Tanja Cilia

“Heard on the Grapevine” by Tanja Cilia

Submitted to Contest #55

“Do let’s!” he said. “It will be fun!” he further encouraged me. I nodded and smiled, as he knew I would. He lobbed a heavy tome, a printout of the “Wine Tourism in Spain” website, at me. “Wine? What’s wine?” I asked, intrigued by the sight of so many funny misshapen trees (“vines” he said) all planted neatly in orderly rows, in one place, rather than growing haphazardly, as they do here on Melita. “You’ll find out soon enough…” he said. Oh, yes. We were, after all, the Ambassadors for our Planet, and we were due to leave in… ten pl...

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“Home Thoughts, From Abroad” by Tanja Cilia

If I could turn back time… I would do it all again, with one minor exception.But let me start at the beginning. I live in The Red Bay - Il-Bajja l-Ħamra as they call it in colloquial Maltese. Actually, it’s Ramla Bay, situated between Xagħra and Nadur, in Gozo, Malta, the archipelago bang in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea.This my abode, a Cave, in the cliff-face facing the bay on its western side, remains mine and mine alone, because I keep out of sight of the madding crowd across the channel.In the future, you will hear of Ho...

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“Diary of a Teenager ” by Tanja Cilia

Submitted to Contest #53

I’m frazzled, and my brain’s fried.How do they expect us to study in this abysmal heat? It’s not as if everyone can afford a summer cottage – or even air conditioning.All this fan is doing is regurgitating the heat, and I cannot open the window because the mozzies will attack.I flunked my maths test… again. How am I going to explain this to my mum? She with the doctorate in Applied Mathematics – she who thinks that I should be able to multiply a three-digit number by another three-digit number, in my mind, like my sisters do?Oh, drat, s...

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“This Side of the Moon” by Tanja Cilia

Submitted to Contest #52

I hid. They found me. “Don’t forget your toothbrush!” the armed guards had joked, after they had escorted me to my apartment, so that I could pack my hand-luggage. I sighed. I’d yet to get used to how my newly-implanted haws functioned. It was a weird sensation, feeling them moving horizontally. I wanted to rub my eyes to get rid of what was not quite an itch… but I knew that my fingernails would probably burst my eyeballs, and where would I be, then? My employers told me that the nictating membrane was just the thing to stop me getting inf...

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“When in Rome... ” by Tanja Cilia

Submitted to Contest #51

You know what they say about truth being stranger than fiction? Well, you can now officially start believing believe that it is true. Having been (successfully!) operated upon for cancer was not enough – I went and caught pneumonia. My friends banded together and pooled their resources, and paid for my trip to Rome, where I was supposed to convalesce and come back to Malta in perfect health. It’s not my fault one of the feral cats in the hotel grounds bit me, and scratched my face, when I went to pet him… but that’s another story for another...

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“Time Waits For No Man ” by Tanja Cilia

Submitted to Contest #49

-        It’s totally bizarre, really. Who would have thought that what she ate would lead them to me? -        Oh, science, these days; it’s almost miraculous. -        I mean, I made sure that the table I chose was one of the two that is not covered by security cameras. Remember, I had worked as a Manager at the Hotel, so I knew all the insider information. -        But surely you ...

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“Superheroine Emily” by Tanja Cilia

Submitted to Contest #48

My real name is Emily Ħaġar; my Superheroine name is Emilymaltija.I am not the only Superheroine, you know – there is a whole camaraderie (good collective noun!) of us… Stephanie Brown, Cassandra Cain, Olga Mesmer, Natasha Irons, Gertrude Yorkes, Jean Grey, Anna Mercury…We all have different superpowers. Some of us can fly; some of us can read people’s minds; some of us can move things with our thoughts, and some of us are incredibly strong.Some of us can breathe underwater; some can fight fire with fire, or water with water. All of us can c...

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