Aaron McGregor

This is a story about fear and fate, explored through the experience of both the victim and the perpetrator. A young woman home alone receives a call from a stranger, a young man asking her to the pictures. She declines but later finds the man with a knife standing in her dining room. He wants to have sex with her and seems confused about whether his intentions are brutal or romantic. Seeing his confusion and fear she talks him into letting her go outside to bring the washing. He holds his knife at her back – she realises she has no chance of escape. As they are walking back across the lawn to the house she is stung by a bee. She collapses. Weeping she tells him she is allergic to bees and convinces him to go inside to get vinegar from the kitchen to stop the swelling. As soon as he is out of sight she is up and running in one fluid movement. The intruder is left standing desolate on the lawn with the vinegar bottle – his fantasy unravelled. We find him at the pictures alone.

When a hotel housemaid is dumped by her boyfriend, a guileless bellboy leaps into the breach, helping her see past present heartbreak. Yes, life is full of ups and downs but every moment counts.

In the small Auckland drug scene, a young woman, Jules, finds her life complicated by an unwanted pregnancy. By oscillating between two drug dealers; a younger buyer, Ollie, and her older lover and supplier, Chase, she looks for a male figure to support her.

On a trip to find his birth mother, 18-year-old Aaron is forced to hitch a ride with a rough- looking stranger, Maka. Out of fear, Aaron rejects Maka’s friendship, but when the reunion with his mother doesn’t go quite as planned, he discovers that the stranger may just be the man to help him after all.

Fifteen year-old James has everything before him. The catch? He has to choose between the two things he wants the most: love or mates.