The first step off the roof was terrifying. "Go on," the soldier said. "Step off." We were four floors up. My senses were not swayed by a helmet and safety ropes. The body knew the ground was too far away, but my ego didn't want to look afraid. After rappelling down the building, I couldn't …
Irrational Fears and Other Ways to Pass the Time
I saw the spider's shadow first. I was sitting in my car at the bank and the shadow was on the passenger seat. I stopped filling out the deposit slip and looked at the windshield. The spider was on the outside. I had to move forward. The movement of the car made the spider skitter …
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Daisies, Streets, and Publications
"What's your favorite flower?" A. asked me. We were sitting in a movie theater waiting for The Pick-Up Artist to begin. It was our first date. "Daisies," I said. "But those are weeds," he said. "Don't you like roses?" I'd only agreed to this date because a friend talked me into it. And it'd been …
Hitting Your Head Against the Wall Isn’t Really Therapy
I wished I took drugs. If I'd been that sort of girl, I'd have felt better. Thinking like that is easy in the middle of the night when you can't sleep. This is how people go crazy, I thought, and turned over again. I threw the covers off and tried to sleep with my head …
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Not Exactly a Path to Somewhere
My husband has an idea. MFA. Novels can be written without degrees, but jobs are easier with them. I have a job now, but I've had the same job for a long time and no change waits on the horizon. Well, no change I've any clue about. The deadline is December 15th and I'll need …
Santa Claus is holding back.
Santa Claus didn't bring a memory machine, he didn't bring a map to success, and he didn't bring a clear reflecting pool of valuable insights. In spite of the flying reindeer and the living forever, he brings very ordinary toys. I'm bound to run out of those true life stories. Some stories take too much …
The Faith Healer Didn’t Want Me
He puts his hands on her head. "You are forgiven. She is at peace!" he shouts. My friend screams and falls to the floor. Another man runs over to cover S. with a towel. Several people are on the floor and others wait their turn. The faith healer looks at me passes me by. I …
A New Dress Isn’t Enough
"I'll tell M. you want to jump his bones if you don't call. You know I will," R. said. I didn't know, but I needed to threat to go through with it. M. answered his phone and my voice rose to amazing heights. "Hi!" We were friends and I'd called him plenty of times. He'd …
Finding Your Way in the Dark
He took my hand when the lights went out. My traveling companion and I had just decided to leave the disco and go back to our hotel to a room we'd been sharing with three others, but those three others had gone home. We wanted to stay at The Black Sea for one more day. …
Who’s that there behind you?
"You're doing the right thing," my mom said. "But you should know something before you go through with it." I was in the 6th grade and terrified of my math teacher, Mr. W---. A group of us had decided to go complain about him. We wanted him to stop calling us stupid and ignorant. "What's …
Marta Bacon 