Chapter 2 “All At Sea”

Jean looked at her information sheet. “Actually, there’s a note here that tells us that the first day out is ‘come as you are’. This allows those not fully into the role to take it slowly. I expect that we’ll see a few sights in the dining room tonight but these will become less as the cruise continues."

Shame
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

“Don’t take a photo of me in my underwear!” Michelle glanced over at Paul while she played with her long red hair and suddenly realized what he was doing.

“I could not resist,” he said. “It is the same pose as this photo”. He held it up.

“Give me that!” she snapped. He held it away from her reach. “You really are such a brute. You know how ashamed of that photo I am.” But she was smiling, just a little

“Well that was the idea, wasn’t it? You were supposed to be ashamed.” He put his arms around her.

It’s a special day. I turned thirteen today! It’s the day that I move from tween to teen. It’s also the day that my twin sister, Janet, gets her magical powers.

Photo by Janko Ferlič on Unsplash

“What?” Janis asked her little girl. “Told you a lie?”

New school year, new school!

To be honest it was quite daunting to come to the huge High School from our smallish Middle School. Fortunately there were two of us. Me and my fraternal twin sister. Why do people talk about “fraternal twin” when it’s about a girl? Anyway, there we were. Cary and Katherine against the world. Well, not really. Even if the big school scared us, which we’d NEVER admit to anyone else, we didn’t really have anything to fear. We usually found it easy to find new friends or at least gET along with people. We had very good grades without being pegged as nerds since we were good at sports as well. Both Sis and I had selected courses geared towards science and technology with future engineering degrees in mind.

As expected, there was a huge crowd milling around. Sis and I got lost at first and then we ran into an Audrey Hepburn look-alike. She really owned the style. Short hairstyle, black turtleneck, slim black trousers, and ballet flats. Body language was similar as well as far as I could see. Sis could hardly keep herself from laughing. As it happens, I’m a great fan of Audrey Hepburn. As it turned out “Audrey” both was heading to the same homeroom as Sis and I AND she’d been smart enough to print out a map before coming. We happily followed her lead. In my case very happily as I walked behind her and Sis.

“I’m a T-girl on the prowl”

I was shocked, absolutely shocked to hear that from the absolutely fabulous girl that just had appeared as out of thin air beside me when I was about to sit down at my table in a very classy and expensive restaurant. However, I was even more curious, so I invited her to join me for dinner. She was not only incredibly beautiful and sexy but also one of the funniest and smartest girls I ever had had the pleasure of having dinner with, and believe me I have met many, many beautiful girls.

In the foyer of Albert Sidney Johnston's Memorial Library there hangs an old oil portrait of a woman who is dressed in a black dress with a high lacy white collar. Her raven hair is gathered at the back of her head and is tied back in a nice, neat bun. Her face is set in what seems permanent scowl and her high cheekbones seemed sunk in. At the bottom of the painting one would find the name of the woman. “Mercy Anna Howard '' Followed by “Head Librarian” and beside that “1870 till 1920”.

It is me Dolores
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

It was a part of the swamp that I did not know well. It was well off the beaten track, and I had prepared myself even to stop and camp overnight with some gear packed into my kayak. I was aware that there were some houses which could only be accessed by water in that reach, some of them old and some more recent structures which sought the privacy of extreme isolation.

E’volvo’lution Chapter 14

The six show girls for Sunday were me, Elizabeth, Katrina, Eliise, Catlin and Karmen. Joanna was helping Halina by selling posters at ‘Answer’ and Marlen was with Ezuli selling posters and tunics beside ‘Maidens’.

Berget was told to just take it easy today; we didn’t want her being taken off to give birth just yet.

For Him
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I think that I am smart for a fourteen year old. I mean, I am really good at school, but I think that I know people, and I think that is what being really clever is all about. And I knew my father better than anybody else does, including him. I certainly knew him better than Mom ever did.

I don’t mean to say anything bad about Mom. She died three years ago in a car accident. I was only eleven but that is an age when I think that you understand everything pretty well. I did.

Swipe Right
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Tinder is made for guys like me. If you feel like sex then you just open up and see what’s about. If you are good looking and athletic, girls will go for that. Free sex. Swipe Right. Some girls talk about relationships, so you let them. Just put on your listening face and nod. Whatever it takes to get them into the sack. “Thank you Ma’am.” Don’t hang around. Leave quick. They might get ideas.

E’volvo’lution Chapter 12

The first truck was going to get the internal changes and the paintwork only so we could get it out on the road. The next two would be worked on together with Bjorn doing the interior and the LED lighting. The tractors would only have LED’s in the lightning from the hammer, meeting in the middle of the grill.

