It was about 7 PM, and Jonah had just finished painting his nails in a light purple color. This was his fourth color thus far, having followed white, red, and pink colors in the previous weeks. He and Kelly were staying true to their word, which meant that they kept doing everything that they’ve been dared to do. That night, Kelly was wearing gym shorts and a white t-shirt, whereas Jonah was wearing a set of pink pajamas.

“Ex- excuse me?” The young woman asks, her facemask muffling her soft Yorkshire accent. “Can — can we get a selfie with you, please?” I allow myself a small chuckle as I turn to face the asker of the question — a girl barely older than sixteen, standing with three others of her age. All of them are wearing t-shirts with cartoon caricatures on the front and, even though I can’t see them, angel wing prints on the back, just like all t-shirts promoting the group I tried — and failed — to join.

I had just returned from a friend’s house and was greeted by my Mom at the front door. I immediately went into self-preservation mode as the look on her face meant she was in no mood to be manipulated by her good for nothing son.

I made good grades in school, didn’t get into any trouble and seemed to be well liked by some of my classmates, but apparently still not good enough for Mom by the expression on her face. I briefly wondered what I did this time, from the look on her face it must be earth shattering.

A week after the incident there were still repercussions popping up in the executive level of management at where I work. My immediate boss had written a memo and sent it to all of his fellow male executives. What was said in the memo you never say in public, much less put it in an email and send it out, even if it was only sent to a few fellow male employees. He addressed the coming secretaries day in his email, an unofficial event that our company had honored and participated in for several years.

Unable to find a job after flunking out of high school, my Mom had given me several accounts in her cleaning business. All three were nightclubs, the cleaning had to be done in the early morning hours since the club was open late afternoon and evening till 2 A.M.

The job was not hard, me being eighteen allowed me to work at the club because they sold alcohol. Most of Mom’s other employees either too old to work early in the morning or too young to be in the club.

I was an assistant producer for a TV station, in Phoenix, Az. Deedra, my producer, and I were discussing a bit of information we had just learned about. It was still in the rumor stage, but if true might require us to delve into this mystery, since anything remotely connected to this would make for a great story locally, maybe even nationally.

I was dropping off my wife at her beauty salon, a sudden need to use the bathroom causing me to go in with her, so I could use their facilities. It was sudden, like one minute everything was fine, the next I had to go real bad. It felt like I was leaking a little as I walked towards the restroom, trying to hold my legs together to keep from letting go. I paused at the door, both gender symbols displayed on the same door.