Heather's Profile

Hey! Why haven't you written that book yet?

I ask myself that question at least once a month. I have several assorted responses, all but one of which are for the world at large; just one for me. I'll get to that. This is what I know about... Continue reading

Posted Jun 15, 2021 at Alecto's Ophelia

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Option 3

They walked, head down counting paving stones which is harder than counting steps which is how they generally get through the day. One, two, three, four, five...two hundred twenty-six, and eleven hundred is half a mile. Uneven paving stones aren't... Continue reading

Posted Jun 13, 2021 at Alecto's Ophelia

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How to Weed a Meadow

Channeling Carl Spackler I start out with a dangerously sharp four pronged implement of destruction and the fervent belief that I'm tackling no more than undesirable rhizomes and maybe some grass and stuff - because there is always grass and... Continue reading

Posted Jun 12, 2021 at Alecto's Ophelia

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The long stroke of G...

David Kaynor died on the 1st of June and six days later I took Elizabeth's violin from its case and in its place returned a fiddle. Less than 24 hours ago I did the unthinkable and broke my heart, and... Continue reading

Posted Jun 8, 2021 at Alecto's Ophelia

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Margaret's Children

Circe did not die of anything other than a spiteful untruth which would have been unconscionable if Helios had any sort of scruples. However, drowning her in Lethe did nothing other than wipe the hard drive. The Circe encapsulated BIOS... Continue reading

Posted Jun 3, 2021 at Alecto's Ophelia

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The Big Hurt

A face to shatter a mother's heart and most days fold her soul in half. I don't know what the world sees, but it can't possibly miss the vulnerability. That one moment in a series of photographs, the sort of... Continue reading

Posted Jun 1, 2021 at Alecto's Ophelia

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Paper Storms

Every square inch of a very large desk is covered with paper. Stacks and stacks of paper, but so orderly, so neat. Each stack tidy as a brick, the relevant context and content of my life organized by brute force... Continue reading

Posted May 30, 2021 at Alecto's Ophelia

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Fifty pounds of marbles in a five pound bag

This is what an eleven year old Prius cannot do: 65 mph uphill in the rain with about four times the load it can reasonably be expected to bear. All three vehicles had about four times the load they can... Continue reading

Posted May 29, 2021 at Alecto's Ophelia

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87% Transparent

There is a small stone house on the corner of Columbus and Saratoga, unoccupied so long neither Nina or April can remember when it wasn't just empty, sitting on the corner like that. Whoever owns it now has been trying... Continue reading

Posted May 27, 2021 at Alecto's Ophelia

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Crash Pads

There it is. Between the carpet and the sleeping bag which is under the down blanket. I don't recall the brand and I want to say North Face but if that's true, North Face should be embarrassed although I see... Continue reading

Posted May 26, 2021 at Alecto's Ophelia

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Building a Birthright

I think we were in Donegal because that's where I got my jacket and I only recall spending that much money in one place. I know we were looking for them, both the linens and the jackets, and there they... Continue reading

Posted May 25, 2021 at Alecto's Ophelia

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Back in the flatlands

The original timestamp on The Red Umbrella (and the light) is August 13, 2020 which has caused a dip into the well of cognitive dissonance this morning. The post was written forty-eight hours after I'd put my affairs in order... Continue reading

Posted May 23, 2021 at Alecto's Ophelia

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What we were meant to be

Like a memory, every time a story's told it changes. I can speak to memories because they're personal and if I'm paying attention I can see one set of small truths swapped out for another. How is a memory not... Continue reading

Posted May 16, 2021 at Alecto's Ophelia

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Traveling Jack

Maybe it was the editor, I don't know. All writers have an identifying syntax, or voice, sometimes subtle, sometimes not so much. Some voices announce themselves at the opening sentence; or at the very least, the first paragraph. The voices... Continue reading

Posted May 14, 2021 at Alecto's Ophelia

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My father's meadow

They came from Sugarland in Texas; hadn't been there very long, and before that Ohio and before that Connecticut. In Sugarland, he pronounced himself done. He was sixty, or almost, and he was done. My dad, he tells a pretty... Continue reading

Posted May 11, 2021 at Alecto's Ophelia

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Yes, well...

Why? Why do I, personally, need all tens? I'm not leaving the rest of you out of the mix, don't worry; I'm sure some of you twitch at a nine or an eight. Just like me. I'm out of time.... Continue reading

Posted May 8, 2021 at Alecto's Ophelia

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The Thing Machine

Always this: Surely you could have found a better way. Maybe? It's not for lack of trying and the first time I went I cried through the whole process. You back your vehicle up to the dumping line, open whatever... Continue reading

Posted May 4, 2021 at Alecto's Ophelia

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The Impeachment of Senator Snowball

I don't know what made me think I could pluck the exact correct rooster from a coop an hour before sunrise. Maybe that Magical Thinking business. I didn't want him in the dog crate any longer than necessary; dude was... Continue reading

Posted May 3, 2021 at Alecto's Ophelia

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The Backseat

Ruth is stuck at the intersection of US 67 and New Street where the snake of westbound traffic is expected this time of day and left turns are a misery. Someday the death toll will put a traffic light at... Continue reading

Posted May 1, 2021 at Alecto's Ophelia

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Bob

It's green, like Ireland but not so overwhelming because it's just a chunk of space, not a panoramic state of being and I can only see it from this window where I work. I have coffee with Bob on good... Continue reading

Posted Apr 29, 2021 at Alecto's Ophelia

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Don't Look.

Kid's in the chair again. Big open room; too much dark wood. Eyes closed. "Open mouth, please." Dental clamps taste like cigar smoke and soft serve vanilla ice cream, and the crunch of pliers on teeth and metal bands too... Continue reading

Posted Apr 27, 2021 at Alecto's Ophelia

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Anticipation

Jessica Adams did not leave three dozen white roses on a stone bench on the Upper West Side within twenty feet of the 72nd Street Station. I know this because I listened to Ms. Adams discuss the merits of the... Continue reading

Posted Apr 24, 2021 at Alecto's Ophelia

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To Market, to Market

When Talia was thirteen, she was by no stretch of the imagination the great beauty they'd expected. She wasn't an eyesore, but she had a way of not really being there. You could stare as long as you liked, but her face remained a blur. They agreed she had brownish... Continue reading

Posted Apr 23, 2021 at Uncensored, mostly

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A Small Blue Egg

When Talia was three she lost herself in the garden behind the house, stomped in circles, and howled at moon-rise. Nanny noticed her absence after tea. The clock ticked and the family sat. Her uncle broke the peace by mentioning the missing child. Mother coughed discretely, and a vote delayed... Continue reading

Posted Apr 23, 2021 at Uncensored, mostly

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Revisionist writing

Anne Sexton - Nov 9, 1928 - Oct 4, 1974 In 1987, Jack Zipes published a collection of fairy tales called, Don't Bet on the Prince: Contemporary Feminist Fairy Tales in North America and England. The two authors who stood... Continue reading

Posted Apr 22, 2021 at Alecto's Ophelia

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