Exclusive short story: Remember To Acknowledge Existence; Poem - Man of 84; Adventures in LovE - part 20 LIVE!: Tales From The UniversE No 37 - this newsletter from Poynton
An arcadia of imagination
Welcome and find 7,000-PLUS stories written since 2002 for The Guardian and Observer HERE
1. Adventures in LovE - out now!!!
My tale of sun-baked romance, crime, dancing, and teenagers Nancy and Joey boosting 1,000 ecstasy tablets from Lancaster’s Mr Big and punting these out and trying to flee to a Balearic isle for the rest of their lives is LIVE. 1st week FREE; 20th part AVAILABLE NOW (each week there is a PDF of the story so far for new readers).
Purchase an annual subscription to my Substack for £50 (10% cheaper than monthly) and receive a free autographed copy of my first novel, Night Time Cool.
2.
Remember To Acknowledge Existence
‘Christmas in the village was coming’
Baller Skies liked the month of November. The leaves were golden brown, skies a tawny parade and the village began to move towards Christmas. The season began in mid-November and ran until, oh, let’s say, the end of the first week of January.
So, ahead, were close to two months of festive frolicking.
And frolicking was what Baller was about. You could say it defined him. And a devotee like Baller who frequented the hostelries of the village close to full-time meant he knew the best season to be frolicking.
And this was the yuletide one which, Baller hoped, might begin this morning in the hostelry known as Acoustic Lounge.
Baller Skies in his yellow woollen V-neck knotted at the neck. Ralph Lauren chinos. Timberland boating shoes. Visage that aged like his finest memories.
Baller rode his tractor from the farm out of its meadowlands in Woodford up to Poynton. He parked across from the Acoustic Lounge. It was 11am sharp, the doors open ready for trade, and Baller was the first customer.
He went inside and ordered a pint of Hells and took this and went and sat at his favourite table by his favourite window that ran street level so he could watch the village go by.
Not the village, no.
Potential frolickers to frolic with.
Here came the first group.
Three of them, around late 30s or a bit older.
Dressed specially. Expensively. Made up as if off to the opera.
This was their opera. The bar of the Acoustic Lounge, 11.10am, 13 November, 2023.
And it was his Carnegie Hall as Baller Skies understood occasion and performance like Judy Garland, The Beatles, Anton Dvorak.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Tales From The UniversE to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.