Stairs aren't a problem

                    Stairs aren't a problem as long as you stick to the rules.





It was always left foot first for Kathleen. On small step at a time but always the left foot first because that's the way it had always been.




And then there were doorhandles. The briefest of touches. A tap of a finger would do but it was important, potentially life threatening. She knew the kind of terrors that awaited her if there wasn't that touch on the handle before leaving a room or that left foot first on the stairs.

Small things but important things.Anything to avoid that phone call in the middle of the night or that knock on the door. She had learned the hard truth at an early age.





When she was eight she would always avoid the red flags on the playground


until one day her foot slipped. None of the other kids noticed anything out out the ordinary but at that very moment the Earth stopped spinning, the ground fell from beneath her feet and her father decided that she was old enough.







                                                 (C)  Ally Atherton 2014



                                                                                 180 Words





I wrote this for  Sunday Photo Fiction. A new writing challenge that I have stumbled upon.