Visited Upon the Father
Following the “Sins of the Son”
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I carry my father’s name. I am Vernon Michaels Junior, just called “Junior” at home. Home was with my mother, as my father had been thrown out years before, and he was actually living in the town where I was going to college, and had a small place near the campus.

My father proudly called me “a chip off the old block”. He said that he got into a spot of trouble at college. He said that he would give the best advice – “Don’t get caught”.

E’volvo’lution Chapter 11

On the way back I checked out the work-site and was amazed at how much had been done. Anders must have tied up every cement truck in Tallinn as the hard stand had been laid in a big ‘U’ shape. The space where the building would be was left with a path from it to the gate also not poured yet.

Every day, all the time it seemed, the guys just made fun of me. Sure I was smart, but I was small, smaller than most of them. It was terrible, as they turned into men, I seemed to stay behind, with my soft hairless features. And puberty, well that didn’t seem to be happening either.

KAI

For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.

I stared blankly at the GCSE exam past paper on the desk in front of me, then at my watch for perhaps the fiftieth time this lesson, then out of the window where the sun was streaming down onto the tarmacked playground below. Only a few minutes to go now, a couple of hours to kill at the library, and I could go home and escape. For a few hours anyway. I’d been planning it for weeks. My stomach had been turning butterflies all afternoon in anticipation.

E’volvo’lution Chapter 10

The weekend was glorious and Berget and I went out in my car to find as many scenic spots, cafes and bakeries as we could. After the stress of the week it was good to wind down.

On the Monday Anders came to my office as I was looking through the applications that had come in during the week. He told me that Greger had been absolutely full of it when he’d got home and wanted to know if I thought that Halina was serious.

Breakfast was brought to me the next morning, it was a simple breakfast, grits, boiled turkey bacon, toast, and milk. Still worn out from the nights before I ate and fell asleep, I awoke in time for lunch, a piece of broiled fish seasoned with just lemon juice and dill, steamed broccoli, and tea. Still tired I ate and again I fell asleep, dinner was a little better, roasted chicken seasoned with lemon and pepper, more steamed broccoli, a small slice of yellow cake with chocolate icing and more tea. Again tired I ate and fell asleep.

“Welcome To Nevada, The Silver State.”

E’volvo’lution Chapter 9

When we landed we had to go through customs after we had picked up our bags. I could have gone through the express gate if I’d been using my own passport but was testing the Estonian one which was a lot closer to how I now looked.

I deliberately dressed down as I didn’t want to overshadow my sister so just had a denim skirt and silk blouse with light tights and low boots for comfort. When we got out of the arrival hall I saw my parents waiting for us, my niece in a stroller.

I woke up around midnight with the urge to pee. Once I'd finished my business, I'd decided it was time to put my plan into action. Taking a deep breath I inched my way toward the door to my room. Gathering up my courage, I reached out and took hold of the door handle and pushed upon it. The wooden door crept open and before I knew it I was standing out in the hallway.

Part One
Yet again Lindsay was dreaming. The dream was strange but as usual vivid and sharply detailed. It seemed to involve being in a bed in a small room with numerous folk dressed in blue and others in white coats looking at inexplicable things that had moving patterns on them that seemed to almost but never quite constantly repeat themselves. They also looked at objects that made strange noises at regular intervals. Lindsay was aware that there were a number of tubes and white string like things seemingly connected to the bed. However, like many of Lindsay’s dreams it was neither totally rational nor totally consistent. Lindsay’s dreams made life a living torment, for dream and reality crossed over, blended and became each other. It was impossible to determine what was a dream and what was reality. Dreaming of dreams within dreams within dreams, and dreams even deeper nested than that, dreams like images in two mirrors facing each other that reached to infinity and drew one into insanity, meant Lindsay had no idea what being awake was like, for all such experiences were probably only dreams too.

Part 2
“I want you to come home with me. I am here to arrange it all. I know about carrying the message to engage the assassin to kill Tomas, and the new dresses made by Serena your fee paid for. I know you are really a girl. I know all about your new dresses and where you keep them. I know how you get past the guards dressing as a girl, but you won’t be able to do that for much longer will you? It will not be safe for you when the guards here discover that you have been tricking them. I said I want you to come home with me, but I want you as my sister, the girl you want to be. I know you wish to be able to read and write, and I can give you that and much more too.”

I woke up the next morning feeling a little better, I was starting to breathe a little easier, my throat was so sore and I felt my fever starting to retreat. Breakfast was soon served to me, it was a homey breakfast of boiled turkey bacon, scrambled eggs, without salt and pepper of course. Toast without butter, and a small bottle of chocolate milk. Out of hunger I ate every morsel and left not a scrap of egg or a speck of crust on my plate.