Fresh Apples

This is Rachel Trezise's first short fiction collection. Her novel In and Out of the Goldfish Bowl won the Orange Futures Award. Her stories and features on rock bands, writing and the arts have appeared widely in publication and anthologies, including the Big Issue, New Welsh Review and Urban Welsh.

Sarah's not abnormal or ugly, just a little bit fat, and she's got cerebral palsy. "No way was it rape or even molestation… she's fourteen, not a child. I'm not a paedophile." Gemma's mother had shagged Tom Jones. Nobody really knew who her father was, least of all her mother. Spiderman doesn't want to inflict his petty thief persona on self-contained Caitlin, but he finds himself getting off at her stop. When her grand-dad's chickens start to peck each other, sounding like death warming up, 'Chelle rings one of their necks and ends up doing worse. Her gentle, exact punishment is met with even greater respect for the old man.