"Excuse me, please. Where's the bathroom?" I asked. The woman was mopping the movie theater lobby. She was the only person in sight. "No," she said. I'd had a few beers and couldn't make it to the end of the movie--The Piano. Maybe my Bulgarian wasn't clear, though it is hard to get toiletna wrong. …
Author: mapelba
I'm a writer, artist, teacher, mother, wife, daughter, friend, coffee addict... What else? A success, a failure, a mess, a fan, a hater of housework, a lover of dogs, a liberal, an obsessive, and a bunch of other things that probably would never occur to me. I reveal myself in more ways in my writings and art than in any list of adjectives. And whoever you are, I hope most of all that you are a reader.
The Photograph Murderer & the Photograph Thief
My step-mother was sitting on the coach my dad had built. In front of her was the kitchen garbage can and beside was a box of photographs. She and my father had been married for for only a few weeks and I'd started public school. My step-mother wasn't Catholic and didn't want to send her …
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True Things and Other Worries
I'm It. Well, I've been tagged anyway--by the ever fascinating and honest Sophie in the Moonlight. Since I can't have a story to tell every night, here are the 10 true things about me that this tag requires. And yes, I will tie it all to writing one way or another no matter how thin …
Shut in the Guest Room with an Over-Active Imagination
"Oh. He's dead," K. said. She announced this after I asked her how her father was. "What?" I asked. The two of them traveled together every summer and this was the summer we'd graduated high school. I'd traveled with them a few years before. She wasn't crying or wavering. "He died in the hotel room. …
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bad and under the pillow
For what it is worth, I've started another blog. Words Are Art has my art and bits of stories. So there.
when you call for help
"She pulled a gun on me," R. said. He was talking about his aunt. He lived with her and his grandmother. "She waved it in my face." His life was like that. I asked him what I could do--me on the other side of the phone, pass orange groves, a country club on the other …
Get Out of the Way
I didn't pay the car much attention until it served off the road. The sun was out and no other cars were to be seen on that mile long stretch. In the 4th grade, I knew next to nothing about cars but this one was red, low to the ground, and filled with high school …
Keep Going in the Dark
I was alone and lost in Budapest at midnight. I'd gotten off at the wrong subway stop and between Cyrillic and English, I could make no sense of the signs. My backpack hurt my shoulders and shoes were wearing thin. The lights of a posh hotel called my attention, I dug out the address I …
Out with November
Am done! 53,246 words, and this year I even wrote a proper ending. Well, proper is debatable. Angst over the rewrite to start shortly... But right now--hurray! I want champagne.
Where do you think you are going?
I told my dad it would be good for my career. I told my mom the truth. "I want to go where everything is my choice, where I can't blame you or dad or give you the credit." So it was I found myself at 17 on an airplane flying from Orlando, Florida to Terre …
Marta Pelrine-Bacon 