Photo by Kulbir So, this is it. Alone and starting over again. There is a teenage flitting of excitement in the pit of the stomach and youthful expectation at the back of the mind that accompanies new challenges and change at any age. It feels good! Getting reacquainted with yourself is grueling, intoxicating, surprising and …
Category: stories
BIG LOVE
Photo by Clara The day he died, we started to live. We were lucky that way - being alive. Many don't make it. On his last day I was under the bed making myself as flat as possible; willing myself into the floorboards. The door was locked, but that gave me little reassurance. If he …
Antitheses
Photo by Kei Scampa They literally collided, one day, in the hallway at work. One was turning a corner, rather sharply, arms loaded with supplies and the other was bee-lining it to the bathroom. From the get go, they were not mutually simpatico. A superficial dusting unearthed a snobbish pedantic know it all to one …
Happy Birthday little sister
Photo by Jill Wellington Today is my sister's birthday. It is a milestone birthday and she is handling it as we all do...with some amazement and discomfort. At age eight, we believe that twenty is old, at fourteen that our parents are ancient. Naturally then, it stands to reason that as we see twenty thirty …
Four Walls
Photo by Kayley Dlugos The sun feels warm on my back. It is once again Spring. Sitting on the rug, in a pool of sunlight, I am saying my goodbyes. My gaze moves across the room, interrupted occasionally by the sight of a memorable object or a nick or smudge. Our signatures. A gash on …
Need to know
Photo by Pixabay When would this galling behavior of hers end? After all, she was an independent grown woman now. And yet, one phone call had re positioned her on her haunches, expectantly awaiting a belly rub, a pat on the head; A mortifying display of her neediness. A lifetime of negative observations and unjust …
Linked
They walked home from the party, arms linked. The next morning, the tiny flat they shared would reek of that funky "the day after smell" of cigarette smoke. Both were slightly drunk and terribly happy, as neither one needed to go in to work the next day. Jules' evening shift at the restaurant had been …
Time
Time is a peculiar thing. It exists as a specific amount (24 hours, 10 minutes, 2 seconds) and yet, our perception of time rarely corresponds to this fixed data. Sitting bored, staring at the wall feels like hours. Waiting for results on a biopsy; an agonizing eternity. Time spent with a new love; a blurry …
A Sun Kissed Death
They buried him under a blazing midday sun. Earlier that morning, with birds twittering and summer breezes blowing, it was downright mean to be made to enter the dimly lit funeral parlor, with its slight chill and nauseating blend of flowers and disinfectant. In fact, the contrast was so extreme so as to produce anxiousness …
The courtyard
Back then, during the cold winter evenings, the five women would gather in Ida's barn to keep warm. They looked forward to this time of day when they could meet and talk; seated on wooden chairs huddled close together in a circle amidst the familiar scent of manure, feed and dust. The body heat off …
Manu writes 