She Picks Up The Cat

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Our story of the week is survival story from the writer Dr Hannah Stevens.

Hannah Stevens has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Leicester. She writes short stories and flash fiction. Hannah’s work has been featured in numerous anthologies, magazines and literary journals. She also teaches creative writing workshops in a range of educational settings and the community.

Hannah is a writer currently based in Leicester, UK and lives with her house-rabbit Agatha. When not writing, she works part-time in the voluntary sector.

In She Picks Up The Cat, Hannah writes about one of the terrifying moments we all hope never to experience.

Enjoy!

She picks up the cat, climbs the stairs and closes the bathroom door softly behind her. She puts him down and slides the lock into place. He pads about on the lino and looks at her. She knows he doesn’t like the coolness beneath his paws but, for now, he will have to be patient. She runs the hot tap and steam begins to cloud the mirror above the sink.

The website says: Pack an emergency bag for yourself and hide it somewhere safe. She wiggles the bath panel loose, slides it out enough to fit her arm inside the gap and searches for the material of the bag. There, it’s in her hand and she pulls it out.

Be prepared to leave the house in an emergency. She isn’t sure exactly what this means, though she has money on her at all times, like it says. Change for the phone, for bus fares. It’s inside her bra.

She can hear the banging downstairs, the crockery smashing. She imagines the shards of blue plates joining the broken glass dish, the teapot, the coffee cups.Read more…

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