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Mary cried in the hospital room, because she did have ADHD, because all the acting out wasn’t her fault.
The beatings were finally over.
She was safe again.
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Entries of the Left-Behind
Dec. 1st 6pm
My baby left us this morning. Katie and I had our last fight this morning at 8…oh, it was my fault, we always fought over something. “Mother Daughter Time” only consisted of either her yelling at me about how I was never around, or me yelling at her about stuff she did wrong. I really don’t care about that now. I just want her to come home so we can try again.
Dec. 1st 6pm.
Katie left this morning at 8:00am after I heard someone’s hand slam down on the table. I was just going off to work when yet another war broke out. I tried to calm Katie down, but she was just too involved. It’s a surprise to me that she left because she and I were very close; we would sit in the living room one night a week and have a little book discussion. And every single night we would talk about the day, tell funny stories, stuff like that.
And my wife, Lourdas, what can I say? She was just so busy with her job; though there’s no doubt in my mind she does love our daughter. All those fights they had were from Lourdas’ frustrations from her work.
Do I want Katie to come home? Yes. Do I want the police to go after her? No way. Katie is fully capable of making some decisions in life…and I hope she makes the right one now.
Dec. 2nd. 2pm
Katie hasn’t come back yet. I have no idea what she took with her. I hope she took enough money and food with her…and her sleeping bag. I know I’ve said this before, but it’s ALL MY FAULT!! If I didn’t criticize her so much, it would’ve been better. I should’ve been there more. Her life was upside down and I just poured salt on her wounds without even thinking. Her father was there for her, but she really needed me.
Dec. 3rd 4pm
Starting to get worried now. Mark said to let it be for a while, but…why did he say that? Tomorrow, that’s when I’ll call the police. I can’t stand this.
Dec. 3rd 8pm
Lourdas told me that I’m being laid back about this. It’s not like that; I trust Katie will do the right thing. Besides, if we call the police, it’ll just make it worse for Katie. She wanted to get out for a while, and she did. Not in a good way, but she’s really smart you know? She’ll survive this.
Dec. 4th 8am
I was just about to call when KATIE CAME HOME!!!!!!!! Oh my good Lord! She came right to me and said she was sorry and forgave me…oops, a tear drop fell on my paper. Well…new beginnings, right?
Dec. 4th 3pm
Told ya. I think I’ll give Katie and Lourdas some space; give them time to reconnect, you know? I’m just glad my faith in God and Katie paid off.
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Race!
“Victoria, your sister’s on the bridge!”
The call from Mom kicked me in the gut. I got my stuff and was out of my apartment at 1 in the morning faster than you could say “go”. I almost drove through the cars on the way to New York; traffic could not deter me that whirlwind day. Though the traffic was pounding my spirit, the thought of my thirteen-year-old sister was enough to keep my spirit from dissolving. Within minutes, I dashed out of the car and careened towards George Washington Bridge. It felt like hours running; pounds of sweat poured down my skin like rain as I wondered if she would decide not to jump after all. I ran around the bend and looked around; I saw nothing but her backpack. Why she brought it there, I have no idea…probably to let me know…
She did indeed go and I’ll feel nothing but that sharp coldness for the rest of my life.
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The Amnesia
Last week was the week I said goodbye to my mother. No, she didn’t die, but it was even worse. My mom, Lydia Maria Romano, got struck by lightning two weeks ago while walking Sully; she insisted she walk him even though there was a storm. Sully rushed out of the way in time, but mom didn’t. God wasn’t ready for her yet, so she slipped into a coma, and then she woke up not remembering a thing.
That week and the following one were full of tears. My dad suggested we try to make her be Lydia again, and my brother thought so, too, but not me. I took it as she was so elderly, 97, that it wasn’t worth the work: finally getting her to remember and then having her die in a couple years. And it wouldn’t be fair to her. So, I did the next best thing: loved her.
I can say here that it felt like I was loving and caring for two people: Mommy and this stranger. And the fact that they were in the same body sometimes confused me to no end. One Sunday morning, when I’d made breakfast for everyone, I took some over to the living room. When I gave her the dish, she smiled at me and my heart fell. Mommy and the stranger gave me the smile Mommy would give me before she’d tell…tell me sh-sh-she…oh Lord…before she’d tell me she loved me.
As hard as it is to say, in those last days I was a mother needing a mother, when I knew I couldn’t have one at that time. How selfish is that?
On the last day of bitter-sweetness, I was playing with my daughter and feeling in-the-moment, so I picked her up and whirled her around, not thinking that that was what Mommy did to me whenever I wouldn’t go to sleep. “I’m gonna whirl you off to dreamland!” she would say, and afterwards I would smile myself to sleep. So, after I put my daughter back on the ground, I felt this sharp pain in my head.
