright, wife o...

20 likes 5 comments 5

Read story

“The land of might have been” by Jennifer Claire Pulling

Submitted to Contest #124

The land of might have been can be paved with regrets and lost opportunities, of choices made and their consequences. On the other hand it can be a place dreamers and ditherers can inhabit and never be forced to face reality. For dreamers a love story incorporates adventure and impulse. They don’t subscribe to others’ warnings it is irresponsible and unsustainable.  That afternoon when it all began they didn’t go to the press conference in the end. The casual conversation deepened and darted over many topics and they continued to talk u...

7 likes 0 comments 0

Read story

“Devotion” by Jennifer Claire Pulling

Submitted to Contest #102

"Love's wing moults when caged and captured,  Only free he soars enraptured."  – Thomas Campbell, "Love's Philosophy" Ten years almost to the day since Stefano and Giovanna first set eyes on each other, they agreed to take a walk together in the piazza. Perhaps it was the fine spring evening, laced with a hint of jasmine, a glimpse of swallows nesting in the eaves, that brought them to this important decision.             Their families’ houses were directly op...

16 likes 0 comments 0

Read story

“What a Lark!” by Jennifer Claire Pulling

Submitted to Contest #97

      The thing that struck her was how at ease she felt among these people, how they accepted her. They didn’t appear to find it unusual:  a woman on her own in an elaborate white dress walking along the crowded street with her little dog. It was as if her inner mood manifested itself in the noisy laughter and waving of flags.  Their arms about each other seemed to embrace her, too. .  If she met someone’s eye they just smiled or said “Lovely weather for the Fete Day, isn’t it?” And she smiled an...

12 likes 2 comments 2

Read story

“Custard” by Jennifer Claire Pulling

Submitted to Contest #94

       When she spoke about it a picture came into her mind of a little waif of a child, her hair a tangled mane, huge brown eyes, a child quite unlike her sturdy pair, more a small creature she could pet for a fortnight, hear laugh, be surprised by the world Penny took for granted.             Why was she doing this? Guilt came into it. Had prompted her to offer the holiday when she read that some of these children had never seen the sea. There wa...

6 likes 0 comments 0

Read story

“The Fiesta Of Saint Joan” by Jennifer Claire Pulling

Submitted to Contest #93

I met Angie Percival in the bar of our Menorca hotel on the first evening of our holiday. My husband had already infuriated me. While I altered my watch to local time the moment we touched down, he, as usual, kept his to GMT. He could never quite trust our daughter, efficient as she was, to run our fancy goods shop while we were away. I knew that he would call her practically every day during our fortnight’s holiday. The pattern repeated itself wherever we were in the world and my patience was wearing thin. That’s why, out of character becau...

6 likes 0 comments 0

Read story

“A CHANGE OF HEART” by Jennifer Claire Pulling

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #92

She moves along the ward, straightening a pillow, checking a water carafe is filled. She switches off the dim reading light above Mr Edwards’ bed, he has fallen asleep over his book. As she reaches the end of the room, she pauses, gazing along the rows of beds, alert for any sound but there is none except the tick of the large clock above her head. She returns to her table, picks up her pen and starts on her report.             She loves this time, it never bothers her to be ‘on nig...

23 likes 3 comments 3

Read story

“Metamorphosis” by Jennifer Claire Pulling

Submitted to Contest #91

Do you believe in synchronicity, those meaningful occurrences labelled as coincidence but not actually due to chance? The psychologist Carl Jung who coined the name believed they were related to the observer’s mind and served to provide insight direction and guidance.  Caroline knew none of this. A coincidence in her view was just that, a coincidence occurring without rhyme or reason. Amusing perhaps but not to be dwelt upon. That was until the day at her local library when things took a surprising turn.      &...

12 likes 0 comments 0

Read story

“Jonathan Watkins' Fugue” by Jennifer Claire Pulling

Submitted to Contest #66

On the plane he felt breathless with the enormity of what he’d done.  Until that moment when he’d said goodbye to the cat Cleo and trundled his suitcase down the street he had never truly believed he’d have the nerve. Years of an acquiescent life with Stella had leached all initiative out of him.  At least, he supposed, he went out to shop in the market, every morning, unlike Cleo who was kept indoors from some real or imagined fear of the streets. Sometimes he fantasised a life of bachelordom, untrammelled by women....

10 likes 0 comments 0

Read story

“The Children's Hour” by Jennifer Claire Pulling

Submitted to Contest #61

The children had been playing in the snow all morning, the snow that had fallen softly throughout the night, covering Paris with its mantle. The branches of the trees in the Luxembourg gardens were bowed under its weight. The Grand Bassin, that octagonal pond where other more privileged children sailed small boats on summer days, was frozen over. The Notre Dame rising above the silent streets looked like a giant iced cake.      These children of the Marais scarcely left their district, they had little money but ...

7 likes 4 comments 4

Read story