Dare To Live
( Vivere è bello anche )
By Julie D Cole

Dare to live until the very last, Why, why, why is the life we live not the life we want?
Our life is often all we have to give.
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(I'm no good at Gimp or Photoshop, you'll just have to imagine that Iris has thistle-colored eyes. Though I do now have an anime-ish avatar depicting Iris.)

After surviving an unexpected and brutal encounter with a monster, a young man is drawn into the world of the Val Kyr.

Hopscotch…A Jump in Life 12

*Before…

“Later’s and Satori?”

“Hmmm?”

“Thanks for today, it really helped and the offer it’s amazing.”

“Hai-hai.”

I smile as she logs off chat and I’m just staring at her page and then smiling as Mom and Dad come in and whatever they have smells amazing.

I’m drooling as he passes me a thing of heat up yourself ramen noodles and with it a Chinese take-out bowl filled with Hot and Sour soup.

And some stuff for me to do.

Right now happiness is Hot and Sour soup and crayons and a coloring book.

*And Now…

Sing a Healing Song, Chapter 10

I woke up, and walked over to a mirror that was above my vanity.

And was shocked to see that I was once again Mathew, and not Fiona, but still walking.

But I was still wearing the nightgown from last night.

Before I could process this, Mom came into the room, and said, “Its time for you to put on your dress for church.”

“But ...”

“No buts! You promised, and a promise is a promise.”

I numbly went over to the dress, and then I was wearing it.

6

This is either a spoiler or an alternative future, depending on how the story decides it wants to go, but I couldn't resist writing it anyway.

Robert sighed as he trudged through the campus grounds and kicked himself for blowing two easy quiz questions in his Calculus class. Had he just paid closer attention he would have seen his mistakes. Robert’s mind was just elsewhere; he kept on thinking about tonight’s plan. He thought it was a good plan, but when the people you were trying to fool were superhuman cheerleaders, it was hard to be confident.

This is a totally non-canon thought exercise, describing the first-time "transformation" of Peter and Luke to Ruth and Lucy, in my story "A Bikini Beach Summer." It was suggested by a Multiverse interpretation of Bikini-Beach reality shifts.

(Miriam renews her faith. Don and Miriam finally take Jack to see Dr. Ellis)

Choices
Chapter 18

How do you explain the adult world to a child, an eleven year old who just two Christmases before still hopefully clung to a belief in a white haired bearded jolly old man in a red suit bringing presents? How do you tell your child that the world he lives in is, at times, cruel and hateful, sinister and ignorant as well as unyielding in myths and dogma? How do you explain reality?

Sing a Healing Song, Chapter 9

We arrived back home, came in and greeted my mom who was in the kitchen making homemade taco salad. I looked at what she was making and “asked” a question of the memories the goddess had given me. The answer was, ‘Yes. Mom had started making stuff like this to try and encourage me to eat more greens.’

I tried to not show how nervous I was during dinner, but I think I breathed a sigh of relief when we’d finished and put our dishes into the dishwasher.

Then Dad said to Mom, “Hon, Can I ... talk to you ... in private?”