Liars' League

Me and my Shadow by Kurt Tidmore

Click to play MP3 of Me and my Shadow

 Read by David Mildon

When I first started chasing bail-skippers for George he used to put me with this guy named Fred sometimes. I think he did it partly because he thought we looked funny together. I was nineteen and five-five in my bare feet and weighed maybe one-forty the day after Thanksgiving. Fred was pushing sixty, probably stood six-four or -five and weighed an easy four hundred pounds. I remember when George introduced us he said, “He’s not quick, but he’s steady.” I never knew if he was talking to me or Fred.

 

Bay and Michelle by Regina Freedman

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Read by Sarah Le Fevre

Arif had got Bay the Ford Orion as soon as he came out of Belmarsh. “Got a good deal from Madhouse Cars,” he’d told him. “They said, as it was for you, they’d be very happy to sort you out.”  New wheels, new hanging dice, Michelle and Bay on a strip across the windscreen. Sorted. Life was good. That was one of the best things that had happened after getting out; getting the car.

“You want a job?” Arif had asked on the Friday. “I got a passenger wants to go Heathrow.”

That had been wicked, watching the planes land. A free man.

 

The Donkey by Atar Hadari

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Read by Will Everett

You want the air conditioning on? We can put it on. I don’t mind the extra petrol. We fixed a price, it’s ok. We want to both be in one piece when we get there and not sweaty. Your wife’s asleep in back, already? Let her sleep. There, air conditioning. If you want something here you have to ask. God, I’m tired.

I had three trucks, on this road. Owned them. Used to do this trip, up and down, Afula to Jerusalem. Every day, full of paper, going to Jerusalem, seven times a week. And then this fuck with his bombs came and – this isn’t my truck. I lease this truck. Three trucks I had – gone. Sold. Did I keep the money? You’re a funny guy.

 

Slippage by Joan Taylor-Rowan

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Read by Cliff Chapman

You could hear yourself think in Wapping. It was peaceful, everything as it should be – no thronging streets like Whitechapel or Shoreditch. In his top floor purpose-built apartment (not flat – not in Wapping), the traffic was barely a hum.  That's why he had moved here – the old had been swept away.  The facades might acknowledge the past with the gloss-painted pulleys idling under the eaves but that was just for effect, suggesting an urban grittiness that Ian was glad no longer existed.

And then, one morning, everything slipped.

 

Grievous Bodily Harm by Deirdre Shanahan

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Read by Sophie Morris-Sheppard

We kept meeting the couple from Bournemouth in the bar, every evening during Happy Hour.

"Can we sit here?" Cheryl whimpered.

Other hotel guests drifted in; the pair from Manchester whose voices echoed, the redhead with the small husband, the tall German boy and his two demure sisters. They had to be sisters from the way they both darted birdlike, for the small pots of jam at breakfast. The others chatted. Cheryl’s husband, Ron, was good with people. He knew the right subjects to talk about; rates, mortgages, the price of properties in England, even those on the coast of Portugal and Spain.              

 

Law & Order stories: bang to rights!

Thanks to everyone who broke their parole (especially our new chums from Meetup) on Tuesday 14th August to attend our Law & Order night, featuring sexually-frustrated social workers, laconic bail-bondsmen, uptight execs, Israeli taxi-drivers, petty criminals, and an exploding donkey.

 

STORIES CHOSEN

Me & My Shadow by Kurt Tidmore, read by David Mildon

Bay & Michelle by Regina Freedman *NEW AUTHOR*, read by Sarah Le Fevre

The Donkey by Atar Hadari *NEW AUTHOR*, read by Will Everett

Grievous Bodily Harm by Deirdre Shanahan *NEW AUTHOR*, read by Sophie Morris-Sheppard

Slippage by Joan Taylor-Rowan, read by Cliff Chapman