I took him back…I don’t know why. I just did. Felt bad for him. We moved here shortly after he was released from prison. Now I fear for my life, I live by rules that he makes up as he goes along and I have to hide food. Was he like this before? Did prison [...]
The winter turns to spring and I’m comfortable in my own skin. I’ve found a small apartment on sixth street. It used to be a store, now converted into two separate apartments. And the riotous McDonells live next door and they treat us like gold. Mrs. Jameson, across the road, is almost 80 and has [...]
I’m not ready for this and he looks like he’s scared to death. He should be. The public defender has asked me to be in court so the judge can see me. Oh and the baby too. Going for the sympathy vote. He’s also told Jonathan to consider pleading guilty and sparing everyone the trauma [...]
I dress Linus and put her in her new stroller. It’s Tuesday and we’re off on a walk to the store to get the milk and bread that was never purchased on Sunday. He’s gone back to work. It’s a warm day in September. It does me good to get out and take that long [...]
Because I don’t know when he’ll be getting home, waiting for him is a hell all its own. I clean and clean some more. Just after one o’clock, I put Linus down for her nap. I lay on the sofa and hold still. That’s when I hear the keys in the door. I jump up, [...]
When I see the gun the detective is holstering, my first instinct is to cover my stomach, to protect my baby. I invite them in but I don’t invite them to sit down…I can’t sit down, I won’t let them sit down. Just tell me… I don’t ask if he’s dead. It never occurs [...]
When we were first married, life was fairly decent. He was working in the steel mill, making good money and we’d just moved from a stuffy attic apartment in the Italian quarter, to a spacious sunlit place in a brand new high rise complex. We even had a little car. We’d bought new furniture, nothing [...]
New people have moved into the other half of the house. A young man named Jeff and his sisters Sandy and Norma. They’re from down east. And Mr. Congeniality proceeds to invite them over for beer. The girls are underage but he tells them to go ahead and they don’t refuse it. I don’t drink [...]
It takes me three days before I have the courage to go back to the mall and retrieve my packages. Michael never asks what happened and I’m grateful. I watch the house constantly. I will never be able to explain my way out a second time.
In a few days, I will have filled [...]