The Price of Life_Humble Servant_The Forgotten Girl_The Cliff Edge
Catalog Guide:
The Price of Life
“It’s cancer.”Rose rested her phone on the kitchen bench and stared at Aiden standing in the entranceway, the raindrops on his jacket glinting in the light.“What’s cancer?” she asked. Her mind felt sluggish, fixated on the photo displayed on the screen.“The lump. Under my arm. It’s cancer.” Aiden ran his hands through his hair, sprinkling raindrops onto the ground.He stumbled into the kitchen and wrapped his arms around her, his shoulders heaving as he sobbed into her hair. She slipped the phone into her pocket.“I went to the doctor today.” His voice was husky.“You said you were…” She shook he...
Humble Servant
Reading over the first draft of grandma’s obit, I noticed some curious ambiguity; “She died in a Morganton Hospital.” The actual name of the institution wasn’t mentioned, as often was the case when I read other obits for ideas: “Martha Evaline Campbell, age 84, of Jonas Ridge, NC, came home to her Lord and savior after a long fight with cancer at Grace Memorial Hospital.” Curious, but not confusing. Grandma spent the last several months at Broughton, the regional psychiatric hospital. This is where you can be involuntarily committed if the state deems you, according to official criteria, “harm...
The Forgotten Girl
1016 wordsThe Forgotten GirlHer daddy was once a pastor of the local church—her mom a Sunday School teacher. Her parent never took her to church. They never took her anywhere. When she was born, her dad took one look at her and said, "Anything that ugly doesn't belong to me." Sadly, he refused to take her home with them. The baby was left alone, forgotten, unwanted. Being born premature, she wasn't fully developed, and the bones in her forehead had not formed. As the baby nursed her bottle, the forehead would collapse back and forth. The sight made her daddy sick. Her mom was too weak to fig...
The Cliff Edge
The condemned house crouches on the clifftop, hunkered low against the wind. It is a race between the local authority awww.onedoor.ccnd the sea to see which will carry out the sentence. The water seethes below like a restless beast, swirling and eddying, worrying at the cliff walls. Chunks have already collapsed, leaving the top jutting out in places like a shelf. Inexorably the edge is inching closer and closer to the house. The local teenagers and tourists ignore the signs warning of danger on the cliff paths in summer. The thrill of rule breaking diminishes as the temperature falls, and I can go ...