I guess I wasn’t feeling so hot when I picked Debbie up at her house, and she quickly picked up on that.

“Are you all right, Em? You seem very...distant, almost upset. Did I piss you off somehow? If so, I apologize, but please talk to me, please?”

“Oh honey, it’s not you. I just got some interesting news last night, and I’m not sure how I want to handle it.”

“Is there anything I can do to help, somehow?”

“I honestly don’t know, Deb. Mom and I were doing some testing to find out where my affinities lay, and, well...”

My life changed that wonderful year—the year that I stopped being Anthony and started my life as Ann.

Cross-Country: Skiing, by Karin Bishop

Part 6

Chapter 14: Shelly’s Back

The Girl Inside
By Julie D Cole

As I looked into the mirror it gave me quite a fright,
I’m getting old, an aging man and it’s not a pretty sight.
My hair is limp my face is drawn and as I took a look down there,
Where’s it gone, it’s hard to say, with all this body hair.

I stood and stared for ages, not a pretty sight at all,
Reflecting on my life so far, then at a picture on the wall,
A woman in her prime of life, her beauty plain to see,
A picture taken years ago, Mmm was that really me?

Took a sad song of one sweet evening*
I smiled and quickly turned away.
It's not easy singing sad songs
But still the easiest way I have to say.

The Girl Most Likely To ...
by Barbara Lynn Terry

Part II - Dinner at the Richards house (cont.)

"Well, I think it is nice to have someone her own age helping her. Sandi, I taught you makeup and hair styling when you were nine and wanted to know why I was putting makeup on to go work. I think this is going to be a wonderful opportunity for the both of you. Sandi, why don't you take Renée to her room. I want to talk to her parents for a bit."

"Come, Renée, the adults want to be alone." There were giggles and laughter from everybody.

CHAPTER 16
“Maman! What am I to wear today? Can I not wear the same dress as yesterday? Elle has not seen it!”

My mother’s voice came up the stairs. “Margot has”

“Yes, but she will not---oh, my mother! You have, have you not?”

“I have done what, my sweet?”

“Asked them both back for the evening!”

“Oh God, I have no clue what to pack for this trip!” Sarah whined as she went through her closet looking at all her clothes.

Faith giggled. “Tis a right pishy on ya Moira cannae be there, aye?”

Sarah turned to stare blankly at Faith for just a moment. “For a second there, I almost understood that.”

“You’ll be fine!” she insisted as she flopped down on Sarah’s bed, watching her spelunk through the closet.

Chapter 13

I picked up a bra and pantie set and was looking at the price when an a
ssistant asked if she could help. ‘What size are you looking for Madam. Can I help you.’
‘I had absolutely no idea.’

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Daughter to Demons

by Jeffrey M. Mahr and Levanah

Chapter Twenty-Three:
World Enough and Time

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh!

My story has a blurb and this is it. I believe that story blurbs should lure the reader into a false sense of urgency to read the story that follows. This urgency should be SO strong that NOT reading the following story becomes a total impossibility. So without further delay; I present the story you have all be WAITING for.

Legacy of the Anari

by Ashleigh Blayze

Chapter 13

Ashai Lennox has finished the first part of her deal with the Krayt's leader. The Cobalts are destroyed and their boss Grinder is dead. Now Ashai must deal with the Reivers and their cyborg leader Heti, to get her ride off Yasm.

Once there was a way,
To get back homeward.

A figure stood over the girl who lay sleeping on the bed. She sang a wordless song that seemed to bless the girl as she slept; not so much sleeping as languishing in a stupor from little food and way too much Jim Beam.

“I’m sorry.”


 
Chapter 9

* * * * *

May 30, 1960 Memorial Day, Washington, D.C., Evening

Chapter One

“Mom, what are you doing here?”
“You wanted to talk Robert. So, I’m here.”
“Am I doing the right thing?"
"That’s a simple question with a very complex answer. And I’m not sure I have the right answer.”
“That doesn’t matter, as much as you’re letting me talk about it.”
“Then, why don’t you know this is the right thing?"
"I... look, I’m your son. But... I should have been your daughter. I know it my heart and mind, I’m a woman. That, this way, I’m living a lie.”

She sat on the steps just upstream of the bridge. Two hours now, as the Ouse roiled and surged round the old stone and debris span in the eddies. Soon, perhaps, the flood markers in the pub downstream would need another notch, and the gardens to her right would be submerged. Winter rains, winter floods, who gave a shit, really? All part of a world she had tried to engage with, that had spurned every attempt she had made to join. The light was fading slowly on a miserably grey and washed out February afternoon, and as it went, so would she. There was only so much strength given to a person, she thought, and when that was gone, so were they.

The glow of the laptop cast an eerie pall on Jeremy Armetta’s face. He peered at the screen and shook his head, tears streaming down his cheeks. Ironic that illumination gained such a painful meaning, but ultimately was to his benefit. He looked down at the book he had open in front of him next to his laptop and shrugged his shoulders. Whoever said that always being in the ‘right’ was a good thing didn’t know what they were talking about. He closed the book and shut the laptop before turning back toward the bed where his wife slept. What she had told him wasn’t the right thing to do as far as he knew but what she said to him still felt right…. ”Call our Son.”

Steps of Faith
by Andrea Lena DiMaggio