Part x of 6

 
Chapter 11
"Myra, that was an amazing performance!" Penny said in wonder. "Talk about take no prisoners! Who else could talk about the ancient Indus Valley civilizations and make it sing?"

"I did get a little carried away."

Part 3 of 6

 
Chapter 6
Two days later Helen and the slightly mystified Penny were sitting in a plastic surgeon's office in Reno Nevada. For Penny, traveling with someone who was almost the woman for whom she worked for many years was a surreal experience.

Part x of 6

 
WARNING! If you are of a conservative bent, you'll hate this one. You. Have. Been. Warned.

Author's Note: I stole this plot from Robert Heinlein, who stole it from a long line of felonious authors reaching back to some guy pressing Cuneiform into clay on a riverbank in the Middle East, in hopes of preserving his deathless prose. It is better to take what does not belong to you than to let it lie around neglected. - Mark Twain
 

Part 11 of 11

Chapter 16
"Patty, this is getting out of control!" I cried.

"Getting?" she asks.

"OK, It's gone over a cliff and dragged the wagon train with it. That good enough?"

Part 9 of 11

Chapter 14
It took us two days to read all the things I had been given. It looked like being a Court Reporter involved more that pushing buttons on a machine, you had to take stenography and legal vocabulary and quite a few other courses to qualify. For a seventeen year old high school dropout, it looked like a lot to do. I just had to tell myself I was a twenty-one year old A student - just like my transcript said.

Part 7 of 11

Chapter 10
Patty was right. It took three more days for Mike the Cop to ask me for a date. It was the first time I talked to a cop and he was the one being nervous. Go figure! We got off the bus and Mike the Cop just happened to be walking by the bus stop when we arrived.

Part 5 of 11

Chapter 8
It took three more days for the storm to stop and the plows to clear the streets so cars could move once more. Other than sleepin' with Patty, I had a hard time learnin' to be Liza. The girls were determined that I would be the kind of girl that no one would think twice about bein' anythin' but what she looked like.

Part 3 of 11

Chapter 5
The girls went off to their bedrooms and I was left on the couch. I tried to figure out just what I was goin' to do, that talk of body bags had me scared. It all sounded cool and great fun when Uncle Jimmy got me inta the heist, but someone gettin' killed was a shit show I wasn't ready for. I fell asleep before I could do much more thinkin'. It had been a long, strange day.
 

 

Part 1 of 11

Chapter 1
I blame it all on my Uncle Jimmy. It's his fault I ended up this way. It certainly wasn't my fault, I mean c'mon, I was just a kid, what did I know?

Part 7 of 7

Chapter 14
How did four years go by so fast? Seems like just Yesterday Rose was starting high school and in a few minutes she would be walking across the stage to receive her diploma. Travis and Ruth smiled to think the entire family was there to watch, and not incidentally keep track of the active four-year-old and frenetic two-year-old grandchildren who were bored with the whole affair.

Part 5 of 7

Chapter 11
"All right, you rapscallions, quiet down! We are here to make a joyful noise and not a cantankerous cacophony."

Part 3 of 7

Chapter 7
Rite of Passage, is a term used by anthropologists to mark a significant change in a person's place in society. Almost all societies mark marriage - the creation of a new family unit - with a formal ceremony. Becoming a member of a group, such as the military calls for a ceremony, and of course the passage from child to adult is the most obvious passage in our contemporary society.

 

Part 1 of 7

 
Chapter 1
Texas. Y'all know that everything's bigger in Texas even if we hardly ever say y'all around here any more; too sophisticated, I guess. One thing for sure: Texas is big. It takes two long days to cross it from east to west without gathering a speeding ticket or two. Hell, the King ranch at 825,000 acres is bigger than the State of Rhode Island at 775,900 acres.

Embarrassing things happen in this life. Sometimes other people embarrass you, sometimes you embarrass yourself. Most of those times you sigh and feel glad that no one is watching - or worse yet - filming.

Photo by Wilson Vitorino from Pexels
 

Part 28 of 29

Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Even though he officially retired some years ago, Grandpa is still a force to be reckoned with at the library. If he needs the community room on New Year's Eve then naturally he gets the community room on New Year's Eve even if the place is shuttered tight. He says he knows just where all the bodies are buried and there's no budget for re-interring them so they just have to let him do what he wants.

Photo by Wilson Vitorino from Pexels
 

Part 26 of 29

Monday, December 16
Oddly, I got the answer to finding Mary Ann's gift in the psychology exam this morning. There were questions about family relations and - of course! - dysfunction. Which made me realize I should call her brother Dale and ask him if he has any bright ideas. I had to slap myself and put my mind back on the exam after getting another bright idea.

Photo by Wilson Vitorino from Pexels
 

Part 23 of 29

Monday, October 14, 2013
Last day at camp, sort of bittersweet. We got up much later than yesterday and not a few of the girls were moaning about the amount of wine that they drank the night before. The phrase 'wine is a mocker' - in my father's voice, naturally - ran through my head but I wisely kept it between my ears.

 

Part 21 of 29

Monday, September 9, 2013
Much food for thought in Psychology today. Only the second class and my head is spinning. The prof dug right in with personality types. The old Greeks decided there were four: choleric, melancholic, sanguine, and phlegmatic. Meyers-Briggs thinks there are sixteen. Other people throw other numbers into the pot. Kind of like a lottery but nobody is a clear winner.

 

Part 19 of 29

Friday, September 6, 2013
A light day, only one mid-morning class. That's the ideal Friday for a college student, no afternoon classes to cut to get an early start on the weekend.

 

Part 17 of 29

Monday, September 2, 2013
Labor day. Time for the big parade.

We were up early to get ready for the parade. The living room was full of boxes and hangers containing the costumes when my fellow workers arrived promptly at 8:00 AM to get dressed. Jenny and Beth from the library were part of the group, as well as Audrey.

 

Part 15 of 29

Thursday, August 15, 2013
Had another session with Audrey today. No tears and heavy stuff this time, but more "What do I do from here?" Somehow when I talk to Audrey I have to get things straight in my mind so I can tell her about them. She knows the right question to ask when I run dry and she's helping me.

 

Part 13 of 29

Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Is it genetic? Why can't women leave the phone ringing when there is something else going on? It's not like we don't have an answering machine that we can check later. I have no trouble letting the thing ring if I am doing something important.