Jim was not pleased ( Read more... )

For someone like Belize, the most contact he had with the animal world came in the form of shoo'ing away a small squirrel,  batting off a  pigeon in Central Park or a glance at the caged beasts in the Bronx Zoo (and even that was pushing it. Belize hardly traveled to, through or near the Bronx.)

So naturally, it had caught him off guard when a ( Read more... )

When Lynette was ten years old and already figuring out that the world didn't have to be exactly as her mother told her it was, she bought her sister Lucy a doll. It was small, blonde, dressed in some garish pink outfit, made of shining plastic. They named it Ellen. Ellen went everywhere with Lucy for years after, and Lynette never told anyone that ( Read more... )

Rosie was in a near jovial mood as she finished up the last few arrangments for the Bookclub meeting. She was feeling positive, cheerful, and considerably less anxious than she had the previous month. As it was, she had reasoned with herself that last month was just a rocky start, that there were people still shook up by the odd events day prior to ( Read more... )

Before she had wasted another day sitting on the couch toiling over her crossword puzzle (she still needed a five letter word for 'fire') or trying to find another person willing to allow her to read their fortune (the last one ended with her terribly sad and incredibly inebriated ) Helen decided that she had wasted too much time on not doing ( Read more... )

And finally, everything was more or less quiet. Lily had gone back to her daughter and her husband, Mike was coming and going and, mostly, it was just Eostre and the girls.

The girls. Her girls ( Read more... )

Outspan has been aware of the pool table for a long time now, but he was never stricken with the whim to use it. Until now. Until he heard or smelled or saw, or really just imagined, something that reminded him of home, and how after he was done busking he would pack up his guitar and whatever money he'd earned and head down to his uncle's bar ( Read more... )

Being back at school was wonderful in Susan's opinion. Things were again under her control, they were measurable. There were students to be taught, lessons to be given, and none of what she'd been through need intrude ( Read more... )

Lynette was dreaming again. Head fallen sideways against the rec room couch cushion, legs tucked up underneath her and a magazine just about slipping from her hands: if you were near enough you would have seen her mouth move and her brow furrow just a little with the unconscious reflexes of the lightly asleep ( Read more... )

Gus was reading to his pig ( Read more... )