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    Numbers
    Numbers
    Numbers
    Ebook79 pages1 hour

    Numbers

    By Ruth Partis

    ()

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    About this ebook

    ‘Numbers’ is the third book of short stories and poems written by Ruth Partis. She is very grateful to the Sheppey Writers Group for their encouragement and continual nagging without which this book would never have been completed. (And probably not even started.)
    Ruth is also grateful to TAUP UK Publishing who have turned her work into what she hopes is a presentable volume.
    Most of the contents are published for the first time, but there a few favourites deemed worthy of another view.
    Ruth’s stories tend to be very short enabling the reader to re-read them easily or indeed read them aloud to someone else.
    Ruth’s two previous publications ‘The Incomplete Works of Ruth Partis’ and ‘My sister’s Shoes’ were very well received and are still available (as of 2015).

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPeter Apps
    Release dateDec 1, 2015
    ISBN9781311276209
    Numbers
    Author

    Ruth Partis

    Ruth Partis has been writing stories and poems most of her life, but her work was only suitable for publication with the invention of the word processor and the spell check. Now retired from her work in education and journalism she is discovering the joys of being a grandmother. Ruth has a very supportive husband and three grown-up children of whom she is justifiably proud. She has lived on the Isle of Sheppey for more than forty years, but can still get lost due to her appalling sense of direction.

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      Book preview

      Numbers - Ruth Partis

      Numbers

      Ruth Partis

      Copyright © 2015 Ruth Partis

      ISBN: 978-1-3112762-0-9

      This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, situations and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

      Published by TAUP UK at Smashwords

      Published in the United Kingdom

      TAUP UK

      Sheerness

      Kent

      enquiries@taup.uk

      Table of Contents

      AGM -The Minutes of the Meeting

      Boys in the Band

      Chicken

      Daffodils

      Ellen’s Friend

      Five Hundred Words

      Gamble (an outside chance)

      He used to buy me roses

      Isis, the Witch’s Cat

      Juggling the Sponsorship.

      Keeping the Secrets of Broadway

      Listening Place

      Merman

      Numbers

      One-armed Bandit

      Poem and Story – The Witch Is Dead

      Questions from the Beach

      RT - The Cat who isn’t Basil

      She Held Him

      The Road

      Under my bed.

      Vikings - Another poem and story.

      Waiting

      X

      Yuletide Story

      Zebras and Tigers

      AGM -The Minutes of the Meeting

      The President of the WI adjusted her hat and stood to address the meeting.

      ‘Welcome everyone. Firstly I must apologise for the secretary’s and the treasurer’s absence tonight.’

      ‘I also regret that none of the committee and very few of the members are here, it was a waste to book the school hall really.’

      ‘Before I continue, I would like the meeting minuted.’ she looked around her, ‘Oh dear, I’ll have to write them myself wont I?’

      ‘Anyway, I would like it minuted, that if any food is left over and taken home for future use, it must only be by members who have freezers.’

      ‘I hate to speak ill of the dead, but I do think that Mrs Parkinson could have told us that the mince pies left over from the Christmas party were only stored in Tupperware until the Harvest Supper. I’m sure that the rest of the committee, when they come out of hospital, will agree with me.’

      ‘I am not going to ask members to stand for two minutes silence in memory of all those who have died, as I’m hoping to get the meeting over in time to watch ‘Crimewatch’ as I understand we’re going to get a special mention.’

      ‘I’m afraid I don’t have the minutes of the last meeting, as the book was destroyed, along with everything else, in the unfortunate fire that we had in the village hall during our last meeting. Various people in the village have taken the opinion that ‘How to be a Fire Eater’ was not a suitable talk and demonstration for the WI. I have had to point out that we are all here to be educated, and if we don’t try different skills, how will we know that they are unsuitable.’

      ‘I have received a charming letter from the Chief Fire Officer thanking us for the tea that we gave his men while they were fighting the blaze. He adds that it was not our fault at all that the wind changed and burnt out the whole High Street while they were drinking it.’

      ‘I would like to thank Mrs Jolly and Mrs Jones for the speed in which they got the tea urn out of the hall; it was in fact the only thing saved from the whole place. I understand from Mrs Jolly’s son that she hopes to have the bandages off in a few weeks.’

      ‘The secretary phoned me from her hospital bed this morning and tended her resignation, but I’m sure she will re-consider once the botulism starts to respond to treatment.’

      ‘The treasurer, who like me doesn’t eat mince pies, appears to be on holiday. I had hoped that she would be here tonight, but this morning I received a postcard from Spain from her. Sadly all the records of the WI’s bank account were destroyed in the fire, but it looks like we are going to be busy fund-raising this Autumn, as the bank tells me that we have only 28p in our current account. They also insist that we do not have a deposit account. These banks can be so unhelpful, just because we have lost all the records in a fire.’

      ‘ If indeed we do only have 28p in the bank I am a little puzzled as there was at least £600 pounds in the account this time last year and we have been quite successful with our fund-raising. I recall that sales of cakes went very well at the Harvest Supper, certainly all the mince pies went at 20p each, and no-one asked for a refund.’

      ‘I know that we did incur expenses on our outing to Brighton last month, when the driver was incapable of driving and we had to get the train home. I had understood that the money was to be re-funded by the coach company, but perhaps it hasn’t arrived yet.’

      ‘I still don’t know what was wrong in giving the man his tip of a bottle of whiskey when we arrived in Brighton. I know he was distressed by our singing,

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