Margaret is nestled beside her husband, her exhausted mind whirling with images. She envisions her huge-bellied body mounted, like a golden figurehead, on an ancient galleon. She is Margaret the Magnificent, skimming across the metallic lake – hair biting her neck, sails snapping against the mast. Wallop. The heavy mast smashes her stomach hurling her … Continue reading
Category Archives: Family Matters
Gift Unsolicited
Whenever a muddy taped box was plopped down on our front porch, I struggled to decipher my aunt Edie’s scrawl on the custom’s form. (Under no circumstances were we allowed to open the parcel until mom got home from working as a shelf- filler at Ben’s hardware store.) I had to be content with reading … Continue reading
My birthday boy
TODAY IS THE DAY I am to gird my loins and rescue my grandchild Benjy from his dragon mother. I am stiff, bleary eyed and trembling and earplugs cannot silence the cacophony in my head. Instead of feeling fit and ready, the early morning sun swats my fragile eyes, every muscle aches and my ancient … Continue reading
The Walk-On
In the taxi heading home from the airport, Trevor prepared himself for the evening ahead. Since his wife’s death, arriving home after a trip was challenging. Wrung out from wrangling a deal with his foreign counterparts, he’d be assailed by his two children bursting to talk or to listen. His fifteen year-old son, Wesley, would … Continue reading
Camp Intruder
Diane bolts up in bed, awakened by the sound of the cabin door creaking open. Twisting to free herself from her tangled sleeping bag, she listens, heart thumping, to hesitant footsteps on the other side of the flimsy wall. As close as a touch, she hears feet shuffling across the small adjoining room and chokes back … Continue reading
Chariot of Fire
Hurtling along the Trans Canada Highway into the dusk, perched upright in my orange Toyota,
I’m a charioteer in my Chariot of Fire, blissfully ignorant of what may be around the bend.
I am potent.
Extra octane surges through my pulsating veins. Today, I challenge the Universe: hand to hand
combat, best out of three. Continue reading
Rosebud
Shivering in the cold night air, my arthritic fingers reluctant participants in my struggle, I scrounged in my purse desperate to find the scrap of paper with the hotel address that had eluded me on my first ten searches. If I didn’t find it, and soon, I’d be sleeping beside some homeless guy in a … Continue reading
Happy Times
Until she was twelve, Christine considered her father a god and flourished in his unspoken love. Every Saturday, she pleaded to spend the morning with him in the cramped hardware store he managed for Mr. Moore. Her mother, motivated Christine surmised from jealousy, only allowed her to be at the store during open hours, on … Continue reading