Story Mother-in-Law Stories
The Key Is in a Drawer, and Sandra Comes on Tuesdays
Part five of five. What changed after the christening, what did not, and the two times Sandra stood on the step in the rain.
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Human Drama
Everything in this hub is original fiction, written for this site and clearly labelled. We do not lift stories from forums, we do not change three names and call it a reader letter, and we do not put words in real people's mouths. What we do write are proper short stories with a beginning, a turn and an actual ending.
Story Topics in Human Drama
All topics →- Mother-in-Law Stories Original fiction about the relationship nobody chooses and everybody has an opinion about. 5 articles
- Marriage Dilemmas Original short fiction about the decisions long marriages actually turn on. 5 articles
- Relationship Betrayals Original fiction about trust breaking, and what people do in the week afterwards. 5 articles
- Family Secrets Original fiction about the things families keep, and what happens when a document turns up. 5 articles
- Wedding Drama Original fiction about seating plans, speeches, dress codes and the guest list. 5 articles
- Neighbour Drama Original fiction about fences, parking, hedges, bins and the slow escalation of small grievances. 5 articles
- Workplace Drama Original fiction about credit, promotions, the group chat and the person who replies to all. 5 articles
- Inheritance Drama Original fiction about wills, houses, and the objects that turn out to matter more than the money. 5 articles
- Friendship Betrayals Original fiction about thirty-year friendships and the single afternoon that ends them. 5 articles
- Dating After 40 Original fiction about starting again with a mortgage, children and a very clear idea of what you want. 5 articles
Latest in Human Drama
Story Marriage Dilemmas
They Moved in February. Fixing the Tense Took Two Years.
Part five of five. The move was right. That turned out to be the complicating factor rather than the ending.
Story Relationship Betrayals
He Rang on the Twenty-Second of December, on the House Phone
Part five of five. Fifty minutes, standing at the sink with wet hands, and a dead phone in a drawer in the hall that nobody will throw away.
Story Wedding Drama
Tell Me Who Is Not Speaking. I Do Not Need to Know Why.
Part five of five. Who apologised, who never will, and the sentence Erin now says out loud about twice a year.
Story Family Secrets
The Largest Act of Disobedience Available to Her
Part five of five. Her brother thinks the label was cowardice. Gwen does not, and she has worked out exactly why.
Story Workplace Drama
Nothing Dramatic Happened to Karen. It Rarely Does.
Part five of five. What actually changed was smaller than justice and considerably more useful, and it is the reason he gives the advice he gives.
Story Inheritance Drama
What She Kept Was the Royal Doulton. Seventy Pounds the Lot.
Part five of five. The clock is in a private collection in the Netherlands. What Aoife took out of the house was worth nothing at all.
Story Neighbour Drama
Tell Whoever Buys It That the Posts Are Under the Rockery
Part five of five. They did not become friends. It is important to be honest about that, because the version where they do is not what happened.
Story Dating After 40
The Gas Bill Is Still in the Drawer, Under the Takeaway Menus
Part five of five. Her daughter has asked, in Fran’s own tone, what the point is. The answer is not romantic, and it is not about the housework.
Story Friendship Betrayals
Fifty Minutes in a Café Near the Station, and It Was Not a Reconciliation
Part five of five. Both of them said the thing they had come to say. Both things were true. Neither of them fixed anything.