Feminist author and science educator. Midwest, middle-aged, growing midsection, but definitely NOT middle of the road.
Stories
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The Dogwood Also Rises
I love to stand on a path in the woodlands in early March and look closely. As I cast my gaze out at the barren trees and the verdant pines, I find the ghostly dogwood trees staring back. They are dwarfed by the full-grown trees surrounding them. They ...
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Writing Country Western Music for Dummies
My father, the truck driver, wrote country western songs for decades. He used to say, “Every gas station attendant in Nashville has written a country western song, honey.” Which brings us to the first rule: find a dead end job where you can...
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Space Station Alpha Flies Over
As Jeopardy! begins for three I have but nineteen minutes before I rush to look above, and see what the sky has in it. A star that glides from West to North as my chin reaches higher. She cannot see my house, nor me, but I can see her fire. She wafts o...
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My Longest Relationship
My marriage lasted 11 years. He was a tall, brooding Irish writer and I compeated for the computer to write my own stuff. We even tried writing together. Then I realized he had the wrong “stuff” for me. I was with my first partner for 4 and...
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Apostle's Creed
“What is the petial light?” I asked Grandma as we stood over my father’s grave and prayed. The twisted cedar tree seemed to lean closer. Surely it wondered the same thing. Grandma made the sign-of-the-cross and saved my eternal soul from the damn...
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Gehen Sie!
She walked through the courtyard with determination and purpose in her step. Her green eyes had searched for the sword, and under the moon’s misty glow, she could finally see it. It was flanked by 2 older women, nuns from the reclusive order who ...
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Donner and Blitzen and the Summer Immigrants
The dragonfly and firefly hovered over a rose. “Right there! Do you smell it now?” Donner asked Blitzen. “It’s insecticide! She found one of those Dog-gone . . .” “Now, Donner, you know how I feel when you take the n...
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Bobby Burns Did It
I have participated in a number of challenges since joining last August – 36 to be exact. I have always read with interest what inspires the challenge. There have been literary challenges such as Shakespeare, word and phrase lists, random book pa...
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She Ain't Heavy, She's My Mother
Monica had been battling cancer and every member of the family was helping this 15 year old girl in the struggle for her life. The musicians in the family were playing. There were raffles and silent auctions. Restaurants brought food. I was serving piz...
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The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa
You, I am looking at you. Yes, the “learned” Cornaro men sitting there as if my ordeal is played out for your pleasure. We have a name for men who watch while others are pierced and penetrated. No, it’s not “witnesses” it&...
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Hit My Mark
Shakespeare in the park can be brutal. I have appeared in King Lear with tornado sirens blaring and The Tempest in a cold snap wearing only tights and a smile. I have been bitten by mosquitoes during twelve Twelfth Nights and endured wandering alcoholi...
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Lost in a Found Place
Cheerful scientist outside, struggling artist inside. ()()()<>()()()<>()()()<>()()()
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How to Wrestle the Virgin Mary and Win
Laurie didn’t blame the Blessed Virgin. It wasn’t her fault that Billy had died so young or that January had brought heavy rains into the family cemetery to topple the monument. 200 lbs of sculpted cement lay atop Billy, Dad, and Grandpa No...
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A Pair of Docs Walk Into a Bar
Brandon grabbed the clip away from Taz. “Dude, you’re like, time out, you’re hoarding!” Taz pulled up the rim of his hat and looked at Brandon. “Bran, man, I wouldn’t hog the nice. You’re like my bro, Bro.̶...
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A Balloon Came Down
I am the Amazon beneath these curtains. Disregard everything in front. I am gigantic and horrible- all 150 inches of me. Just ask those kids. I am a lunatic magician, a no-nonsense woman with an opinion on popularity. I am queer. I am resolved to trust...
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Just Enough for 2010
This is my 49th published story on ficly and I am 49. I have managed to accomplish one goal before the year ended. For that, and other things, I am thankful. 1. I am thankful that I will not see any more of those funky New Years glasses with an “...
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The Cellist of Sarajevo
The crater was not so large that he couldn’t climb in. It was not so small that he couldn’t fit. The blast had been just large enough to lift 22 of his neighbors, his countrymen, heavenward. The promise of bread had brought them there. The ...
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Libra? a Little Justice, Please
Andromeda is chained to a chair! What have you been smoking? I know that’s what they taught you in school, and I shouldn’t hold it against you but I, Cassiopeia, would like to set the record straight. I am not now, nor have I ever been, boa...
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If the SyFy Channel Did "A Christmas Carol"
“Cameron!” A leather-clad figure stepped forward. He was missing a hand and his face was half-gone, but Cameron recognized the ancient Terminator. “Cameron, I hev come back to Cahleeforniya to varn you. Dees chains are my burden. I carry dem fore...
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It Came Upon a Blank Space
It came below a screen door clear. That glorious print of old, from journalist toiling into the night in prints italic and bold. “Peace on the Earth” the headline read, and many more wished it were true. Now spread our words on the Internet...
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Christmas of '78
Foreigner’s Double Vision was playing on the turntable. I didn’t know the words. The record belonged to my younger, way cooler, sister. She went to see The Scorpions and Boston in arenas and I was a theatre nerd. I knew the words that linke...
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In Search of Harmony
“When are you going to start playing again, Mike?” She asked as she topped off the cup of black coffee and sat across from him at Bob Evans. Mike rubbed his hands across his nearly bald scalp. He was searching for an answer that would pacif...
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Women with Sharp Weapons
I wanted to be a pirate! I set the blame for this one squarely on the shoulders of Maureen O’Hara. The shoulders that hid beneath endless swirls of red hair. (Technicolor loved that red hair.) She stood tall and strong on the deck of The Black Sw...
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Angels and Demons in Ten Words
Four statues converge below a parachuting Pope: figure it out!
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Billy's Rainbow
On her way home from the funeral, a melody popped into her head. She sang it aloud in the car. She hadn’t been able to turn on the radio since Billy died. It kept her company instead of the classic rock that she and Billy enjoyed and played. The ...
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A Time For Every Purpose Under Heaven
I had just read the poem I wrote after dad died on November 11, 1998. It was Friday the 13th and the poem was wrenching. He died alone, in Atlanta, in a truckstop. He was 58 years old and the heart attack was massive. At 3:30 a.m. the phone rang. ̶...
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A Time To Be Born . . . A Time to Die
On November 1st she grabs her plastic hair bonnet. It is raining outside, but it is All Saints Day and she must make it to 6:30 morning mass. She shuffles across the bedroom floor and delicately grasps the rosary her son made in elementary school under...
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Dear Jeff
I remember playing racquetball in 1987. You were a foot taller than me and you always won. Racquetball wasn’t like the tennis I was used to. I asked you if your father ever let you win at anything when you were a small boy. I wasn’t surpris...
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A Labor of Love
When I taught kindergarten, I had to give a standardized test. One question showed a man chopping wood and the same man reading a book. I asked the students to choose which picture showed the man ‘working.’ A boy chose the man reading and f...
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Lib Sena and the Cold Case
Detective Lib Sena strode across the empty dance floor like a wrangler wearing leather chaps. She stopped at the vacant bar and grabbed a bottle from the top shelf. Jill, the club owner, protested. “Hey, lay off the Jack until you’ve cracked the ca...
