It’s the rain, drumming persistently that wakes Lola up.
She didn’t have the baby dream. She feels calm and relaxed.
She stretches – the crib is long enough to more than accommodate her 4 feet 11 inches height – and is perfectly at ease until she opens her eyes and sees the wooden bars. And reflects on her situation in a new light.
“Oh.”
Lola...
2023-06-21 22:24:21 +0000 UTC View Post
Here are our July tales to look forward to. Thank you Helpers for a bumper selection of excellent ideas this month!
Better Path Counseling
Austin, Texas
The July air is thick with the promise of storms. The humidity clings to Lola’s skin, weighing her down. It is a relief to enter Dr Light’s home and his downstairs office. These visits aren’t like a trip to Disneyworld, but at least there’s central air. And at least someone wants to listen.
Even if it’...
2023-06-19 15:15:46 +0000 UTC View PostThank you Helpers for 15 ideas!
3 polls, 1 vote for each poll. Let's see what we come up with, everyone!
It happens at night. It happens after lunch. It even happens right now on the drive along Spring Street. They’re on their way to have lunch with the Davidson’s, who have two kids of their own.
“It’ll be good. We haven’t seen them in forever.”
Luke didn’t understand any of this when it was discussed, when he was being buckled into his car-seat. But now, pacifier in his ...
2023-06-12 19:50:12 +0000 UTC View Post
Ngatea, New Zealand
February
Daniel has the nightmare again. He wakes up in a cold sweat, but he’s warm and wet around his groin.
“No,” he whispers. He pulls back the bedsheets. “Come on.”
He’s wet the bed. Pissed himself. The perfect ending to the dream. He thinks of his twenty-one-year-old brother, Oliver, sleeping peacefully in t...
2023-06-02 13:40:28 +0000 UTC View PostHere are our June tales to look forward to. We had a tie for 2nd place, but then I received a bribe...I mean, then I made an executive decision. Ahem! 😊 Thank you Helpers for excellent ideas!
He wakes up in the darkness and feels a dull confusion. Where is he? When is he? And then, helped by the whirring drone of the hotel room’s A/C, he remembers.
And he hears a voice.
Groggy, he lifts his head. It’s Bella who’s talking. He reaches for her, but she has left the bed. All he finds is the earbuds left on her pillow.
He lays his head back down, listenin...
2023-05-30 20:59:01 +0000 UTC View PostForty minutes later, Charlie steers Bella back into their hotel room. He marches her over to the bed and sits her down.
“That’s enough.”
Bella hitches and gulps. Her wet hair is plastered to her head. “I was just puh-puh-playin’!”
“Playing like a little kid,” corrects Charlie. “Misbehaving like one.” He sighs, sits down beside her. “I should’ve known. Y...
2023-05-30 20:35:11 +0000 UTC View Post
Hampton Inn and Suites East Mesa
Bella is back. Bella is a handful. Bella is something else.
“Hugs!”
“Sure, let me just-“
“Hugs, Charlie!”
Silverado parked behind the hotel, checked into a 4thfloor room, Charlie hugs Bella.
“...
2023-05-29 17:29:37 +0000 UTC View Post
11:15 AM
98 degrees
Wake me up inside (save me)
Call my name and save me from the dark (wake me up)
It’s almost normal. It’s almost like before. Except, in actual fact, it’s barely the same at all...
2023-05-28 16:40:05 +0000 UTC View Post
Thank you Helpers for these dreamy ideas!
Keeping it simple for the 8-idea poll. One member, one vote - top 3 ideas will get my writerly attention!
2023-05-17 15:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
Nashua, New Hampshire
Friday
Hannah opens the front door of her single-story home. She makes me wait first, obviously, but she finally opens the door.
It’s quiet. Her kids aren’t home right now, thank God, so there’s no yelling and screaming in the background. Which is nice.
I hold out my hand. “Thanks.”
She gives me a cool lo...
2023-05-13 14:26:43 +0000 UTC View Post
Ngatea
What can I say about Shane? You know how it goes; some new teachers are nervous and some are over-confident. Shane belongs firmly in the second camp.
“This is a special school,” I told him during orientation. (One of my responsibilities is to take the newbies under my wing.) “With the emphasis on ‘special’. Don’t forget that.”
“I know what speci...
2023-05-12 16:37:49 +0000 UTC View PostI cry out. A high-pitched wail. It’s all that I’ve got.
In a matter of seconds, there’s the woman from last night. There’s my pretty nerd. Her face appears, looming over the crib. What’s her name? And how did I end up in here?
I continue to cry, it feels uncontrollable. I will never stop crying, there’s no wa...
2023-04-30 15:52:40 +0000 UTC View Post“You’re fine. I’m the one who made the mess.”
In truth, we’re both terrible at this.
I went first, peeing and pooping as I sat on the nursery floor. It was almost comical, the way urine came out, like a tiny lawn sprinkler. The poop was less amusing; that was serious shit. My first thought, inspecting the rug beneath...
2023-04-28 21:01:25 +0000 UTC View PostWhen I wake up, I have the mother of all headaches.
When I wake up, I’m a baby.
I don’t scream. I don’t faint. I’m just amazed. It’s impossible. It must be a dream.
But I’m awake. Propped against a pillow, I look down at my pudgy body, and I remember my baby photos from thirty years ago. Yeah, Mom always said I was chunky.
“You’re awake,” B...
2023-04-27 23:11:14 +0000 UTC View Post
Here are our May tales to look forward to. Thank you Helpers for excellent ideas!
St Mary’s Church
Hendon, Northwest London
Ralph picks a quiet time to drop off the toys. He doesn’t want to make it a big deal. In and out. In, out, and then home. Okay, home after picking up a chicken schnitzel and chips from the Sunny Hill café.
Ralph sighs. He has a lot of takeaways these days. Of course, he had soup for lunch, b...
2023-04-22 16:30:55 +0000 UTC View Post
Ngatea, New Zealand
When it happens, it is everything.
It doesn’t feel like everything. It just feels like a relief.
After her arrival in Ngatea, Valerie played the part to perfection. Keenly aware that she was under observation, she continued to behave in the same docile, simple way she had on the journey from England. As if she was still under the hypnoti...
2023-04-16 19:11:43 +0000 UTC View PostIt's voting time! 3 polls for the May tales, with the ideas arranged into a trio of delectable selection boxes. Thank you special helpers for 12 excellent ideas! 🥇
Please vote for your favorite idea in each poll 😊 - top vote of each category gets written.
Don’t push her, the counselor said. Don’t force her. Just let it happen. You are the guide.
I see the look on Emma’s face. Her I-call-bullshitexpression.
I smile. “You don’t have to,” I say. “It’s just an idea.” I shrug. “If you want, we can wait for my mommy to come back and she can make us breakfast.”
And this is true. Emma...
2023-03-31 18:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostLast night Emma stayed over. Ostensibly to talk about our plans for the next couple months. A summer of service, where we do good deeds around Blowing Rock - back and forth to Food Lion fetching groceries for the elderly, hot afternoons at Price Lake teaching youngsters how to row, taking the special girls to Dilwin’s for ice-cream - and wait for some bronzed, well-mannered boy to show intere...
2023-03-31 12:33:36 +0000 UTC View Post
Blowing Rock, North Carolina
Emma and I graduated high school yesterday. And you know the kinds of cards you get, hopefully with some cash or a gift card inside?
You’re destined for success! Nothing can stand in your way!
Keep making us proud. We know you’re just getting started!
Know without a doubt that you were made for great thin...
2023-03-29 09:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
