AudreyStories

English Fiction 1. "Storks in Serbia". This is my first English Podcast. I speak Afrikaans as a first language and I write in Afrikaans. This story was published in South Africa in the magazine SARIE. I wrote this in Serbia, in the town of Mokrin, when I visited a family in 2010. There are really massive lamp posts in Mokrin, and there are storks on most of them. They sit in nests. I have 4 children. One day, I sat under a stork. I had a chat with this stork to clearly explain that I did not want any more children (you all know that storks bring babies, right? The people of Serbia found my chat with storks on lamp post hilarious. But -- this story "Storks in Serbia" was the "baby" the storks brought me on that day. I want to dedicate this first English story to my friend, Linda Weed, for her encouragement to speak in English. Without her, every Podcast would still be in Afrikaans.

This version of the story "Carmen Lombardi" has a music and sound effect track added. Bedtime Stories for Adults: set in Italy. Carmen was born invisible. She was child number 5 of 9 children of the famous Lombardi family in Italy. The Lombardi family was genetically superior. Lucky children born into this bloodline, soon showed traits and talents of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Marco Polo, or Dante. Since the 1500's, every generation brought at least one genius.

Music clips from Pixabay Free Music. Thank you to all contributing artists:

"Frost Waltz " by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
"Lone Harvest" by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
"Let the mystery unfold" and "Hiding place in the forest" : Music by Geoffrey Harvey from Pixabay
"Sad piano atmosphere no pad" by Musictown from Pixabay
"Waltz for Piano and Violin" by Music For Videos from Pixabay
"Peaceful Classical Piano And Violin" and "Sad Melodic Classical Waltz" by Ashot-Danielyan-Composer from Pixabay
"For When It Rains" Music by Juan Sanchez from Pixabay
"Moonlight Sonata" Music by 23843807 from Pixabay

Bedtime Stories for Adults: set in Italy. Carmen was born invisible. She was child number 5 of 9 children of the famous Lombardi family in Italy. The Lombardi family was genetically superior. Lucky children born into this bloodline, soon showed traits and talents of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Marco Polo, or Dante. Since the 1500's, every generation brought at least one genius.

11. ENGLISH. BEDTIME STORIES FOR ADULTS. 11. "X marks the Spot." Rio de Janeiro. Brazil. Perdo Maria Boss had a secret. A dream. Much too big, and overly ambitious. He wanted to impress Princess Isabela of Portugal and asked her for money for his project. She said, "No." This priest died with a no, no, no and a no. Yet, "X marked the Spot" for where he wanted his dream to stand. Nobody knows his name in the big story about something rather magnificent. Let me tell you about the dream of Father Pedro Maria Boss.

Episode 4: ENGLISH. BEDTIME STORIES FOR ADULTS. 4. "The Listener." Ecuador. Our story waits in Ecuador, in a tiny town against the western slope of a majestic mountain. Six extraordinary girls live here. There was a terrible cyclone the year of their birth and everybody believed that this storm blew in six special talents.

10. ENGLISH. BEDTIME STORIES FOR ADULTS. 10. "The Brave Bridge." Mostar. Bosnia. Once upon a time, in 1555 to be exact, there was an architect named Mimar. He was very talented, and a little arrogant. He told his friends that he would build something spectacular one day. His dream came true when Suleiman the Magnificent commissioned him to rebuild the wooden bridge over the Neretva river.

Mimar was delighted. He hurried to the river and then … burst out in tears. “It’s 1555, for goodness sake! Impossible. The span is 30 meters. It cannot be done. No …!”
Suleiman the Magnificent said: “I say yes! If you do not build a bridge with the limestone from the hills, I will kill you in a very cruel way.” Suleiman was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire with a very bad reputation for gruesome executions,

9. ENGLISH. BEDTIME STORIES FOR ADULTS. 9. "The Chef on the Ship. 1521. Mexico. Our story sails on a ship in the year 1521. Hernán Cortés is 19 and on his way to conquer and command for Spain. On his ship is an important man: the chef Martin. He is also on a quest -- not for a medal, but for spices and herbs. In Mexico, Martin and the local chefs trade recipes and share secrets. The Mexican chef makes the best dish. It contains a delectable spice. Paprika. Martin takes it back to Spain, plants it and after his first harvest he trades with a Turkish chef.

5. ENGLISH. BEDTIME STORIES FOR ADULTS. 5. "Aurora Borealis." Teenagers find it hard to immigrate. In this story, Carissa stays with her piano teacher in Canada while her parents urgently go back to South Africa for 6 weeks. "I did not want to immigrate! South Africa did not bother me! I want to go home." I lived in a small town in Canada for the first 4 years after immigrating to Canada from South Africa. Those were hard years, we struggled, our 4 children struggled. I had to leave my one daughter in Canada to attend to a family matter in South Africa. This story is for her. I am South African. The Aurora Borealis is one of the most magical things on earth.

"The Not-so-Secret Suitcase". Cuba. Aug 13. 2016. There is a 90th birthday celebration for Fidel Castro in the town of Santa Clara, Cuba. Maricela is having a mini-nervous breakdown. A total stranger — a tourist, called Linette, is on her way to see Maricela, to give her a massive black suitcase. Everybody knows. In Cuba, that is a bad thing. Linette gets onto a bus in the beach/tourist district of Varadero. All the other tourists on the bus are going to the museum of Che Guevara. Not Linette. She is on a frantic search to find a specific Cuban woman. Nobody know why. But the Neighborhood Watch in Cuba? They're waiting, watching and wishing for the event to take place.
**I went to Santa Clara on Fidel Castro's 90th birthday: 13 August 2016. I had a bag filled with gifts to give away. I did. (And I am not Linette. But a fabulous story waited under a tree in this town. All the other tourists went to the museum of Che Guevara. I sat under that tree covered with pink flowers and all the neighbors watched and whispered and waited...)

I travelled on my own to a small village in the mountains of Mexico: San Sebastian del Oeste. I wanted to stay. I had to leave. Therefore—the story of somebody who also wanted to stay, and could. "Katerina liked the name of the town, so she stayed. The road to town had washed away during the rainy season of August and September. She wrote pages and pages of piano music..."