I wished with all my heart that I had been able to help him more, when he was younger. When it might have made a difference. But the past, as I knew only too well, could not be repaired.

It could only be transcended.

Things were going well in Dublin, but I now needed to move to London. From there I could apply at the Embassy for a passport with greater leeway as to who could countersign the paperwork. We told Sameed that we would be quitting at the end of the week and he was most disconsolate. He persuaded us to do one more week and we were happy to oblige him. He also gave us a reference in Arabic in the event that we wanted to look for work in any of the Lebanese restaurants or Arabic-themed clubs there.

Murder
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Have you heard it said that a friend is somebody who will help you move house, but a best friend is somebody who will help you move a body? That is the kind of friend my brother Dan was to Byron Marker. And I was as close to Dan as a sister could be, which was how I got to be included in their plan.

Alco’s Self Storage:
“Man, I am so sore from moving all those heavy boxes and that piano.” Rustie looks at Ivy as he sweeps up the last of the trash in the second locker.

Rustie didn’t know that when someone bought a storage locker, they had to throw away all the trash in the locker as well. It was a good thing the storage unit manager had a wheel barrel they could use to haul all the trash to the dumpster.