1545 Words

The word is there somewhere.  I say the word languish, even though I know it’s not the right one.  I hope if I mumble it, the word will resemble the one I need to say.  Let’s call that a compensatory strategy.  Andy gets it and says back to me, “Lettuce?”  

1542 Words

Mornings with Andy are the most difficult.  I wake up every day wondering where I am and who the man is next to me in the bed.   Then I remember to look for notes and I see the one in the frame by my bed.  You are Married to Andy and He Loves You.

2225 Words

Andy can’t contain a loud gush of laughter, which is the perfect antidote for the circle of concern that has grown concentrically from Annie and Bruce all the way to the rangy looking family who just piled out of a 1970 VW van to watch this pitiful show.

1935 Words

Jake and Carly spent another two hours unpacking and repacking boxes before they found the faded red and yellow Ohio Star quilt that, according to their mother, had been Aunt Min’s death bed project.  “I wonder if mom remembers how ugly this thing is,” Carly said, shaking spiders and dust from the folds. 

1582 Words

Eventually, Annie chipped through the edge of awkwardness that squeezed them all and said, “I’d rather be telling you I’m dying of cancer than telling you your dad and I are splitting up – but we are.  We’re getting a divorce.”  It was a typically convoluted stacking of emotional phrases from their mother’s mouth, and both Jake and Carly sat stunned and silent while they processed “dying of cancer” in the same sentence with “divorce”.  

1513 Words

 I realize I am over-dramatically flinging my hands around my head as I say “all of this” so I very intentionally return my flailing appendages to my side and take a deep breath.  

1607 Words

They stopped for tea and scones at a beach front café after leaving the fateful turn in the road that day.  Annie loved afternoon tea.  It made her feel refined and relaxed in the days before the accident, and she seemed to fall into the familiarity of the ritual that day.