Tag: life
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But I don’t want to
“Are you still working? Why don’t you retire?” Everybody wanted to know because of the silver hair and wrinkles. Fred asked at the wrong time. Janice was tired and not in the mood. He thought women were silly. He retired early five years ago. “Why? Do you need someone to…
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Ginger Tom
Geraldine didn’t appreciate that stray yellow cat that dropped her kitten at the front door. There it was though, eyes open, wobbly legged, barely weaned, and yellow as its mama. She thought of just sweeping it off the porch like trash. What else could it eat besides milk? Shit. She’d…
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January 6
In a flash of inspiration, Cynthia decided to celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany. She’d had a vision of the three wise men giving their gifts to the Christ child and decided it would be fun to have a small Christmas today. She was sure to get an eye roll…
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Time is a bootlegged curse
Who would have thought a six year old would put a curse on a toybox, but he did. Ian wrote “This toybox is cursed” on the lid of a round cheese wheel box in permanent black marker. He’d given warning, especially to his brother Nick, to leave his stuff alone. …
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The Last Goodbye
Jill set up the tea table for her and Alan. It was the most romantic spot she had ever seen. It was stupid to put it in a field of perfect spheres of ripe round seeds, ready to blow away at the slightest breeze. Nothing stays the same. It wasn’t…
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Flying Through Snow
When there’s a foot of snow on the ground one cannot always count on a garbage bag to carry one to the bottom of a perfect and steep hill, not even with a head start. The snow was hard powder and ripe for sledding. A black trash bag had been…
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Trick or Treat Ghost
“Stop, I lost my shoe,” Bonnie said. She was crying. It was pitch dark and we were in the middle of a flower bed in somebody’s front yard. There were four of us. Bonnie was the tiniest five year old I knew. She looked about three and was just as…
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Velvet Heart
Janet stood in front of the mirror and admired herself. The twenty-pound weight loss looked good in the deep red velvet dress she wore. It hugged her waist, plunged at the neck, and flounced from a complete circle to the floor. It was the dress of her dreams, and she…
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Remembering Elouise on Her Birthday
Elouise, tall and elegant, shrank to five foot nothing by the time she died at seventy-seven. Her youngest daughter, Dagmar, stayed all night with her the day before she died and dreamed of Grandma, Elouise’s mom, that night. She called me that morning to tell me all about it. “I…
Devonne Brown 