Family Counselling
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Scene 1 The Consulting Rooms of Dr. M T Shieff

“I am sympathetic to your position, but I also have ethical considerations.” As he spoke Doctor Martin Shieff was thinking about a solution that could accommodate this young man. He liked him. His daily fodder was the anxious and the depressed but here he faced somebody who seemed to be in control, albeit directing his considerable intellect towards antisocial behavior.

Tau Gamma Beta
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Hayley had been all lined up to board with a relative who had a place right near college and I was all set to be in the Pi Theta Kappa fraternity, being a provisional member, but things had not gone right for either of us. What do you do in a crisis? You get drunk.

“I learned something about Pi Theta Kappa today,” I complained. “They are a bunch of arrogant pricks! In particular, that Dylan Hobbs, who seems to be the leader of the pack. He has it in for me.”

Lolita Revisited
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I never thought that this kind of thing happened for real, but there are strange people out there.

I suppose my mother was strange too. She always had a hankering to see me dressed as a girl. She told me that she did it when I was a baby, dressing me in pink just because she liked to hear people say: “What a pretty little girl”. Any chance to put me in a dress for Halloween or fancy dress she always said: “Go as a princess. Let me get you the outfit.”

The Way to Go
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Sex is one of the major drivers of humanity – in fact, it is the first driver. Money and power came later. They are social constructs. Sex is why we exist. We are here because of it, and our purpose is driven by it.

The Purity of Judgment
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

They were about as unalike as two men can be. Milo Laconda was tall and dark, powerfully built and with a swagger and deep throated laugh. He was recently divorced and that had knocked him back financially, but he was up and running again with the business and product that had he had developed – Laconda Plumbing Supplies – suppliers of the “Laconda Flush”.

A Woman’s Work
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I had always wanted to be an artist. I guess I felt that I was creative, but what I really liked was the idea of flicking a little paint onto canvas and selling it for $10,000. It struck me that it could be so easy if I had talent.

Straight
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

The first thing that I did was come straight out and tell my family that I was gay. I guess a lot of guys have real difficulty with this, but at the end of the day you just have to get it over with. You have to be straight. As it turned out, it went well. My Dad was not surprised – in fact, he was almost relieved. It seemed to explain everything about me.

The Editor
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

It was my fourth Marion Potter book and at the end I found my eyes full of tears. It was unusual for me because while I can be as emotional as the next man, I was editing. I was looking for spelling and grammar and inconsistencies. When you are doing that, it is usually hard to get caught up in the story. It should be just words. But they were words that I did not realize had caught me in their web and were now winding me up in silk.

Indian Rapunzel
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

My family are Hindu rather than Sikh but I knew Jasprit as another Indian boy attending our high school a year behind me. But because I took a year off for travel, we started college at the same time.

Lonely
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

The cabin had been a place full of people when he was a boy. It had always been a place of joy. She never saw it that way, but she went with him because he loved the place so much. Now that she was gone it seemed that it was just empty.

Farmers Wives
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Aunt Katherine
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

My mother’s aunt Katherine had always hated men. She had never married, and that had served her well. She thought that her sister had married badly – to a man of course. The wealth that they had inherited was frittered away by my grandparents, where she had kept hers and multiplied it many times.

“No man will ever get his hands on my money,” she would say. And she meant it.

Dear John
A Short Letter for John
By Maryanne Peters

Dear John,

When I first sat down to write this letter, I wanted to accuse you. I can always go back and make changes, and I have, but I wanted you to know how much you have confused and upset me. I mean that you have turned my life upside down.

Did you ever give any thought to my feelings?

I could have had a normal life. I could have a been a man. I could have had a family. Now I never can. Now I am just yours. Something for your amusement.

Not What He Expected
A Short Story from an Idea by Erin
By Maryanne Peters

The smell of sex was in the air. Their bodies were still sensitive from the moment. She nestled closer to him and reached across to feel his sloppy member as it subsided.

“I can’t be bought and sold like a cow,” she said. “Much less lost in a bet”.

Angel A
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I saw it in him almost immediately. Maybe it takes a sissy to know a sissy? Even if the poor child had no idea herself. Here was a boy who acted like a boy, but his inner voice was screaming: "I am a girl!" It seemed that I was the only one who heard it. Not even he himself.

Peer Pressure
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

The door burst open and in came Gaz and Foxy with three cases of beer. All three were landed with flamboyance upon the low table by the cabin’s fireplace in front of Yogi, Lonnie and Bull.

My Hero
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

It was that period in a hotel cocktail bar when all those who were going to dinner had gone, but before those returning might catch a night cap before going up. Drake was at the bar because he had nowhere to go. The attractive woman was a late arrival.