Posts

The Self

-
Meredith scoffs at the paper, slightly crumpled from obviously being shoved into her purse with little to no care. She stares down at the words ‘The Self’, circled in obnoxious red pen, as they glare back at her. Meredith wonders what kind of sick joke this is meant to be, if someone had been watching her life unbeknownst to her, and she has the sudden urge to search the apartment for holes when she gets home. Reading the advice typed up seemingly for her, she makes an indignant noise. ‘Focus only on self-improvement’. It sounded like something she would’ve said a year ago, back when she was a housewife with nothing to do but look pretty. Now she was a single mother, working day and night to make ends meet. Meredith opens the door to the apartment and slips her shoes off at the door, immediately making her way to the bedroom, only to find that Timothy isn’t sleeping, but rather situated on the floor, an array of crayons scattered around him. He’s hunched over a piece of paper with ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Shrouded Figure

-
The circus is loud, buzzing with the sound of everyone trying to distract themselves from Mr. Evan’s murder. Meredith is on edge, she has been since Timothy’s first nightmare, but the little boy seems to be thoroughly enjoying himself, staring in awe at the animals that walk past, from the slow-moving elephants to the rambunctious monkeys. Once they find a place inside the main tent, he jitters listlessly in his seat, impatient for the show to start. Moments later, a woman sits beside him, and Meredith recognizes her as Stephanie Lovett. She seems just as antsy as Timothy, but it appears to be out of anxiety as opposed to excitement. Once she sees the little boy, though, a smile stretches across her face. They’re quick to begin talking. The seven-year-old is usually shy around strangers, but he sits comfortably talking to this woman he’s never met before, discussing the animals. Meredith lets the two talk and instead focuses on the crowd around her. Though most everything seems norm...
1 comment
Read more

Time and Flowers

-
It is 4:39 am. Meredith knows because she’s been checking her watch every thirty seconds, maybe as some kind of attempt to break the monotony that is Grumble Bee in the wee hours of the morning. She’s working the night shift, something that she dreads most in the world. The only thing that comes close to beating it is the buzzing of the frogs outside, a blanket of noise that has covered the town for the past few weeks. Inside the store it’s muted, but when the doors open the cacophony floods in, filling every unswept crevice of the building. To make matters worse, Meredith’s uniform is far too tight, having shrunk in the wash. Though her frame is petite, standing at 5’2 with narrow shoulders and hips, it is no match for the restrictive material. The last customer had been around 2:30 am, so the only company Meredith has had for the past two hours has been the frogs outside. Obviously, being not much company at all, Meredith resorts to switching between checking her watch and pulling a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Cloud Watching

-
Meredith and Timothy are lying in the grass at the local playground. They’re cloud watching, something they’ve done since Timothy first began speaking. “Bunny,” Timothy says, extending his arm to point at an oddly shaped cloud to his left. “Looks more like a… I dunno, maybe a person.” They sit in relative silence for a long time, only breaking it to point out a cloud of a particular kind every once and awhile. The quiet is peaceful, so Meredith closes her eyes. As soon as she starts to drift off, Timothy speaks. “Can I hold the clouds in my hand?” When Timothy was first born, his father used to always joke that Meredith better look up why the sky is blue, in case he asks. Lance, Timothy’s father, liked to joke that she was stupid, because she never finished school. She didn’t need to be smart, and she didn’t need a job. Lance made the money, all she needed to do was take care of Timothy. The boy has never asked once why the sky is blue. Maybe he realizes the irony of th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Everything and then some

-
Meredith wakes to the sound of crying. She bolts up from the couch, making for the bedroom door while stepping around piles of dirty dishes in the dark. Her foot catches on a loose board and she tumbles, just barely managing to break her fall with her hands and knees. She cusses as she gets up, ignoring the stinging feeling of the brisk air on her grazed skin. The crying has lessened to intermittent hiccups now, so she opens the door and enters. Inside, Timothy lies on the bed with a blanket wrapped tightly around his head. “It happened again,” he says timidly, voice quivering. Meredith rushes to him and pulls him into a tight hug. He begins to cry. “Shhhh,” she whispers, “Shhhh. It’s alright, I’m here.” She rocks him back and forth, singing softly, “...the answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind…” And they sleep. Meredith wakes again to the sound of her son breathing, in and out, in and out. He is small in her arms, even fo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Old People and Rotting Fruit

-
The day starts with the scent of old people and rotting fruit, the signature smell of Grumble Bee. It differs depending on the season and the day of the week (in the spring its strawberries, on Wednesdays it's Mrs. Collins dusty perfume). The scent is suffocating, filtering in through Meredith’s nostrils and settling in her bones, an extra weight that makes her slouch more into the cradle of her hip. It’s currently 9:27 a.m, and Mrs. Collins is positioned in front of the cash register, glaring down at the number printed across the small screen with squinted eyes. “It’s $68.25, ma’am.” Meredith resists a sigh, instead pushing her lips together into a tight-lipped smile. The old woman looks up, the wrinkles around her eyes and mouth clear and unflattering under the harsh fluorescent lighting. She nods before reaching into her purse, pulling out crumpled receipts and expired coupons in the process of rummaging for her wallet. “You know, back in my day, you could get g...
Post a Comment
Read more