Serial Thursdays: Addiction 1

Growing up, I always refused painkillers.  I don’t know why – maybe I thought they were a sign of weakness.  I don’t know.  I just know that I routinely turned them down, even when I was in a lot of pain.  But somehow, when I was fifteen, I came home from one more shitty day of high school – part of being a teenager, right? – and declared to my mother, “I have a headache.”  “Tylenol’s in the cabinet,” she responded absentmindedly.  I hesitated, but went and grabbed the bottle, read the directions and popped two for my nonexistent headache.  [...]

Serial Thursdays: Thoughts

She sat perfectly still, barely daring to breathe.  Thoughts ran through her mind at a speed too fast to be clocked.  She stared straight ahead at the television, not seeing the movie they had rented. He lay sprawled on the bed, a few feet of bedspread between them.  He was engrossed in the movie, seemingly unaware of her. “Why do I feel so weird?  We’re just hanging out as friends.  Just because we never hung out alone before doesn’t mean anything.  Just because we’re alone in his apartment doesn’t mean anything…” The movie ended, and he popped in another tape.  He sat [...]

Serial Thursdays: Daddy

Click on image to enlarge. She lay awake, staring at the ceiling again.  Those stars, so neatly glued down; right above her place on the bed, in tiny star shapes, she had formed the word “Daddy”.  Daddy. It had been ten years since he died, and although the sharp pain had subsided into a dull ache in the past five, she was certain it would never completely fade. She felt her husband stir slightly next to her.  She half hoped he would awaken so he could hold her while she cried, but the other half of her wished desperately to [...]

Serial Thursdays: Untitled

On the narrow ledge of the roof she stood.  She inched closer to the edge.  He watched her silently, taking another drag from his cigarette.  The wind up here whipped at his hair as he pulled his leather jacket tighter around him.  Calling out to her would have been futile; even his thoughts were almost lost to the wind.  She lifted her face to the skies and closed her eyes.  She could hear God so much more clearly up here.  With arms thrown wide, she embraced Him and asked, “Why do I make myself unimportant?  Why do I allow other [...]

Serial Thursdays: We Thought We Were Invincible

We thought we were invincible… On a warm day in October of 1996- my 16th birthday, coincidentally- two of my friends and I decided to take the train to Flushing after school, hang out for a little, and then head home.  This was not an unusual occurrence.  On our way back, we hopped onto the 7 train like always- there’s only one train that goes into Flushing, you know- and discovered that not the very last car, but the 2nd to last car, had no one in it.  The last car held a scattered group of people, among them a [...]

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