Imagine a brisk autumn evening, the kind where the leaves rustle underfoot with every step and the air smells of impending winter. Ethan had always loved these family gatherings at Aunt Clara’s—a quaint house wrapped in ivy, with an overstuffed living room that felt like a hug. Tonight, though, there was a subtle shift in the atmosphere, as if the house itself was holding its breath.

“Uh, sorry, sorry,” he mumbled, but he didn’t turn away.

Sixteen the Hard Way
22.3 Smack!
by Erin Halfelven and Wanda Cunningham

That ride was the longest carnival-type ride I’d ever been on.

This is a sequel to ‘A Walk to a New life’ and "See things through a woman’s eyes’, it may help to relate to the characters if you read them first. But it can be enjoyed as a stand-alone if you prefer.

A young boy's life takes a huge change when he is forced to leave his remote island home.

Alex had a terminal Cancer diagnosis and thought she would die before she got to be the girl she always was inside. That all changes when she's in the wrong place at the right time and gets transported to another world and into the body of a girl. So what if she's not human, she's alive and a girl. Now if only she had her sister with her to navigate this new world and her new responsibilities. Wait, she's here too? The passage of their souls between worlds may have doomed the Earth to apocalypse, but Alex and Michelle won't be there to see it and they have enough problems on their hands.
 

Going Respectable
A Short Western Story
By Maryanne Peters

My story could have been one of tragedy, but I will never allow it to be told that way. The fact is that I was able to turn all my disadvantages into advantages, and to now be spoiled for choice. How many people can say that? Moreover, how many can say it nowadays, with a new century looming and the country set to move with great strides?