The Book

I read it for the first time when I was 12. It changed everything. It opened my eyes and made me realize that the world was not the place I had thought. She kept it hidden in a secret comparmtent in the bottom drawrer of her dresser. When I found it, I knew that I should not read it, but I could not resist. It shattered me into a million pieces. Over the years I would sneak it out and read it over and over. I am sure she never knew for if she had she would have seen that I looked at her differently. She would have seen it in my eyes. She would have seen that I no longer looked at her as just "Mom". On that day when I was 12 and read all her secrets, she became more to me, she became flesh and blood, an actual woman. It changed everything.

The Fluency of Corn

When I was a teen-ager I dreamed of getting out of there. The dreams were filled with big cities, exciting jobs and fascinating people. I saw myself there in the gleaming city, dancing, working, loving and living the life I knew I was destined for. I did not see myself staying there in that town surrounded by corn, stifled by it, drowned among it, wasted by the corn. So it shocks me each time I pull off the express way to visit my parents, how it draws me in that corn; the smell of it, the sound of it, the look of it as the moonlight bounces off the glistening ears. It sometimes creeps into my dreams the way the city did before I lived in it, luring me back to that town I swore I would leave forever.

"When Pigs Fly"

I saw a pig fly today. I was walking down the path I always take past Farmer Pendleton's farm and I kid you not, a pig with wings flew right by me. Then crashing through the brush I see Timmy Thompson chasing the flying pig. He screeched when he saw me, stopping and panting for breath.

" Hullo, Miz Simmons, " Timmy wheezed, " Bessy and I were just practicing for the costume contest this week-end at the festival, she got a little irritated with the wings and ran off, you did not happen to see which way she went did you?"

I pointed down the path and Timmy took off at a run. I turned back heading north on the path shaking my head, Bessy was not the first pig I had seen fly and I suspected she would not be the last while living in this little frontier town called Hell, which held an ice festival each year called 'Hell Frozen Over', complete with a flying pig costume contest. At least living in Hell was never dull.

A Clear Message?

The message was clear, "Meet me at the corner of Fifth and Sheridan at 2 pm, tell no one." She stood on the corner of Fifth and Sheridan and waited. It was now 2:30 and still he was not here. She had begun to fidget and check her watch every 30 seconds at 2:15. Where the heck was he and why had he sent that ridiculous note. At three she left, cursing his name, the day she met him and her own stupid hormones that had got her tangled up with him. Really in the year she had known him they had fought more then they got along. She was a fool for even responding to his note. It had been almost a month since she last saw him. She was wasting her time. He was never going to change.

He stood in the shadows of the building across the street from the corner of Fifth and Sheridan where he had told her to meet him. He watched as she kept checking her watch and started fidgeting. He knew by 2:30 she would be cursing the day she ever met him. She was so beautiful standing on that corner waiting for him. They could have been really good together, but he was destined for other things. When he had attended the CIA recruitment event at college he never expected his life to turn out this way. He took one last look at her as she checked her watch as he turned away, slipping into the shadows of the alley knowing he would never see her again.

The toughest Job you will ever Love

Ten years ago I boarded a night train leaving from Silistra, Bulgaria heading for Sofia, Bulgaria. I cried the whole 12 hour train ride I think. Cried for a city I have not been back to visit. Cried for the people I loved in that city. Cried for a dream achieved and finished. When I arrived on that very same train two years before I never imagined that I would become so attached, so changed, so loved. I was living the dream of many young Americans who hear the words of JFK, " Ask not what you country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." As a Peace Corps volunteer I was speaking a different language, living in a different culture and changing who I was. I learned that the world was an unjust place and that I was privileged. I learned that sometimes the littlest thing could bring a smile to your face. I learned what true friendship was and I learned that love can make the world brighter. Ten years ago I left my home and came home and that has made all the difference.

New Leaf

She promised herself this year she would turn over a new leaf. It was her New Year's resolution. But 2 minutes and 13 seconds into 2010 she was up to her same old tricks and a man was dead in the gutter because of her. She had not meant to do it, but he had grabbed her from behind and really she had no choice, no one grabbed her from behind. She went absolutely ballistic, pummeling the man with a strength and vengeance that none of her colleagues at the library would ever believe she was capable of, she was a librarian in children's books after all, she spent her days surrounded by children and picture books, but underneath her tweed skirt and sweater set beat the heart of a warrior. All of the witnesses agreed that the women who killed this man was at least six feet tall and stunningly beautiful, they were all sure. They disagreed on her hair color, some said vibrant red, others glistening black, all were sure she was wearing a leather skirt and thigh high boots. You see witnesses tend to see only what they want, so when the mild mannered mousy haired, five foot two librarian in the tweed skirt walked away from the scene of the crime shaking her head and muttering about a new leaf, no one paid attention.