It’s been two years since I’ve been home. I’ve always had a place to live, but it’s been two years since the place where I live has been my home. The strongest desire of my heart is to feel like I’m home. I’ve struggled to make the places where I’ve lived...
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fallingdove
Over 90 days ago
United States
Stories
It’s 1955, on a farm in Round Butte, Montana. I am Eloise, and I’m four. This is what happened today: After chores, and breakfast, and after my older sisters went to school, I followed my mom around. She was cranky and angry and shook her fingers at me in...
Jiggi-jiggi
A day of guard duty on the Euphrates River.“Missus. Missus. Missus.” said the Iraqi teenaged boy. I looked up. The sound “Missus.” Had become like a bird call, a constant background sound that came from the boys on the other side of the wire. “What?” I said. They giggled. “Jiggi-jiggi.” I shrugged...
It had been more than ten days since I had a shower. It was a sweltering summer in South Korea. I worked the night shift, plotting points on maps and playing war games. During the day I sat at the gate and made sure that only the right people visited. The...
I’m a few hundred miles from Dogwood. The fuel gage says there’s a little more than a quarter tank of fuel left. The sun is setting. I see a golden glow on the wheat fields along the side of MSR Jackson. The sergeant took over driving. I lost my glasses a...
The toddler in diapers was screaming at the door of the cheap white trailer-house. "I think his diapers need changed." My mom looked across the street with concern. We were digging worms from the front flowerbed, a flowerbed that didn't grow anything, so...
Raj put his hands on the ceiling of his cell and pushed to stretch out his muscles. He’d put in a long day pulling out dead cells and loading them on lifts for transport, and installing new cells. He rolled over on his side and spit up his cud and began t...
Mrs. C.
A horrible school teacher"She was a bitch," Jack said. I gave him a look that said that I heartily agree, even though I probably wouldn't use that word because I still have an innate respect for school teachers. "I hated how she played favorites," I said carefully. "It made me fe...
The band warms up.Do-Ra-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Doand backwards.They start playing at two o'clock.Canopy frames and tarps are popping up.The beer garden is growing tables, booths, and fence.The soul food trailer has a sign on it that says "CLOSED."People are filli...
Mr. Mow Mow
On finding a stray catI take a long walk several times a week. I start off from the boathouse and stroll down the dyke and linger around the "alter," a platform where a crane used to unload logs from the river and put them on rail-cars. Then I continue down a paved walking pat...
I was slurping coffee during my nine o'clock break. I was already grease streaked. The shop was grey, and my coveralls were blue. It was Valentines day. I wasn't dating anyone. "Got plans tonight?" Wayne asked. He was an older guy, who was not grease smea...
Neck Deep
How did my basement get filled with stuffed toys?I'm standing in my basement, neck deep in stuffed toys. There are piles of Kermit the Frogs, and other muppets, there are a dozen Dora dolls and Bob the Builders. There are generic little seahorses and stars. Some of them are the size of my hand and other...
She just took more than I could give. I did my best to keep her. I went thousands of dollars into debt. I tried to take good care of her, but I couldn't provide the house she needed, the fancy oils and trinkets a lady of her caliber calls for. I tried. I...
The phone rang. My mom picked it up. “Hello… Well… Wow… Yeah… We'll come pick him up in a few hours… Okay… Bye” she said in a one-sided conversation. She left the coiled corded rotary phone that hung from the wall, and sat down at the kitchen table with h...
Sometimes I think my soul has left me It must have ran away on a scary day It went to the neighbor’s house to hide And stayed for diner because it was nicer there Sometimes I think my soul isn’t with me Because I feel so empty and alone Because my mind al...