Having made the announcement and asked for advice, Catherine leapt up to answer her cell phone. With apologies to Laura over her shoulder, the young woman headed out of the restaurant and hunkered down against the wall. Gasping in disbelief, her mother-in-law scrambled to find some sage reply to the surprising news. She watched the … Continue reading
A Tinge of Joy
I feel a tinge of joy—the first in years—and a sliver of hope. But I’ll not relax until I am certain my daughter has escaped with the family’s savings. If they catch her trying to get across the border, they could confiscate her money and condemn her to solitary confinement in a Psychiatric Hospital for … Continue reading
Foiled Again
If she had kept to her old ways—as annoying as they were to family and friends—she could have saved the day. Instead she had looked the other way and had lost her chance to finally say, “Now who knows best.” Fortunately, just when she was about to boast of her triumph, to point out that … Continue reading
A Prize every Time
Having worn down her mother with requests for a second ice cream cone, Emily had to be satisfied with some change for the gumball machine which advertised, “A prize every time!” “The prizes aren’t worth the money,” her mother lamented, hoping, but not achieving, a teachable moment about costs and benefits. Emily, focused on the … Continue reading
The Look-Alike
Laura hadn’t seen such eyes—watery, blue and riveting—since her great aunt died 20 years earlier. The resemblance—particularly the popping eyes—was uncanny and unnerving. Lured down the street behind the double, after five blocks, Laura was enticed into the public library. She sunk unto a chair near the ‘look-alike’ and, head down, glanced at an open … Continue reading
Anyone for An Endive?
Percy knew he had to wipe what his wife Tina called “the smug look” off his face before he went through their front door. But it would be difficult not to crow. Just as he had predicted, he’d succeeded without a lot of preparation at his new métier. Now fresh from his first Marketing Consultant … Continue reading
The Circus and the Library
When the circus married the library, she was only a small fair. Once the nuptials were performed, however, audience demands increased. The circus, always stumbling to satisfy, expanded and diversified. With frantic compliance, she added more and more acts. Although frightened of heights, the circus cared enough to include a trapeze act. Clothed in a … Continue reading
The Spider
When she hears her mother calling from the hall below, Kathryn scurried behind the wing-back chair in the library. Her heartbeat quickened as footsteps mounted the stairs, the door creaked open. “Kathryn?” Silence. “She’s not here.” The door shut. “That child.” After a few moments, her fear overcome by curiosity, the child crept out to … Continue reading
Jack Jackson
Jack Jackson, a traveling salesman, always sold his quota of elephants: the customers liked him and he knew how to excite a quick win-win deal. He always thought to mention to prospective customers that he was putting his dog through university. And, in tough cases, he would add sadly that his alligator-in-law had been deep … Continue reading
Going Out
“Eat,” her mother urges, shoving a spatula of home fries at her daughter. The girl recoils. Usually her appetite is as hearty as her younger brother Geoffrey’s but today food sticks like woodchips in her throat. If she blurts the news out at the supper table, the film will freeze mid–frame: broken faces, arguments, her … Continue reading