id (Part 2)

Author's note: This story takes place during the last half of the American Civil War. The war has already turned against the South. The casualty rates have devestated families in many Southern communities. A draft has been instituted. Unless a family held a large number of slaves, every male able to hold a rifle was suddenly called to fight for the Southern cause. As the war drug on, boys as young as 13 and men as old as 65 were expected to fill the already depleted ranks of the Army of Northern Virginia.

id (Part 1)

Summer with Em — Chapter 6
By
Julie D Cole

But if they had a contest between the three women at the table as to who was the most insecure, it might have been a dead heat. The girl felt so badly about herself that she had given into hopelessness. The woman who loved her felt overshadowed by a woman whose only fault was that her husband had built her up into a hero of mythical proportion, even in death. And the woman sitting across from them witnessed the love between the two, feeling entirely unworthy and inauthentic; as if being herself was some mere phase of life rather than the huge struggle she had endured with much success.

A Bride’s head, visited

Author's note: This is what happens when you visit the more strange parts of my brain. You have been warned ...

It was a rainy day in 1982. :10
Written and posted by
Barbara Lynn Terry for Dawn Smith

Chapter 1 - That night at home.

When Poppy's grandfather dies, her father inherits his childhood home in Happy Springs, New Hampshire. He decides to take his three daughters from England on their first trip to the land of his birth to fix up the house as a potential summer home and give Poppy a break from some problems she's been having. He says it's an old house that just needs a little work to restore it back to its full glory. It's going to be fun fixing it up. Poppy isn't so sure...

Bishop smiled and Bateau returned her smile. “Always remember, for Francesca it is just a game, one she is very, very good at playing. He is the mouse to your cat, nothing more.”
 

CHAPTER 50
That was a seriously odd arrangement. I mean, there were so many tents outside the church it looked more like some sort of festival than the wedding of a vicar, or of anyone else, come to that. For just an instant, I felt completely at sea among so many people, unable to focus on individual faces, and then people started to emerge from the background, rather like one of those hidden object puzzles.

“I really love you,” she repeated. “I’ve never felt this way about … anyone. Ever. Lately, when I’m not with you it feels like … I dunno. It’s like everything is a commercial, and the movie doesn’t start again until you’re there.”
Richard said “I feel the same way,” as he snuggled his date.
“Really?”
“Yes,” he said tenderly. “You’ve turned my whole world upside down and now I find I can’t go back to living right side up.”
“What if,” Christina said as she watched the stars poke holes in the night, “we couldn’t be together? Would you be sorry?..."