A Stranger Calls For Custard Walker

Our short story of the week is a story about independence by Alexina Dalgetty.

Alexina Dalgetty grew up in Luton, Bedfordshire and moved to Canada as a teenager. She is married and has two young adult children. She discovered Theatre of the Oppressed in university and facilitated T.O. projects with marginalised youth in Edmonton, Alberta. This practice led to her involvement in establishing and administering an alternate and independent high school for youth who have not been successful in other learning environments. Recently she moved to Ontario to run a bed and breakfast and focus on her writing. She remains involved with the school.

Alexina has always been driven to write, even as a child. She has an MFA in playwriting and has had several plays performed, mostly in fringe theatres. She sees the collective creation of T.O. plays and presentations as a natural extension of this passion. Alexina began to write prose about three years ago. She has been shortlisted and longlisted for a variety of prizes, including the TSS short story competition and the Mslexia first novel competition. Recently she has had short pieces published on The Drabble, Reflex fiction, Big Window Review and Flash Fiction Friday.

A Stranger Calls For Custard Walker follows a woman who values her privacy extremely highly.

Enjoy!

‘Custard Walker lived small and private, her life pent up inside self-made borders, pitted by absent dreams and a tough reality.

Custard Walker flickered with a worn beauty, her hair uncurling with time and its red fire fading gently into grey. Her eyes had paled to the colour of lime marmalade. But both eyes and hair retained a hint of spring and glow. And she still looked good in tight jeans and a loose shirt with one too many buttons undone at the neck – the way Custard Walker liked to look.

Custard Walker served beer and liquor and the occasional glass of wine in the Upstairs Bar, which was owned by Tom, who was a good man. The Upstairs Bar was perched on top of the Downstairs Diner in a small town where Custard Walker had lived for longer than any place else.‘ Read more…