I have a wide grin on my face as I gaze at the other three women, all of whom are dressed identically to me in sparkly blue mini-dresses and high-heeled shoes (or, in my case, boots). The crowd is screaming with excitement, loud enough to bring my whole body out in goosebumps as we step forward onto the stage and raise our microphones to our mouths… before my phone rings, bringing me crashing back to reality. With a sigh, I pause the DVD and grab my phone from the coffee table, taking several deep breaths and trying to clear my throat before answering.

Jill's ditziness inadvertently provides Greg with a path across the chasm from boyhood to girlhood. 

Wait, did my wife just divorce me?

The Late Unpleasantness

Five / Alien Symbols

A Story from THE ONE

Ariel Montine Strickland

How will Belinda interpret the alien symbols on the state dining room wall?

"Want to play Girly Chicken?"

I blinked and stared at Evan, totally confused. Evan was my childhood friend and current roommate. Both of us were students at the Tiresias College for Mages. He was a pretty tall guy, skinny as a rail, with a fairly androgynous face. And if we're being honest, a fairly androgynous voice too. As for me? Well, I'm... average. Black hair, blue eyes. A couple inches shorter than Evan. Not skinny but not fat. Like I said, average. Oh, and my name is Jason.

This is a story I HAD to write last November. I kept spilling out of me. But it is too depressing to post in grey dull winter time, so I stalled its release until now.

Please do not read this if you are feeling down or depressed or are easily be pulled emotionally down!

If you are thinking about suicide, please get help. There are a lot of people out there willing to help whatever is the reason.
Suicide is never a solution!

Luv,
Louise

The Late Unpleasantness

Three / Mass Crematorium

A Story from THE ONE

Ariel Montine Strickland

How will the three transwomen survive in the mass crematorium of US President Bishop Norman Bush?

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.”

“So then,” Susie asked Luke and Lucy as they and their friends sat around their usual table in the Student Union bar. “Looking forward to Sunday?”

“Ooh, yes, I’d almost forgotten about that!” Priya giggles as the twins’ blushes deepened.

“…Maybe a bit,” Lucy mumbled.

“Maybe even less than that,” Luke sighed. “Tough to get excited about your birthday when you know your presents are gonna suck.”

“Sorry if we’re putting a dampener on YOUR birthday, Gav,” Lucy said to the young man who was exactly one day young than her and her brother.

Coincidence, Luck or Fate?

The Fates of the ancient Greeks plotted and wove the threads of mankind. The Furies dealt with the tangles caused by the choices of those mere mortals. [Clotho, Lachesis, Atropos; Tisiphone, Alecto, Megaera]. You meddle with Fate and Fury alike at the risk of them noticing you. That’s a real risk.

This was a story I set aside to put up on Patreon last year. I don’t know if anyone read it. Certainly no-one interested enough to sign on to my page. It remains the only thing I have put on that platform. It’s one of the stories in a collection I sent to Erin for publication, should she want to. Anyway, here it is, in full, for your enjoyment as I hate to see a story wasted.
Marianne.

Chapter 1

Everybody Needs a Little Drama
by Sabrina G. Langton

***

Authors note: So... I have been writing fiction for over a year now (started April 2021) on other sites of course, phew, and this one was originally just for me, something to read through at night with a half a bottle of Merlot, but things change... It started out as a short little story about a crossdresser with low self-esteem and turned into so much more. Four people who always pay it forward, four people we can all use in our own lives. I hope YOU like it.' And thank you for a wonderful year... or more...

Parents - Part One

Believe it or not, setting the date to get married was was the easy part.

A Sense Of Relief

"So now we know…" breathed Vonda as she ceased her reading.

"Know what?" asked our unknown observer.

"Just what the Curse was that became known as The Curse of the Feminine Mystique."

"I thought that was a book"

"So it was. Doesn't mean someone couldn't steal the phrase, though."

"I guess…"

Is There A Doctor In The House?

As much as I wanted to watch the roofing crew at work, I was getting concerned about the swelling and itching in my chest. Allergy? Some weird virus? Cancer? It's easy to psych yourself out over something like that, especially when all this other shit was happening.

“You two look exhausted,” Priya said as Luke and Lucy sat down at their usual table in the Student Union bar. “I don’t need to guess why, do I?” The Indian girl bit her lip as her two friends both shook their heads.

“Ugh,” Luke sighed, sharing a knowing glance with his sister. “Never mind ‘back from holiday’, I feel like I NEED a holiday.” Luke allowed himself a smile as his friends Gavin and Susie smiled sympathetically.

“Okay, just a few more,” the photographer says to me as I pose in my designer jeans and t-shirt. “That’s great Ian, look this way, try to stand a bit straighter so we can see the logo clearly.” I do as I’m told and hold a subtle smile on my face as the camera takes photos of me- or rather, the clothes I’m wearing. “Okay, I think that’s everything. Thanks Ian, I’ll you have the rest of your Saturday back!”

In this final chapter of the saga of Greg and Tracy, an unexpected, shared misfortune sets into motion events that culminate in bringing Greg and Tracy closer together than Greg had ever imagined they would be.

“Okay,” I whisper to myself, before taking a deep breath and focusing on the words on the page in front of me. “Doctor, what should I do with this liver?”

“Well, fry it with some onions and some beans!” Comes the reply from George, one of my fellow students.

“…It’s a transplant liver, doctor, for humans,” I say in a deadpan voice, before grimacing. “Ah, shit, sorry, that should be ‘it’s a human liver for transplant’.”