The Great Collection of Short Stories

By K Kotun

A vibrant collection of short stories set across continents: from a bustling hot African market to cool north London:
A woman is kidnapped and her life is changed for ever..
A boy witnesses a crime and finds out that not everyone is who they seem...
A woman falls in love, but has to fight her own family to experience lasting happiness...
Three females are determined that this will be the last time...
The secrets of a dynasty are exposed...
A woman, a man and his son...and love...
A young woman is determined to protect her family from any more pain...

• Language: English
• Publisher: K Kotun
• Release date: Aug 24, 2012
• ISBN: 9780957385900

K Kotun

K Kotun is a fiction writer and an eBook author, and has been writing both fiction and poetry for many years; her poetry has been published in anthologies in Europe. K Kotun enjoys writing about characters taken from various walks of life and she includes them in different genre's such as suspense, thrillers and romance. K Kotun lives in London, United Kingdom.

Book preview

The Great Short Story Collection

By

K Kotun

Copyright 2011 by Kemi Kotun

Smashwords Edition

ISBN 978-0-9573859-0-0

http://www.kkotun-author.com

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Face Fact

The Unlikely Offender

Small Divide

The Last One

Cameron

No Substitute

ABI

About the Author

Face Fact

A woman is kidnapped. In exchange for her life; she has to play a major role, literally, in a plan that has already been set in motion. The events that follow change her life completely…

The woman was swift; moving from customer to counter and back again. Every so often, she brushed her overgrown fringe away from her eyes as she bent down to take orders. She dropped her notepad into the pocket of her coffee stained apron and rested her elbows on the counter.

‘Phew! Rest, at last Mike...’

‘Only for a second Cherie,’ Mike replied as he nodded, ‘that fella in the corner is beckoning with his eyes.’ Cherie turned; the man sat with his elbows on the table, fingers intertwined, looking straight at her.

‘I must have missed him,’ Cherie said, pushing herself away from the counter.

She stood in front of him; pencil poised over notepad.

‘An espresso please,’ the man said.

‘Certainly,’ she said, hesitating a while, ‘anything else?’

The man shook his head.

She hurried back to the counter.

‘Ouch!’

‘Has he got the bluest eyes you’ve ever seen or what?’

‘Oh Maggie! You made me jump,’ Cherie said.

‘Huh, huh, he’s gorgeous, let me serve his order,’ Maggie elbowed Cherie gently in the back.

‘Huh, I didn’t notice his eyes, and no you can’t; go and serve your own customers,’ Cherie replied.

‘Something wrong Cherie?’ Mike asked, smiling at her.

‘No Mike, I’m fine. Just pass me the order.’

********

Cherie walked up Golders Green high street in north-west London towards the North End road junction, and stopped dead in her tracks; it was the man from the café.

‘Hi, my name’s Richard. Call me Rich. You certainly work long hours, I’ve been hanging around waiting for you to finish and, my feet are aching.’

‘Why?’ she asked, holding his gaze.

‘Why do you think? What’s your name?’ he asked, smiling at her as they came to cross the main road, ‘You know mine.’

‘Why would I tell a total stranger my name?’ she asked, tilting her head back to look up at him.

‘I could find out easily enough but, I thought I should ask you first,’ he replied, smiling.

She quickened her steps and then began a slow run.

‘That’s my bus,’ Cherie said, as she crossed the road and got on the 460 to Willesden without looking back.

*********

Cherie opened her front door; she threw her handbag on the sofa, narrowly missing her cat.

‘Hey wake up sleepy, Mama’s home,’ Cherie laughed as her cat yawned and stretched. ‘Mama’s been busy working hard, what have you been doing all day?’ she asked as she sat down on the couch, stroking his head as he curled up in her lap, ‘Another lonely evening on our own, huh? Just the two of us for dinner.’ She picked up the remote control, switching on the TV.

‘I’ll watch the news and then rustle up something to eat.’

*********

The next morning, Cherie fed her cat and made herself some scrambled eggs on toast.

She put on her brown uniform, threw a light weight jacket over it, then, pulled her hair up into a ponytail.

Cherie bent down and picked Tiddles up.

‘Please, please stop scratching the sofa Tiddles,’ she said stroking his head. ‘I know it’s like asking you not to purr, but Mrs. Tandy, the landlady, is not very happy with us,’ she said, laughing. ‘Oh my goodness Tiddles! I wonder who that could be at this time of the morning.’

Still holding Tiddles, Cherie opened the front door and dropped Tiddles; his high screech penetrating the darkness as the floor rose up to meet her!

********

‘She’s waking up; both of you clear out,’ a man’s voice said. ‘Would you like some water Cherie? It will help get rid of that acrid taste in your mouth.’

‘Get your hands off me!’ Cherie screamed.

‘I’m trying to stop you from…, you will fall off the couch.’ The same voice said.

She raised her hand as if to cover her face. ‘What’s that?’ Cherie asked, ‘the sound, what is it?

‘It’s a fan. Don’t be afraid Cherie; open your eyes,’ the voice continued, fingers gently lifting her face, ‘that’s better, much better Cherie.’ He paused, shaking his head, ‘uncanny, truly uncanny, don’t you think so Rosa?’ He took a deep breath, ‘As if she were cloned.’

‘Don’t get too excited about the girl, Antonio my love, you know what jealousy does to me, hmm, you know,’ the woman called Rosa purred.

‘Calm down my love, absolutely nothing to be jealous of; I’m excited about one thing only - the plan’s back on track,’ Antonio replied, not taking his eyes off Cherie.

Antonio turned his wooden chair around and sat down; legs akimbo, arms resting on the back of the chair in front of Cherie as he continued to stare at her.

Cherie shifted and looked away. He reached out to touch her face once again, but this time, she moved.

‘Oh, it’s okay, I need you, and like I said, will not hurt you. You are vital to the success of our plans,’ he smiled as he finished his sentence.

Cherie stared at his face; his teeth were a brilliant white, his dark eyes almost black, as they caught the light from the single light bulb above, high cheekbones, a short straight nose, and a full lower lip.

Rosa coughed twice.

Cherie turned her attention to the woman he had called Rosa.

Rosa stood by the only exit; arms crossed over her breasts; eyes levelled on Cherie. She had on tight white ski pants that stretched across her hips and an equally tight blouse; her long straight blond hair flowed all the way down her back. She was tall; almost as tall as the man called Antonio.

‘Let me explain this to you as simply as I can,’ Antonio said, ‘you are going to make a video for us Cherie, what I mean is, you are going to be in a video that we are going to record, only thing is; you will not be Cherie in the video, you will be this woman.’ He reached out and the woman, Rosa, placed a 10x8 inch sized photograph into his hand. He lifted it up in front of Cherie, holding it on either side with his thumb and forefinger.

Cherie stared at the photograph, her