Mercy Chapter 10

Talia rushed into Faith’s room and held her tight.

“It’s okay, sweetie. It’s okay.” she said.

“Ta...Ta ... Talia?”

“I got you, hon. It’s okay.”

“Talia I ... had this dream ...”

“Yeah. I know.”

“Huh? How?”

“Hon, because of our friendship, you ... broadcasted to me. That’s how I knew you were in trouble.”

“Why would I dream of ... that?”

“Well, if I were to make a guess, I’d say it’s because you’re about to start your period. Same thing happens to me just before my period starts.”

Jimmy Warren trudged down the street with his hands forlornly thrust into his pockets. The eighth grader was lost in his muddled thoughts of only seven months more of middle school hell. Then there would be four years of high school hell. Maybe, if he survived, college would at least be tolerable. The chill week before Halloween wind whipped and swirled the brown dead leaves willi-nilli across the sidewalks and streets. As usual the backpack he carried was filled with books and weighed nearly half his scrawny seventy five pound weight. The added weight hunched his undersized four feet eight inch frame forward making it look like he was fighting hurricane force winds rather then normal fall zephers.

My ex was an A-wife in things regarding Cheryl.

When we were separated (do to death of our son, not Cheryl) she confessed, that she never felt desired as a woman, because she thought the clothes turned me on not her. I regret, I never got to tell her:

The Ambassador’s Wife.

by

Angharad.

Our pleasant dinner had degenerated into a loud fight between my mermaid sister & our mom; Anee yelling, “How can you keep harping about how awful land people are if you never even met one?!”

Mom stated flatly: “I know all I need to about them.”

“You think you do, but Daddy liked humans. And he had experiences with them, not just a bunch of ignorant bigotry!”

“I've had dealings with humans before.”

“When? When was this?! I've heard all your stories and you never mentioned-”

“I prefer not to discuss it.”

"Now there's a surprise! 'Ewww, it's unpleasant! Let's not discuss it!'" mocked Anemone. She kept goading Mom, relentlessly, stopping just short of calling her a goddamn liar: “No Mom, I wanna hear this! Tell us! Tell us about your encounter with the horrible evil hewwww-mons-”

“I FELL IN LOVE WITH ONE!” roared the Queen, slamming her fists down on the table.

She froze there, stunned; like she'd just blurted out a secret she'd intended to take to the grave with her. Then she sighed, composed herself + told us her story...

Twins Becoming Identical
By
Paula Dillon

Thick dust crept beneath her hijab and Laila bit back a curse. Cairo, she thought, had not been this bad last time she was here. No matter, it was infinitely better than the hell she’d left behind.

Not that she was totally convinced she was out of hell. Perhaps she was simply in a different circle? She wracked her heat-blasted mind for a moment before giving up that train of thought. It was just too hot for Dante.

We drove deep into the city. Through neighborhoods that I was certain Katherine had never seen, yet I recalled Dennis talking about their early days 'on the streets' back east before her discovery, and I knew she would find them all too familiar. Emile grew up here, and somehow found himself part of Katherine's world. It did not surprise me that he knew these streets well.

As we were driving, I took the opportunity to grill Matt.

“So Tiny Tim. What's with the crutches?”