Fifty and Out

By Dee Sylvan

June 2023

I’m sitting in my car wondering what in the heck has gotten into me. The Grande Ballroom is hosting my 50-year class reunion and I’m in the parking lot, ready to walk in, but…

18 months ago, somewhere in the Thumb region…

Rachel, one of my best friends from High School and the former homecoming queen, is showing up on my caller id. “Hi Alex, would you be interested in helping plan our 50th high school reunion for the Fort Austin Pirates?”

Allison is a woman now, definitely legally, the court has ruled on that. And she’s been to see a woman’s doctor. An actually qualified, voter doctor, with all the education and training, who injected Allison with medication she could never have thought even existed; it’ll turn her into a woman. Or at least give her the physical appearance of a woman, within a few months. A second puberty. Then the doctor ‘prescribed’ Allison and her friend Angie a nice meal in a really lovely restaurant on the hospital level. This, according to Angie, is why everyone loves Doctor Grace.

The only other thing left on Allison’s agenda, which was written by Angie, is to get shoes. She can’t keep walking around barefoot and she can’t stand wearing boots in the lace-less female style; every time she stumbles from loose boots a man runs to her rescue. So shoes it is. And shoes are easy, right? There’s no surprises with shoes? Surely..?

Is Late Better than Never?
by Lily Rasputin

Chapter Two

Author’s Note: TW: Suicide

It took me a moment to recover from the shock created by the voicemail bombshell.

I pointed at the phone as I glared at Namira. “What the hell was that all about?” The pause button was pressed on my earlier trepidation about angering a powerful, otherworldly being.

“Nanny? Why am I … I mean, why is Maddie, my family’s new nanny? For that matter, why is Kelly even hiring a nanny in the first place?”

Genesis barely remembered going home from the mall. All she remembered was the shock she was in. Mirna had been murdered. She wouldn't be able to reset everything to the way it was. Genesis would be stuck as a woman for the rest of her life. By the time she got home, she was right on the verge of crying. She didn't even bother talking to her dad or stepmom. She just went straight to her room, flopped down on her bed, and started crying. She cried nonstop for half an hour, feeling really sorry for herself. Her life had hit a low point that she doubted she could get up from.

35. Playdate

Did you know, some infinities are larger than others?

Yeah, I had much the same reaction. As in dude, what are you smoking, and where can I get some?

It’s true though. The proof goes something like this:

Integers are whole numbers which can be positive, negative or zero.

The smallest positive integer is one and each subsequent integer can be found by adding one to the last.

If there is a finite number of integers, then there has to be a finite number that is the largest integer. We can call this n.

Gary and Leah get persuaded to join in when their friends decide it's time to make a dramatic New Year's Resolution - one that involves the transformation booths that have become common where they live...

(First time here, encouraged by magicshoppe to join the contest.)

Ellie has an unexpected customer at the café, and once again her life is in confusion.

“Bryan, where’s Martin?” Wendy said as he entered. They twins hugged one another.

“I can’t stay long. We broke up.”

“Really? W–?” Marisol said, also giving her brother-in-law a hug.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Bro.”

“There’s nothing you can do about it. We disagreed about something and neither of us were willing to change our positions. It was a mutual understanding that we’d grown apart.”

“You were together for five years.”

Minsha and I returned to the Queen’s Spire, leaving the fleet behind. The urgency of the battlefield was replaced by a different mission - a personal one. It was time for a crucial conversation with Maninor, the Tragnor leader. The Tragnor home world awaited a unique tradition, the hunt, which would symbolize not just our union but the unity between our peoples.

December 28

It was three days after Christmas. I’d sent all the thank-you letters and finished all the left-overs. So now I could relax for a few days before the New Year’s Eve binge with my drinking mates.

And that thought set me thinking about the New Year and, for some odd reason, New Year resolutions, things I’ve never really given any consideration to, but perhaps I should. So for the first time, I did, doing a rapid assessment of how my life was going. Were there any facets of it that could do with improvement?

Two Sides of the Coin (Part 2)
By Sabrina G. Langton

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Author's note: Well that date we mentioned last time finally happens, we also discover what piqued Owen's interest and we learn a little more of our heroine's crazy, heartbreaking past. Her world is changing faster and becoming more crowded on this side of the globe...

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