Mark Bilsborough writes odd and sightly unsettling stories from the English countryside, where he dreams of time travel and alternate worlds. You can find more of his work at Every Day Fiction, The Colored Lens, Electric Spec and elsewhere. His occasionally updated website is www.markbilsborough.com and on Twitter he’s @MarkBils.
Aja
My parents called me Jacob but you can call me Jimmy, which means the same if you know your derivations but comes without the religious baggage. I’m here in the remote end of nowhere because of my parents, since never-amount-to-anything isn’t something they want to have their faces rubbed in on a daily basis. So they pray for me and I get drunk and try to forget. One day they’ll cut off my trust fund. Then I’ll just get drunk some more.