In the foyer of Albert Sidney Johnston's Memorial Library there hangs an old oil portrait of a woman who is dressed in a black dress with a high lacy white collar. Her raven hair is gathered at the back of her head and is tied back in a nice, neat bun. Her face is set in what seems permanent scowl and her high cheekbones seemed sunk in. At the bottom of the painting one would find the name of the woman. “Mercy Anna Howard '' Followed by “Head Librarian” and beside that “1870 till 1920”.

Tuesday: Surrender to the Inevitable

I awoke again to the screech of brakes, followed closely by a mumbled and indistinct "What was that?"

Mumbled because Vonda was no more awake than I was, indistinct because my ears, accompanied by my head, were nestled in her breasts, of which there was considerable to nestle in.

Midnight, Sasha’s and Susan’s Mansion:
Angela was sitting on a floor pillow in the den while she made a database of sub-owners and dealers. She couldn’t believe how many people in the United States owned submarines. There were a few private dealers that could get old military subs.

Is There A Doctor In The House?

As much as I wanted to watch the roofing crew at work, I was getting concerned about the swelling and itching in my chest. Allergy? Some weird virus? Cancer? It's easy to psych yourself out over something like that, especially when all this other shit was happening.

It is me Dolores
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

It was a part of the swamp that I did not know well. It was well off the beaten track, and I had prepared myself even to stop and camp overnight with some gear packed into my kayak. I was aware that there were some houses which could only be accessed by water in that reach, some of them old and some more recent structures which sought the privacy of extreme isolation.

Black Cat Investigations – that’s what it says on the door to my downtown office.,

I’m Black by the way. No, I don’t mean that I’m black. Do I confuse you? What I mean is that my name is Black but I don’t have any African roots (that I know about). Actually, I’m white, almost albino white, blonde (nice wavy hair), 6’4”, 200 lbs almost purely muscles apart from the skeleton, firm chin, chiseled features, snappy dresser and so on.

The Backstory

I'm going to start with a confession: I'm a nutcase.

Don't believe me? Just ask any of my friends and they'll be happy to go into excruciating detail.

Chapter 3.15

May 30th, 2023

8:27 PM

Marcia was out riding Tigger when Darryl phoned her.

“Hi, Foxy,” he said when she answered. “Can you come up to the house? We need to talk about something.”

“Do you want to meet me at the stable?” she asked him.

“No, I think we need to talk in the house about this,” He told her.

“What’s this about?” she asked. “You’re sounding kinda cryptic.”

“Nothing bad, Foxy. I promise that.”

“Okay, now I’m getting suspicious,” she said as she steered the horse toward the barn.