Category Archives: Fiction

I can’t stand my best friend’s boyfriend. Please don’t look at me that way: I’ve heard all the Psych One ideas. Believe me when I tell you I am not jealous. No way do I want that slob. And I’m … Continue reading →

When Callie was in her mid-40s, she was still a Victoria’s Secret customer. She’d started when she was 33 and in love with the man who would be her second husband; he took her to the store and bought her … Continue reading →

They only did it the one time. Jill told me she didn’t know why I always commented favorably about Mike in bed; she didn’t find him any great shakes. She went on to other guys and I tried not to … Continue reading →

Jill was an excellent house guest. She was helpful and considerate and appreciative. She got along with my husband and she was great with our son. She was also into a nonsexual cycle, so even when she drank (not much, … Continue reading →

I tell you, these people are crazy. I’m surrounded by dysfunction, and I’m not going to take it wordlessly any more. I have tried to suspend judgment. I have concluded that people read one another, and I’ve ceased harboring negative … Continue reading →

Annie saw the periodontist again a month ago. He poked and scraped, knocked and gouged, and then sat back and said, “Will you consider a nightguard?” She felt sardonic. “Probably not,” she replied. “Why?” “Your teeth show signs of the … Continue reading →

As she got older Annie became self-conscious about the activity and its traces. Of course she tried to break the habit, and sometimes – in a vacation environment – she’d leave her hands alone long enough to see healing, to … Continue reading →

And it came to pass that Annie learned to leave her fingertips alone. She was 65. She had started snacking on her own skin before she was 12. A mere half century or so. She wasn’t born with the habit. … Continue reading →

Dinah read once that if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there. She loved her friend, but Annie could have been a poster child for the epigram. She’d never had a plan. She’d never made … Continue reading →

She thought about Dinah-2005. She tried to summon up an image of her. She glimpsed someone who had strands of still-dark hair around her face. A body ten pounds lighter than Dinah in 2015, housing a mind more unhappy with … Continue reading →