Authors Note:

This work is set in the early stages of the Coronavirus outbreak. It's a work of fiction and if it offends you I apologize in advance. When I saw the reports of young people in Florida still going to the beach something in me wanted to tell a story about someone clueless as to how pandemics work. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this and have a wonderful day.

Marley looked up from behind the wheel she was truing as she heard the bell attached to the door. "Great, two bimbos," she thought as she watched the two young women enter the bike shop. She put the spoke wrench down and wiped her hands on the the worn denim apron then walked out to the sales floor. It was a Wednesday afternoon and she was closing the shop, which meant besides fixing bikes she had to deal with customers, which was far from her favorite activity. She removed the shop worn apron and hung it on a peg, "Can I help you?" Marley asked.

Ever read a story where the ending is told at the beginning, and the beginning is told at the end? That’s what happens in this story of the Twenty Dollar Bet. Jimmy Horton is just another, smart, high school student who tries to get along with everyone. He’s well-liked and will take time to help anyone with a math problem. But he never expected his life to take the turn it did when Roy, Billie, and Robert got to him one day at school. And he never expected that those three would give him the opportunity he actually needed to finally tell his parents something he has known for a long time. Something his girlfriend, Terry Surlowing, has been encouraging him to do for a long time, ever since she dressed him one day at her house and instantly fell in love with her.

All the work I post here is in its first draft format. I do this so that you can still read what I'm writing and so you have a reason to buy my books when they are edited and published, alongside supporting me as a person of course.

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I swiped on my mother's name in my address book. I stared at myself in the mirror as the phone rang and shakily rubbed a finger on my cheeks where my makeup was ruined.

Mindful Book 2

Chapter 1

Restart.

Instrument
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

It all seemed easier that Manny had imagined. It certainly helped that he had a well-thought-out plan to follow. A plan that he would never have been able to formulate. Not in a million years.

Veronicas future comes more clear as she talks with the other witches about her dream

Chapter 9

“I’m not a lady!” Georgie protested.

The woman took his chin in her hand and studied his features for a moment.
“Not a lady? No, of course not. Still, once you’re cleaned up and rested,
we’ll see what you might come to be.”

When I eventually got my hand back from Susan, I was able to complete my charms assignment rather quickly. Everyone else was either already done with their homework or just finishing up, and with plenty of time before lunch I started reading the book Hermione had handed me earlier, simply titled 'Magizoology: Beasts Native To Greece'. It was a drab, factual book that seemed more concerned with the statute of secrecy than anything that could help me get past it. "Hermione, did you find any books that compare muggle mythology with actual facts?"

I decided to take Ms Lukes advice and poured myself a tumbler full of liquor from a dusty bottle that had been my dad's. Like him, I seldom drank except with clients to be sociable, so the large glass of straight liquor hit me hard.

Amazon
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I was born in Morocco into a Moroccan Jewish family. My family had been living in Morocco for many generations after my ancestors were driven from Spain by the Christians. I have always considered myself to be North African.

Uncle
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

“I don't want you to get you haircut,” my mother said. She was suddenly very serious, and I could see that something was wrong. It seemed like fear in her eyes.

“It's just a haircut, Mom,” I said. I was struggling to see what the big issue was. But there was something very wrong. I looked at her in a way that I thought demanded an answer.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard Patty laughing so hard.

“Well, that settles it,” my mom said grinning at Mrs. Garner.

I’d guessed wrong. I looked at Mrs. Garner and saw she was smiling from ear to ear with a glint in her eyes. Patty was laughing hysterically and Amy was giggling. I looked at my mommy and she was putting away the baby items in what used to be Patty’s diaper bag and I realized with shame that it was now my diaper bag.

I began crying. I’d just agreed to be a baby girl and everyone thought it was my choice.

561 W 179th St #2, New York, NY:
Carla was still feeling sore from the bolt that was removed from her shoulder. Her wife gave her an earful about getting hurt again. She knows as she gets older that she’ll be hurting from all the injuries she has sustained. She makes a few turns and finally ends up at the cleaners she was heading for.

Transatlantic
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

“Women and children only! Women and children!”

Try Lesbianism
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

What man would be happy to hear his wife declare that she was a lesbian? That she was a lesbian and did not find him sexually attractive? That she never had?

I mean, such a husband would think: Is it something I did that turned you away from men? Or, if you have always felt this way, what does that say about me? Am I less of a man? When we make love, do you think of me as female to get off?

Imagine you are shopping and suddenly you’re accused of shoplifting. What would you do? And what would you do if you told the truth, to everyone, and because of the lies told by those caught shoplifting, you are deemed guilty? Charles Thorton found himself in this exact situation, while he was at a department store shopping for a necklace for his mother’s 35th birthday. Little did Charles know who he would end up facing after it was decided by the judge he shouldn’t go to juvenile hall.

I ran down the stairs after the man that might be my dad, but there was no sign of him. I stopped in the middle of the archway at the bottom of the stairs, staring down an empty corridor. The tears that had started after seeing the memories were in full force now and I slumped against the wall and cried. I cried for being taken from my parents, for being lied to, for the life that should have been.