Family and Friends
expectations
I think in a former life, my mother was my child and I must’ve done something really bad to her in that life because she sure gave me hell in this one. My mother is one of the last people I told when Chris and I got engaged. Not necessarily because I didn’t want to [...]
shadows in the light
I lie awake on my cot listening to a sea of pre-schoolers sucking on their thumbs. Nasty habit, thumbsucking, and I don’t do it myself for fear that my front teeth will begin to stick out like a horse. My mom told me that would happen. Shaun and Shannon both lie somewhere to my left. [...]
getting there
“We don’t have any room for you at our Chinatown facility. You’ll have to go to Alhambra,” the social worker in the nice crisp suit told me. “I don’t want to go there. A friend of mine has been to the Chinatown facility. She recommended it. She said I’d get better there. That’s why I [...]
finding Cece
[...] Cece’s been missing for 72 hours until they finally find her. Not dead, but not quite herself either. She is disheveled. Tired. Collapsed in on herself. It’s as if someone had crumpled her into a ball and they were just now trying to smooth her all out again. Michael lifts her chin and gazes [...]
fortunes
I sit in the the waiting room, kneeling backwards on my chair, peering out the window on the other side of a giant neon sign that reads FORTUNE TELLER and the blinking palm that goes with it. Nothing interesting out there. Just a woman with her toddler on her lap waiting for the bus. Cars [...]
a party and an attractive stranger
Wrote this today as part of a timed writing activity during the writer’s workshop sponsored by Tayo Literary Mag. The prompt was to write in a point of view you don’t usually write in and to include a party, food and an attractive stranger. I didn’t get to the food part, but enjoy! — Michael [...]
mothers
I believe some women aren’t supposed to be mothers. Crack addicts for instance. 14-year old girls. Casey Anthony. And of course, my own mother. [...]
little lies
My father and my paternal grandparents left when I was very young. I’m not quite sure exactly when. Sometimes I think I was 4-years old. Other times I remember being seven. Maybe he left more than once. When you’re little, you don’t understand things like that, your father leaving, your mother crying all the time. [...]
heartache
Chris looks at me and brushes some hair away from my face and behind my ears. Just one of the many ways I know he loves me. I am his first and only love. There was no one else before me and I hope I will remain his only love for as long as God [...]
whispers and prayers
Whispering. Always whispering. My mother always held a prayer under her breath. Standing in front of the stove, mixing together that night’s supper. Our father who art in heaven. Watching TV, eyes glazed over. Thy Lord be with you. Falling asleep, her hand propping up her forehead. Deliver us from evil. I’d watch her hold her right hand to her heart, [...]
