Summary: Laxmi looked outside the window and her eyes could cover the entire bed of sky with stars gleaming and protruding rays of light, as if to bless her on this auspicious occasion of her marriage. She looked beautiful, although it was a bit irksome to adorn a heavy sari, embellished with gold plated embroidery. It was her marriage after all and brides were expected to showcase their ornaments and clothes to fetch the glances of the guests. Laxmi never wanted to get married so early at a tender age of eighteen. But her family's resistance to her idle gallivanting in the house made her endorse the marriage proposal. She wanted to study and be educated like her brothers but this life had snatched away her will to learn and gain knowledge. It was a family tradition of not sending girls to school and getting them married, before the society raised their fingers on the girl's unmarried status.

Categories: Wyndz picks Characters: None
Genres: None Warnings: None
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 1 Completed: Yes Word count: 1984

Summary: A man sits quietly in his bedroom, holding a gun in one hand. He gets up and walks towards a window, looking out at a little boy running around in his backyard. He takes a deep breath and walks back to the bed and sits. He slowly raises the gun and points the barrel to his head. His hands begin to tremble, as his finger slowly starts to squeeze the trigger.

Categories: Wyndz picks Characters: None
Genres: None Warnings: None
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 1 Completed: No Word count: 724

Summary: I have to admit that horses are not my favourite animals. The old adage "dangerous at both ends, and uncomfortable in the middle", summed them up perfectly as far as I was concerned.

So, when it was suggested that we should give up a day's hiking through the rain forest surrounding the lodge we were staying at, in favour of a days horse riding, I was sceptical.

Categories: Wyndz picks Characters: None
Genres: None Warnings: None
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 1 Completed: Yes Word count: 971

Summary: Four decades ago, when I was young and stupid and didn't know a baby from a wormy kapusta, according to my Polish mother, I gave birth to a tiny damaged boy on my kitchen table. Just out of high school, I was working in a fertilizer factory and writing earnestly to reshape myself in the image and likeness of George Eliot.

Categories: Wyndz picks Characters: None
Genres: None Warnings: None
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 1 Completed: No Word count: 930

Summary: Michael pushed Fariel away. "This is Heaven," he said. "Since when did an angel play a cello?"

Fariel took a step backwards and slipped on a discarded piece of manna. He hit the floor hard and felt a shooting pain as a muscle in his left wing tore. He felt tears welling in his eyes. "Since now?" he said. "Music is music, surely? If it's played from the heart it must be to the glory of God."

Michael sneered. "We don't want your stinking cello music," he said. "Nobody likes it."

"Surely that's not true." Fariel raised himself onto one knee. "What does God say?"

"Are you calling me a liar?" Michael stabbed a finger in Fariel's direction. "You're calling me a liar." He shouted across the clouds. "Gabriel! This dog-brain is calling me a liar."

Fariel stood up as the seraph strode over.

Gabriel looked Fariel up and down. "What is he?" he asked Michael. "I see wings. I see robes, but I don't see no respect."

"I'm a grigori," Fariel stammered. "There aren't many of us left."

Gabriel pushed him. "That's because we kicked all your dumb-ass brothers out," he said.

"There's a reason why heaven is so popular." Michael pushed him again. "It's because there are no cellos here."

Fariel fell.

Categories: Wyndz picks Characters: None
Genres: None Warnings: None
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 1 Completed: Yes Word count: 1459