family
Family unites us; but it's also a challenge. All about fighting to stay together, and loving every moment of it.
Bad Girl House
Relief from being pregnant in the summer heat finally came. I started feeling contractions the night of August eighth at around ten o’clock at night. We had learned all about waiting until my contractions were ten minutes apart before calling the midwife and heading to the hospital, so I tried to relax by lying down for a while. While they got closer together, we called our parents to let them know that baby Jessica was on her way. Even when it was time to go, I didn’t think that the pain was too terrible. The intensity of each contraction was nothing that I couldn’t breathe through. I suppose that four years of learning to control my breath to sing was coming in handy now. Also, I had grown up with those terrible cramps, that were almost as bad as what I was going through in labor.
By Kathy Sees5 years ago in Humans
Bad Girl House
As the summer approached, John’s father still didn’t have any leads on long term work. John was looking for work using online job boards, but couldn’t find a job that he felt was worthy of his skill set as a carpenter. He wasn’t finding anything that was going to pay him what he believed he was worth. His overpowering ego wasn’t willing to take a job that would simply provide a salary that would support his family. There was a strong possibly that his recent arrest left a lasting mark on his record that kept him from getting hired anywhere that required a background check. I had to stay home to watch Jessica instead of attending his upcoming court dates, so I didn’t know exactly what he had been charged with. Whether it was John’s unsuccessful search or his growing police record, he eventually stopped looking for a job. Instead, he decided that the most logical and promising option was to find me a teaching position for the coming fall.
By Kathy Sees5 years ago in Humans
A Feeling
There’s this feeling. One you get right before something terrible happens. You have this quiet moment where everything is numb and you’re not exactly sure what the terrible thing is, but you know it’s coming. This really devastating, life altering, terrible thing and there’s nothing you can do but wait for it to happen. You wait for it in stillness. Thinking that maybe if you don’t move, maybe don’t breathe it won’t hear you and it’ll leave you alone. Go on its way and be terrible for somebody else, but this kind of terrible doesn’t disappear no matter how frozen you remain. It calls you up in the voice of your husband and tells you that your single most favorite human will no longer be a part of your life, because she was sick and decided not to burden anybody with the details. She decided that she would leave without warning and to top it off, she called my husband just before. I know he was her son, but I was her best friend. Or, at least she was mine. I never had a mother growing up and that was fine with me because I didn’t know what I was missing, but she changed everything.
By Emily Bartlett5 years ago in Humans
Bad Girl House
The following Spring we were still renting the small house in my grandparent’s neighborhood. Early one calm sunny morning, I heard a knock at our door while I was getting Jessica dressed. I didn’t think anything of it. It could have been a Girl Scout selling cookies, or a neighbor who needed help with something. It could have even been my grandpa stopping by while he was taking a walk. It turned out to be anything but the everyday occurrence that I figured that it was.
By Kathy Sees5 years ago in Humans
The great melting expanse
Guitars like fighter jets in a giant vacuum blare in the empty caverns of her home. A ribcage with feet and a smile dance in a light pitter-patter behind the woman--an occasional scream, an off-beat clap. Wind puffs up the edge of bank papers on the cold, splintered floor. Empty cans of tuna, a miniature fridge with mayonnaise, a small jar and a computer remain. And the ribcage, she dances and laughs.
By Andrew Martin Dodson5 years ago in Humans
The Nest Egg
Jacob never knew he was sitting on a nest egg. Years bouncing around trying to make ends meet while climbing the corporate ladder. Finally making a decent salary and yet he still couldn't find that sweet spot for financial stability. His father always told him to create and protect a nest egg. No matter how much money you made, you had to have that damned nest egg. But every time he started to build it; something came up and ate every last bit. The new roof. Medical bills. A new car. Now this pregnancy and remodeling the house for a "proper nursery." And all the while, that little black book sat in a box in the attic. The only real legacy left by his father. A wasted inheritance and a waste of space.
By Russell Morgan5 years ago in Humans
Return it to Sender
What good are twenty thousand dollars, when it means you have lost everything? What comfort will it bring to me to spend it? Or save it even? I'm not even quite sure what I could truly change with it. I can't call him back to me. I can't turn back loss.
By Brittany Hrafn5 years ago in Humans
Z U R I
The Whitfields were known for one thing and one thing only, their massive vineyards in Columbia Valley. From sparkling wine to a nice merlot, “W” wines was a household name. It was the standard when it came to wine selections and pairings. Zuri Whitfield could not find her family’s legacy any more daunting. As an heir to the family business she detested the idea of one day becoming the head chair, directing board meetings and securing ad placements to keep the brand alive. Sure, she enjoyed a glass of wine as much as the next person. She just wasn’t so in love with the liqueur that she wanted to dedicate the latter part of her life to it. At 28 years old, she had other dreams. To which her family weren’t privy to. If she shared with her very “traditional” parents that she wanted to study the art of interior design they’d laugh. No need to present the idea, she knew of her father’s response already.
By Alexandria Hall5 years ago in Humans
Treasure Hunt
It had been a rough two weeks. Since receiving the phone call that my dad was in the hospital, I had been busier than any day I had been at college. Mom had died six years earlier from cancer and as the only child, it fell to me to take care of Dad.
By Christina Grim5 years ago in Humans
The Shoebox
The Shoebox by HOLLY LE DU They say that you have to know what you want before you can get it. Abby trudged up the snow-covered walkway of her parent’s house, a 19th century faded grey and white 2-story, picking up a brown paper-wrapped package left on the porch.
By Holly Le Du5 years ago in Humans
