Short Story: Gina by Alex Burford/The Reading Room by Jen Michaelski

I read Gina by Alex Burford and The Reading Room by Jen Michaelski at Pindedyboz online, another site with good short story collection. Don't forget to check the archives.

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The Reading Room by Jen Michaelski

A lady is reading aloud slowly from a periodical in a library. The senior librarian informs the supervisor about after much buzz amongst the librarians. She arrives and tells that she is not to read aloud in the library. The lady is flustered and says she is not doing anything wrong. But the supervisor asks her to accompany her. She is led to "a dark basement that smelled of old books and wet paper" where three children are sitting on the floor, reading. The supervisr asks her to read for them and walks out locking the door. Looking at the children, the lady wonders if they are going to eat her. They look so hungry.

"She looked back at the children. She could sense, with a shivering degree of certainty, that they were hungry."

Reading this very short story, I felt a chill run down my spine. How did the children come about? Why were they locked from outside? What was expected of the lady? Why was she too locked in?
Do read The Reading Room by Jen Michaelski

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Gina by Alex Burford

It s a short short story. One cannot put any kind of classification to it. It is about Gina, who I understand works in a club, probably dancing. The narrator wants to have sex with her. He takes her along. She falls asleeep in his car. He looks at her, thinks of her family and pushes her out of the car letting her lie on the road. Ater a while he does come back for her, although he knows she won't have sex with hm.

"Gina and I are not friends."

Why did he think that? He wants to believe a lot of sereotyped stuff about Gina but she is not what he wants her to be. She is very different. To know about her, read Gina...