After the unexpected turn of events with the interview, Sarah had asked why Malachite had chosen the name. Colour Sergeant Grant answered with a slightly skewed smile.

“Malachite is spiritual it means the essence of joy. I believe the stone helps to bring personal growth and has benefits when a person decides to change.”

Chapter 32 - Epilogue

After the previous poem, this appeared overnight in an odd sort of backlash. Have fun!

Patricia, Doing It For Love

I was out shopping with my wife, an ordeal that I was not really comfortable with, but one that I thought necessary. My wife of five years is drop dead gorgeous, but dresses like a librarian sometimes. She has C cup breasts, a 38/28/38 figure and a face that belongs on the cover of fashion magazines.

She was a cosmetologist for a while when we first married and knows how to make the most of what she has been born with. Now she is an executive secretary for a prominent lawyer in town.

In the morning I get up.

Not immediately — I lie still for a moment first, the way I've started doing, taking stock of the day before it begins. The chest there, the weight of it against the mattress, familiar now in the manner that things become familiar when you've woken to them for over a week. The mild awareness of last night's underwear, which has done what underwear does now, the slight damp of it, and I get up and deal with this in the bathroom before I do anything else. The mechanics of this have become unremarkable.

I shower. I dress.

Bob and Tessa’s Place, Ocean Front Condo, Virginia Beach, Va.
Bob looks over towards Tessa, who was sound asleep on their bed. They just got back from California last night. Dr. Jessica Blake was successful in transplanting the reproductive organs from Tessa to his body, without any problems.

“Damien, it is nice to see you again. I had hoped that it would be under better circumstances.”

“Thank you, Mrs Thompson.”

“Paula, please.”

Authors Note: I think you'll get it from the prose, but this story begins on Sunday morning around 10:30AM. Then immediately goes back to fill in events from the previous week. I really enjoyed writing this.

Chapter 6 “The Crash”
Ashton

Ashton looked out the passenger window of Marie’s 80s Volvo wagon because she couldn’t look at Marie.

“I’m sorry, Ashton, I’m not trying to push you into anything, it’s not like that. I just want you to see that you’re not alone,” Marie said.

The Au Pair
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

To succeed in anything, you need to be prepared to be ruthless. If you want something, you need to take it without thought for the desires or feelings of others. Think about the consequences perhaps, but what other people expect of you should never come into the equation. It is better to be thought of as brutal than to spend your life worried about the opinion of others. It has always worked for me, although I suppose it led to me being alone. Brutes have few friends.

Irene, A Step Maid

I was a little apprehensive about going home this time. Home just did not seem like a place I wanted to be any more. I am very thankful for finally escaping from this damn school though. Even a little proud of graduating tenth in my class, although I doubted anyone else would lend any significance to the feat.