Pencil in His Hand: A Mother's Journal of Poems, Thoughts, and Stories.

  Cynthia's Confessions A Novelette By Alison Lawrence *** Copyright owner:  Alison Lawrence 2023 Cynthia's Confessions is a fictional work and no resemblance to real people, living or dead is intended. Bible Quotation from: Christian Standard Bible ® Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers Cover photo by: Debby Hudson. Unsplash. *** Dedication: To my aunts. *** Prologue 1938. Wynberg, Cape Town A brilliantly coloured chameleon swayed as he clung to the grapevine which grew in the untidy garden. A bed of tall hollyhocks and asters also vied for Cynthia's attention as she sat writing in the shade of the vine. The slender, dark-haired ten year old wrote conscientiously in the cheap exercise book which served as a diary. She wasn't afraid of the chameleon and decided to do a quick sketch of him once she'd finished writing. Quiet moments like these were a rare treat for Cynthia. Her mother had taken the other six children up the road to visit her sister. Cynthia had...

  WHISPERS OF WALES A NOVELETTE BY ALISON LAWRENCE CHAPTER ONE Ruby merged with the traffic taking the city off ramp. It was a cloudless summer day in Cape Town; Table Mountain was devoid of its famous tablecloth. It felt good to be free on this early December day, with Mercy Me setting the tone with one of their upbeat songs. Ruby's fourth grade class had wished her a happy Christmas and she and they were on holiday until mid January. The traffic light ahead turned red and Ruby tapped her fingers on the steering wheel. She thought of all the things she wanted to do in her off time; cleaning her apartment was on the list, along with shopping and going to the beach, but as far as she was concerned, she had begun with the most pressing item: paying a long -overdue visit to the city archives.                                        It took a few turns around the stately building before R...