Author Archives: Ansel Tan

Originally Published April 30, 2019 The year is 1954. It was a dark and frigid August day in Nizhny Novgorod, USSR, and the clocks were just striking six. The grey stone Soviet blocks stretched high into the cloudy sky, forever scarring the city’s skyline with their wretched ugliness. The concrete roads, overgrown with plants andContinue reading “The Canadian Dream (Канадская мечта)”

Originally Published December 21, 2018 The year is 1943. It’s Christmas Eve, but in Nazi-occupied Paris, Christmas is nothing more than a distant memory. The dark streets were illuminated by small, dim lamp posts with no Christmas lights in sight, the eerie silence loomed over the once bustling city with not even a distant soundContinue reading “Joyeux Nöel”

Originally Published December 6, 2018. I remember it so clearly and vividly, as if it were yesterday. The old, cracked stone walls a dark shade of charcoal, the aged yet polished desks row on row, and the teacher talking away while tapping away on his dark green chalkboard. There I was, sitting quietly and attentivelyContinue reading “Finest Hour”

Originally Published September 20, 2018. 7:30am. The dreaded buzzing sound of John’s alarm clock fills the room, much to John’s disgruntlement. John lies on his bed for a long ten minutes, mindlessly staring at the ceiling as the repetitive buzzing slowly drives him insane. At last, John slumps from the bed like a zombie withContinue reading “The Perfect Storm”

Originally Published April 11, 2018. Battle of the Somme, August 1916. It was a dark, cold evening, and the guns had ceased for the night. The Western Front lit up in conversation with soldiers sitting in the trenches side by side sharing stories and singing songs; these same trenches that rang out in gunshots andContinue reading “A Brotherhood of Heroes”