Short Stories

Sue’s Garden

You walk with her down the long gravel filled driveway. Listen to the crunch in the marriage between your feet and the ground. Look at her smile. You see her love so delicately etched into every line of her face by the hands of time. Everything about her is beautiful, but you don’t know it yet. You look over at her side and see a small gardening shovel and rake; her hand clenched around them. You approach the vegetable garden and the smell of the ripe tomatoes surround you when the wind shivers. She bends down slowly and tells you about the beetle bugs that have been feeding on some of the vegetables. She beheads the half eaten leaves with a pincer grasp. You watch her rake the soft ground and turn up the rich dirt. You fade in and out to what she is saying at the moment, but you will remember twenty years later. Listen to her. She breaks off a tomato and reaches it out for you to take. Her arm extends like the branch of the Giving Tree; she provides everything with joy and asks for nothing in return. You can taste the future when you think of dinner.  Your lack of experience leads you to carelessly put the tomato into the basket hanging around your arm. Watch the splinter in the carrier puncture a wound into the skin of the fruit. You see the pulp ooze out and cover the woven wood. Feel the cool jelly with your fingers as you try to clean it up. You remind yourself to try and be more careful next time. You look at her and whisper a “sorry.” Because of the anxiety instilled in you, you tremble with worry that you will be scolded. She proves your expectations wrong with her kind words, “It’s ok buttercup. Water will fix that.” 

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Electric Fence

You looked at me and laughed as we got closer to a summer nights thrill. The air was so thick that our movements became as slow as they did when we walked through the sludge of the muddy creek to get there. I could taste our freedom. Time was nonexistent. The only strand of thoughts that danced through our minds were these great adventures together. Our eyes moved up and down, scanning the reality of our childish decisions. Could we do this? Did it matter? Cotton candy clouds scrolled through the sky as a backdrop to the only real thing we had. A connection. I could smell the short grass and the hot soil. It was the smell of the country; the smell of home. Happy squeals leaked out of our mouths as we felt the harmless shock drizzle through our hands. The cows puffed and ran into the field that stretched for miles. Fireflies began to take flight and glow. Peaking over the long rows of corn, we stood on our toes to watch. You looked at me and said, “Let’s do it again!” I took a deep breath and braced myself for feeling something. Feeling like I would make you proud. Electric sisters. 

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Coffee

The smell fills the house, rich and heavy like freshly dug earth. I follow my nose to the sizzling pot of coffee and pour some into the smooth white porcelain mug I laid out the night before. I need need to find my thermos. For me, it is a three cup kind of day. I will walk out of our second floor apartment door. I will yell “I love you” as I glance at the bottom of the black broken weather strip. I will quickly drive to my office and sneak in sips of my favorite drink at the red traffic light. The feeling of its hot, smooth texture running down the sides of my lady sized throat will open my eyes a little wider and pull my spine a little higher. One hand will hold the sunshine yellow mug to the edges of my lips while the other will hold the steering wheel furiously. I will taste chocolate in the soul of this magically brewed drink. As I age, I will grow to love it more and more. I will try to think back to a time where I didn’t know it existed and ask myself, “how did I function without this?” I won’t be able to recall. 

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Medicine X

In November, I went to my doctor to seek help for my spin cycle thoughts. It wasn’t the first time I stepped into the waiting room lined with chairs sitting neatly side-by-side; I appreciated that. Without hesitation, I walked up and briefly made friends with the outdated sliding glass window. It’s judgmental reflection was staring at me while I wrote my “check in” time. I knew I was late, but I still wrote down the time I “meant” to be there. I heard the nurse call my name and I looked over to see her smiling face by the door. She had a clipboard in her hand and a blue ink pen hanging on the neck line of her shirt. The first thing she did was take me to the scale and I immediately felt queasy; It wasn’t easy to let a stranger see my shame. We moved along into the private room and I could smell the sterile metal as I filled out a chart that asked questions about my mental health. I knew I was depressed, but I pretended not to be by smiling through my clenched teeth. My doctor soon came in with her calm voice and talked to me about "medicine x.” She told that me all of the benefits outweighed the side effects. I could taste my desperation as I eagerly agreed. Life had backed me into a corner. I walked out of the office already feeling liberated. That night, I read the label on “medicine x.” In its tiny black print, it explained that some drowsiness would occur. I decided to take it before bed. Then, my body stumbled into a Rubik’s cube of bewildered sleep; rainbow squares met my eyes on a date after a nights worth of insomniac thoughts. I laid on my back in the darkness of my bedroom waiting for the sun to relieve my brain of its drug related duties. 

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Hello Cupcake, I Love You

The silky strawberry sugar spun frosting sits upon your soft layers of vanilla. You are alone on the countertop and as I walk through the kitchen, I feel your eagerness to please. I’ve been ignoring you for the past hour so I could focus on what needed to be done. I stop in front of you for a minute and grab your pastel wrapped addiction. Your paper crinkles in the palm of my hand. I bring you close to my face and deeply breathe in the fumes that will fill my soul with faux happiness. Don’t worry, I will have you in moderation. My thoughts will continue to dance around the idea of you and I will eventually settle on the instant satisfaction of our relationship. We will have this silent conversation many times throughout the years. You will never plead for your life because you are a martyr and I am your god. I won’t feel guilty until there is no more of you left to hold. However, I will only fall into this trap for a few seconds and then remember that I can make more of you. You will stare me down and I won’t be able to resist.

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Dancer

On the night of the last show of her tour, she listened to the sounds of the orchestra gently float past her ears. The music moved her body into motion. She bent her knees down into a plie and her hands swept across the roughness of her blush colored tulle tutu. She felt her stockings embrace her legs and she leapt wholeheartedly into the air. With her chest pressed forward and a smile drawn, her feet gracefully lingered behind her. Her hands now glide up above her bird shaped locks of brown hair; fingers standing side by side. She breathes in each particle of the dance and it carries her soul across the the sky of the stage. The rays of light catch every inch of her flight. The crowd of people snap their necks back to make sure they don’t miss a moment of her high altitude art.  As she moves further along, she feels stuck. She feels their eyes tie her into a knot of perfection. She lands on her toes and pirouettes her body tightly back onto the spool of her kite flying dreams. Finally, their eyes release her and they move on to the next big thing; an intermission of popcorn and cellphones.

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Going to a Funeral

Watch her as she stares blankly into the depths of the solid green West Virginia mountains. You look too and you are thankful. Feel the embrace of the glowing colors in the sunset; they take you home for a moment and you remember how much you love her. Gently grab her hand and let her know you are there. Your friendship wraps around her like a warm blanket. She needs you now as the cold winds of life beat upon you both. Your softness allows her to lean into the cusp between your arms and chest. You shiver as the heat from the two of you combines with the breeze blowing against the outer edges of your skin. Her silky hair glides upon your chin and you catch yourself in stillness. You acknowledge that now is the time that brings you closer together and you start to move back to the car. Tomorrow you will walk with each other to face the reality of existence. You will hear sorrow, but you will shield her with your delicate words and make what’s to come a little easier to manage. You will search for solace and find it knitted through the years of your marriage. 

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