They gave me thirty-six hours to live. I’m adrift in a nightmare as they talk about grief counselors and hospice. No one prepares you for the fragility of life, nor the urgency of its inevitable end. Unfulfilled dreams consume my thoughts, each as insignificant as a deflated balloon. Because now, more than ever, all I want is to live. A nurse joins us in the exam room that already feels suffocating. She apologizes, and mutters something about mixed-up files and…
They laid on the old frayed quilt and stared at the blue-black sky blanketed with glittering stars. A muffled silence enveloped the night, the distant echo of waves crashing on the ocean a soothing melody. Along the fence, a possum, pouch bulging, paused briefly to stare at them. “Make a wish,” someone whispered. “Wishes aren’t real.” The night seemed to hold its breath, pregnant with anticipation and then, as if in response, a shooting star streaked across the sky, leaving…
Memories fade like ghosts in the night. Their sharp edges worn and frayed, their once vivid colors now muted tones of gray. I grope frantically to retrieve them, but they’re dusty smudges in empty books shelved within my mind. I stumble through the corridors of my imagination, searching through the labyrinth of ideas. They fall atop each other, tangled and twisted as they dance at the edge of my memory and whisper for me to breathe life into them and…
Unanswered Questions Out on the jetty, the wet rocks were slick when she lowered herself, feet dangling over the ledge, her tormented face a fractured reflection in the surging water. Gulls overhead shrieked, and she longed to join them. Icy waves crashed into the rocks as she assaulted him with questions he failed to answer. The spray of the ocean stung her cheeks and mingled with her tears like a ghost’s chilling whisper. “Answer me,” she begged, desperate to hear his…