This is for LJ Idol's Season 11 Open Topic and it does deal with the topic of drugs. If you like this story, please consider voting for me when the polls go up on Tuesday night (I won't be able to post the link as I will have most likely just given birth to baby Squishy) and please check out everyone else's awesome stories!
------------I had a ( Read more... )

Several days before Lucy died, she made her husband, James, promise that he would never love anyone else like he loved her again. She made him promise that he would never get remarried or be with another woman. Laughingly, James promised her that because they were going to have a long life together and nothing was going to come between them. They ( Read more... )

Having a father in jail, I have discovered, becomes a child’s deepest, darkest secret. It was mine for the longest time. When everyone else around you seems to have the perfect family, you begin to feel as if you’re the only one in the world with such a life. You begin to wonder what exactly is wrong with you that you don't have the family that ( Read more... )

I got the offer for the job two days after I interviewed for the position. It probably helped that my friend from high school was working there and put a good word in for me. For someone with a Master's degree, it wasn't an ideal position, assistant teacher with low pay. But I was interviewing at the end of April for a position that was only until ( Read more... )

This week's therealljidol is an intersection, where we work with a partner to create something for two different prompts. I worked with the wonderful flipflop_diva, who wrote for the prompt "I'm the Usain Bolt of Running From My Problems". She watched the little girl rummage through the old chest with a smile. “Ooohs” and “awwwwws” were heard at every item she held up - old ( Read more... )

I stood there on the high dive shivering with knees knocking. Everyone made it look so easy. You just point and raise your arms above your head together, bend over, and go off the diving board. Even the little kids younger than me could do this ( Read more... )

Note: Aba is the Hebrew word for Dad. Weirdly, despite speaking Hebrew fluently, I did not often call my mom Ima, mostly calling her Mommy or Mom. Aba however, has always been the only word I've ever used to call my dad and because I only ever refer to him as Aba, I use the word here as well.As we took the hour long bus ride back to Yafo after a ( Read more... )

The humans joke like I can't hear or understand them. "Hobbes, your life is so easy. You don't know how good you have it." They laugh uproariously like they think they are so funny, scratch my head or my ears, and walk away to do something else. I cover my head with my hand, amazed at their lack of understanding. They can't even begin to comprehend ( Read more... )

My mom and aunts would always tell me stories of my grandfather who I never met. His big sticking point to them had always been family stays together, no matter what. He would remind them that they were three sisters and they only had each other. It became a mantra that was drilled into them and they could recite long after he was gone ( Read more... )

My Bubby collected little glass figurines that she kept in her curio. Elephants, flamingos, little tea cups, she had it all. She was also fond of ornate lipstick cases that she carried her red lipstick in. I swore when I grew up, I was going to be just like her and carry my lipstick around just like her just so I could have pretty cases. She had ( Read more... )