athesaurus.com

…breathe deeply and often…

  • Former Student, Shawn…Cool Kid

    Shawn will always be one of my kids, even though he’s been a grown-assed man for at least thirty years now. I remember certain students for random reasons. Shawn was a twin, a brilliant one. Blonde, nice looking, a sweeter young man with manners you’d never meet. He was a creative writer, but he’d never… Read more

  • Multiples

    I don’t know what kind of magic is in a twin, but I know there’s more power in it than science can explain. Read more

  • Big Tears…

    He was matter of fact, but I was shaking in my boots. I didn’t see this day coming so soon. Read more

  • Lincoln’s Tophat: One Story

    Late at night, when Abe took off his hat, he crumbled like a cookie in a coffee cup of doubt. Read more

  • My Luxurious Mistake: For Bruce and Gail

    My trip ended too quickly, but before it did, I made a crucial but wonderful mistake. Read more

  • Fire

    I learned a long time ago to hide the things you want most, for those will be taken from you first. Read more

  • Norris and the Easter Bunny

    Norris heard the rustling in the living room last night before I did. Thinking the worst, he leapt out of bed, and snagged my cheek with his back claw, narrowly missing my eye. Blood poured from the gash he left. There would be a scar. Dammit Norris. While he hotfooted it to the stirring in…

  • The Shade Room

    I am simple. I go to my shade room. It would be a sun room if there were no giant oaks and holly trees covering its porch and backyard. Moss, hostas, ferns and begonias grow there, as well as my bed of impatiens. Mint, the plant that’s supposed to take over the planet struggles. But…

  • Eavesdropping

    “Martha, I told you I would be late. I’m sorry you’ve got to put the kids to bed by yourself again tonight, I just got on the bus. I can’t teleport very well,” I could tell this well dressed, dark haired, professional dude, with the chiseled chin sitting beside me on the bus was in…

  • Kindness of Strangers

    Thank God for the kindness of strangers. Little mercies we are grateful for that we often take for granted, like someone holding the door when our arms are full. They’re rarely there at 6:00 a.m. I had my arms full. My teacher bag was draped across my left arm with my coffee in my hand,…

  • Tornado Sirens

    I was so glad to be home. The kids at school couldn’t have jumped any higher or harder on my last nerves. Our classroom was big enough to accommodate three times as many students, between their loud voices and their perpetually moving bodies they took up every square inch of it. Getting them in their…