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December 26, 2006
Tanya: Untitled
“Get her something shiny,” his mother had told him. “Something she really wants.”
“The best presents come in a pretty box, on black velvet,” his sister-in-law giggled.
He wasn’t sure Norma, his fiancée, was quite like her sisters, and he still struggled with what to buy her for their first real Christmas together. She didn’t really seem like the bracelets and earrings type. And she already had the ring…
To her family, the box looked a little big, but she was smiling when she saw the sparkling metal on black velvet. “An antique 7mm Apache revolver! Just what I wanted!”
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December 27, 2006
Tanya: Untitled
He lay slumped in the bushes in front of me, his breath slowing, eyes flickering from side to side in a belated panic. One of his lungs was collapsed, and I could hear it wheeze through the ragged gash in his chest.
I could call for the police and an ambulance. I knew CPR. I could keep him alive long enough for the paramedics to reach him.
I grabbed him and laid him flat on the ground. His pulse was slow, but he was alive. Good. I removed his shirt, and slowly began carving the word “pedophile” into his stomach.
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January 10, 2007
Tanya: H5N1
Tuyen finished packing enough food for the three day walk, then wrapped her last two batteries in a spare sock. The man on the radio said she should go to Da Nang. She switched it off and stuffed it in with the food.
She was the last one in her village. For a while, it looked like Han’s tiny daughter Linh might survive, when her fever broke, but it was only false hope. At nine years old, Tuyen couldn’t have cared for her anyway.
Shouldering the small bag, she took a last look back, then walked away from her home.
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January 19, 2007
Tanya: Untitled
Almost midnight. She lurked in the shadows, wondering what the hell she was doing. She didn’t need another burden in her life. But she owed this to her sister, much as she hated her.
The town hall clocktower struck the hour, and a man ran out of the darkness. Without glancing around, he dumped a duffel bag into a trash can in the park, then dashed away.
She waited another fifteen minutes, then emerged resignedly and retrieved the bag. As she returned to her car, the first whines came from inside it. She shushed her infant nephew and kept walking.
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January 22, 2007
Tanya: Untitled
We were walking in the forest, so close to home. It had just snowed, but it was almost spring. She tore out a clump of fragile green grass, savoring the smell and freshness.
She sensed them before I did, and told me to run. I never heard their noises; I just ran, fearing the tone of her voice. Banks of snow, frozen branches and trees rushed past me, and I didn’t stop until I’d nearly collapsed. That’s when I noticed she wasn’t behind me.
They killed my mother, Faline. We can’t go nearer to the men. They’ll kill us too.
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February 6, 2007
Tanya: Untitled
“I can’t believe you got us this room,” she whispered, looking out from the balcony at the twinkling city below. It was surprisingly quiet, but they could hear voices of other people sitting outside. Most of them were whispering too.
He hugged her gently, then returned to the luxurious penthouse to drag the chairs outside. Opening the Perrier Jouet, he poured them each a glass. They toasted and nibbled Godiva truffles, holding hands and giggling like teenagers.
Finally, she snuggled against his shoulder and they were silent, watching the first of the nuclear warheads as they streaked across the horizon.
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February 7, 2007
Tanya: Untitled
The women crowded around the coffee table, as Marjorie unwrapped the next gift, removing a lovely purple crocheted blanket.
“Missy! Did you make this yourself? It’s beautiful!”
Missy teasingly chided her, “I can’t believe you didn’t find out the sex of the baby. Then I could have made it blue or pink.”
“The purple’s gorgeous, and we wanted it to be a surprise. We’re old fashioned that way.”
All the women nodded. Many of them had done likewise.
“But what color eyes and hair did you get?”
“We picked blue and brown,” Marjorie replied. “With my chin and Ben’s nose.”
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February 14, 2007
Tanya: Untitled
She’d always had a thing for the cello. The sound, the size, the way it fit between the legs. And she had a thing for cellists. She snuggled now against the Symphony’s brand new first chair, blankets crumpled, his hair still slightly damp with sweat.
She smiled at him, enrapt, as he relived the evening. She watched the sparkle in his eyes and heard the pride in his talent, as he recalled the performance and the ovations.
“My first night. Did you hear how they cheered for me? The way they called from their seats for more?”
“Encore,” she whispered.
From the playbill for Spamalot. It could have been grail or patsy or idle. Sadly, page 47 was an ad for American Airlines. The word was "encore."
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March 5, 2007
Tanya: Untitled
Betsy walked through the patch, watering the seedlings, fertilizing the larger plants. She pinched off aphids and other nasty bugs. Added ladybugs where there were none.
She checked under the bright green leaves of each of the fully grown plants, making her way up each row. Nope, nope, nope. Ah, here’s a few. Carefully, she removed the ones that were ready, wrapped them, and gently bundled them into the wheelbarrow. Then she trundled back to the farm, cooing at the fat little bundles of joy, wrapped in cabbage leaves, and ready to be sent to new parents all over town.
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March 6, 2007
Tanya: Untitled
“You’re so pretty,” she simpered. “So pretty and smart, and I wish I was just like you.”
I rolled my eyes and kept walking. This bizarre woman with grimy hands, Holly Hobby clothes, and an empty wheelbarrow -- she said the same cloying things to me daily, when she passed me on my lunch break.
She tried to touch me, the little sycophant, as she started cooing about my hair. “So pretty, so pretty...” She wandered off, creepily.
I hate people touching me. The next day, I met her in the alley with a crowbar. Wheelbarrow Betsy is no more.
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