No Quarrel in the Silence
Jan 08, 2025

Alexander sat on the mangled remains of the stolen carriage and listened to the silence. At least the quarrel would be ended, though he desperately wished he had been wrong. Just ahead, Natalia's black silhouette, radiant against the setting sun,…

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Jan 08, 2025

I'm everywhere. I am a regular fixture on the business networking circuit, a recurring character in meetings featuring nametags, taglines, and free bagels. I am a hub: Need a business lawyer in Houston, Texas? I know two great ones. An…

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Running Away
Jan 08, 2025

It's January, the first month of the year. The anniversary of your death is approaching, the anniversary of your birth several weeks after that. The thing about the circumstances -- your chance encounter with another father, younger by some forty…

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Holidays With the Family…
Jan 07, 2025

I didn’t get a chance to put Christmas decorations up this year. I didn’t even bring the stockings my mom made over 65 years ago down like I usually would. I planned to do it all last week. But it…

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Ah Ma
Jan 07, 2025

Jo liked to think Ah Ma went to heaven, but Auntie Susan said Ah Ma cursed too much and cheated in mahjong. But Ah Ma fed stray cats leftover food from the kitchen, Jo argued. That conversation took place a…

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Soft Voices
Jan 07, 2025

People she did not know went by, whispering in tones so low only the dust can hear as they passed each awkwardly in the narrow hallway. Death, she thought, is kind of like the library. You always have to whisper…

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A Wisp of Talk
Jan 07, 2025

It was only a wisp,” Marnie said. “But I felt it.” “A wisp,” her husband said. He’d repeated her word, but his glance was skeptical. “Maybe you could explain further.” “I’m not sure I can.” She poured them both a…

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Getting Their Attention
Jan 07, 2025

Much to say about the word "wisp".....short for "whisper" immediately comes to mind...which brings further to mind the idea that if you want to get someone's attention, even the attention of an entire audience, don't yell....whisper. Make THEM come to…

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A wisp of talk
Jan 07, 2025

"This is an outrage, Fleming, and I shall be taking my custom elsewhere in future!" Ana sat on the cushioned bench by the window of Fleming's Inn listening as the merchant hired to bring her to the capital berated the…

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I Want My MTV
Jan 07, 2025

I've never been a strong history scholar. When I've read about people from times before the 1980s, they have seemed unrelatable, not real. Give me a movie with a bellbottom jean, and I'm out. Born in 1974, I was too…

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Running Away from Home
Jan 06, 2025

I run away from home almost every day. Well, I trot or walk away from home. I don't run. I began a new work schedule a week ago, and now I log in for work at 1:00 pm instead of…

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Home Work
Jan 06, 2025

When my husband and I got married, many years ago, I remember feeling different in a specific way, different and better. I felt like I finally had a home. I left my mother’s house when I was seventeen to spread…

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