Chapter 1-- Shuffling and stepping sounds from multiple feet, in concert with sharp, echoing loudspeakers, fill the air. Then there is the shushing sound of the pneumatic doors. Marisol feels a little shock in her back when the train sets off to leave Pamplona station. It is a five-hour ride to Barcelona, but it is worth it, no doubt. The platform slowly glides by on the silent and smooth drum of the train, while a happy...

Chapter 1-- “Let’s see, accounts payable: 155,241.” The numbers in the bookkeeping are dancing in front of my eyes, while my thoughts can’t help but drift away to the brand-new present I have been given. I sigh in exhilaration. The thrill I felt yesterday when I received my long-awaited delivery, hurriedly skidding it into my bedroom to unbox it, this extraordinary and yet scary device. My hand unconsciously doodles curvy...

She looks up at the old standing clock. Tick, tick, tick, it goes, as the brass pendulum swings slowly left and right, telling stories about events passed by. It is the first summer of the new millennium, a special year, which gives reason to contemplate. Through the window next to the clock, she sees a far steady queue of cars sliding by over the long straight road. The green fields of Ontario reach as far as the horizon...

The card machine accepts my card with a beep. I am just in time to hold on to a bar, as the tram sets into motion before I have reached a free seat. Line 4 shocks and squeals its way through a sharp curve. My destination is Rooseveltlaan, one of the avenues in Amsterdam-South, a 20-minute ride. Luckily, there is still a free seat in the middle of the busy tram. Nineteen years old and filled with enthusiasm, I love my new...

-Chapter 1 -- The authoritarian hand slaps hard on her tight skirt, while she is standing bent over the desk, her eyes in anxious anticipation for the next swat. I remember all the details of the movie as if it were yesterday. I still lived with my parents when I watched it on television while my dad and ma were away on a birthday visit. I squirm on my chair, thinking back to how much the movie turned me on. The secretary...

1928, Oxfordshire The 17th of July: The Rolls Royce crunches its way over the gravel, as the manor house rises in front of me. New things are about to happen in the turbulence of youth. This spring, I celebrated my nineteenth birthday and I am excited about heading for a major step in my life. James, the butler, is already awaiting me to open the door with a bow, while servants rush by to take care of my overloaded luggag...