sweetheart redux

4. It was a rainy Tuesday afternoon, one of the very few rainy days Los Angeles residents see in a year, when George would first meet both Richard and Beth. "Beth, now I was hoping you'd be coming in his way, I got a problem I need your help with," her favorite security guard was telling her as she arrived at the library that morning. "Oh, hi Franklin.   Did you run out of cigarettes?   I can loan you a pack for the day, I have 2 in my purse." "No not today, I'm getting them by the carton at that Armenian place across the street now.   But I know you good with cats and there's a baby one stuck under the building, near the planter out front.   I saw it this morning, and I was fussing with him for a while trying to get ahold of him but then I had to punch in my time card.   Can you ask Lorraine," that was Beth's supervisor, a casual sort of woman likely to allow any request from Beth, "if you can go look for the kitten?   I ...

3. What happened that night of their only date is that, finally, she would not let herself believe that he was attracted to her.   When the group of co-workers left them alone at their table again, James looked at Beth, sighed and joked, "I thought they'd never leave," though the group had only visited with them for a few minutes.   His hand found hers under the table.   His touch startled her and she flinched, which caused them to giggle, but Beth's smile left her face too suddenly.   "Are you tired?   Your bus stop is before mine, so we could probably catch the 10:30 bus together." "Oh, um, okay --" "No, I don't mean to hurry you.   We can stay as long as you want.   I just wanted to make sure I wasn't keeping you out too late." "Yeah, I should get home, actually.   I told my mom I'd try to call her tonight.   You said you could wait for the bus with me?" She'd already started mourning her ...

Marc Chagall Alexander Cozens     Maxfield Parrish

2. "Did you miss me?" Beth asked, sarcastically. But in fact, James had. They had just seen each other two hours earlier, for the smoke break they'd agreed to take together, and now she was back, wearing a sweater unfamiliar to him that looked like a patchwork quilt, and she was asking if he wanted to sit with her on one of the benches outside for lunch. She always drank a fountain soda from the food court and always steadily smoked on her lunch breaks, but she only sometimes ate. Yet she wasn't painfully skinny. She had just the softest suggestion of a double chin. When she looked down at a novel held in her lap, he saw the extra fold of fat reveal itself under her rather pointy chin, and it only made her face more beautiful. She thought he looked like John Lennon only with dirty blonde hair, and all the little rips and stains and awkwardness that hung about him, signaling a deficiency of self-worth to the straight world, only attracted her mo...

Hello Beauties, Well, it's been two days since Xmas, a day I look forward to all year (this is a sort of hard to explain quirk of mine, since I hate Christianity and sort of all religion so much, but I seriously LOVE December) and nothing much has changed but the wonderful red Minnetonka moccasins and Gryffindor sweater I'm wearing to work today.  I do feel bummed that I don't keep up  with my blog, and also that I don't really write anymore these days.  Also, I've been very lonely.  I have a wonderful son and a great husband and they are my best friends, but seriously, I'm so goddamn lonely anyway.  Maybe I will feel less lonely if I get busy on my blog again.  I don't have many new ideas or fictions to share right now though so I'm going to serialize my novella Yesteryou, to get me back in the swing of things, and maybe to get discovered (chuckle times infinity).  I started to serialize it a couple years ago and in fact the below chapter first appea...

I lived with my dad and stepmom, and stayed with my mom at her apartment on the weekends.  She is a Lutheran now but when I was growing up she was an ex-catholic, and I’d been an atheist since sixth grade, when I signed off forever with one final, angry goodbye prayer; nonetheless, we always made a big deal of Easter.  I think that a lot of non-Christians, including myself, celebrate Christmas despite the fact that it’s a Christian holiday, and who can blame us? - in December, the city looks the way I'd have it year-round if I were God, with little lights like glowing, stationary fairies outlining rooflines and tangled in branches.  But Easter's theme of martyrdom is palpable and a drag, and the decorations are all in muted pastel.   By the time I was eleven or so, Easter and the Fourth of July were two of my least favorite days, because I’d been on a kids-free vacation from school by the time each of those holidays rolled around, and therefore was incredibly...