We are a very intuitive family, in touch with God’s gift for us to have that “gut feeling”. That day, Daddy said he heard a whisper, and my sister did, too. My daughter even said she felt someone give her a hug and a million kisses which she happily giggled at even though if she were older she would probably just up and run away. I got a sharp migraine, so I took some aspirin. Later I fell asleep, and when I woke up, I saw Mommy.
She was so beautiful. She wore her white dress with white flowers coming--coming down…oh, she had on her crystal earrings.
“You’re the best daughter a mother could ever have. I love you. I’ve just died, but please don’t cry, I feel wonderful now! Thank you for everything!”
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Crime and Make-Up: A Detective Lora Meinz Mystery
Dior Faunson is an immaculately beautiful elderly woman. At 92 - and in a hospital bed, in a coma - she looks 30. I was at her bedside with her daughter, Reyna Myers, waiting for Dior to wake up. And, much to our luck, she did.
“Hey Mom!”
“Hey baby!”
“You all right?”
“Yes, thank you Reyna. How are you?”
“Good. I have a detective lady here who wants to speak with you about last week.”
I stood up a bit straighter. “Hello, I’m Detective Lora Meinz. May I ask you what happened on the night of February third, Friday, eight pm?”
“Oh, well, I was just taking off my make up and getting ready for bed. Old owls like me aren’t night owls!”
Reyna and I laughed.
“Anyway, yes, I was getting ready for bed and this person with a ski mask rushed in, threw me about and then I found myself here…I’m dearly sorry I can’t tell you more. Why, I must’ve blanked out!”
“That’s ok. Thank you Miss Faunson. Mrs. Myers, can you tell me anymore?”
“Yes, at that time I was just coming home from running Mom an errand, and I saw her flat on the bathroom floor, a bit of blood on the floor, and all her makeup was gone!” Reyna shuddered.
“Why was she bleeding?”
“She got hit hard on the stomach and…she had a heart attack, too.” Reyna looked at her mother sadly.
“Oh, I see, well, I wish you both well. Do I have your permission to investigate the house?” I asked both of them. They said yes. So off I went.
When I got in the house, I saw big footprints and small indents on the living room wall. Possibly Dior and the intruder
got into a good fight before Dior went down. I also saw something interesting: a tie-dye wallet; it must’ve fallen out of a purse or something. Moving into the light green bathroom, I indeed saw blood and absolutely no make-up. I started to think: most women love make-up, this intruder was probably a woman, and she probably knew Dior well to just go for the cosmetics. Searching more of the house, I saw a lot of broken furniture, chairs, lamps, and a large piece of plastic. So, being Miss Tidy, and finding nothing else suspicious, I cleaned up the blood, the other mess, and left the house.
The next morning, brain fresh, I decided someone Dior knew suffocated her, hence the plastic. I went over to Reyna’s.
“Makes so much sense, the stuff all over the house in haste, it was Angel…Angel Ludwig. She was so jealous of my mother’s beauty, with or without makeup. And the silly girl, she’s so much in a hurry for everything. Never stops to think, that girl.”
“Are you sure it was Angel?”
“Yes. She loves that tie-die wallet with matching purse.”
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¿Animales!
I was read-walking again, as I sometimes do, when I looked up to see a repulsivo looking oso (bear) that looked somewhat like Beast from Beauty and the Beast, only he was roaring rather loudly and he seemed hungry, then next to that was a bug-eyed serpiente (snake) with his tongue drawing in and out. Well, you can bet I…RAN!!
I ran haphazardly into corners and passed hundreds of people like I was running a race. I think half of the people were laughing and half were deciding whether to help me. I couldn't tell for sure, as the air was slapping my face a million times over. And even if they were going to help me, I was a blur…I could not be stopped
Still running, my corazón beating faster and faster, my breathing getting more and more thunderous…I could not even think about stopping. Those animals would catch up to me any minute.
Finally I stopped, exhausted, but I had just one bit of adrenaline left. It was the adrenaline of worry. The now-that-I’ve-stopped-I’m-toast moment swirled in my head. I wanted to, yearned to, desado a run, and I was devastated to notice that my legs were fatigued. I almost cried, but then…
The sounds of the animals were still audible! If I could only get my legs pumping again, I could get out of their reach. So I took my handy-dandy willpower and sprinted on.
After a while, my legs had it. I paused and looked back. The animals weren’t going anywhere.
They were machines. I was in a mall.
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Manufacturing Mommy
The wife, Elissa Darns, had long passed. The only ones left were Leo and Clarissa, father and daughter. So, one day found Leo in his basement, er, “lab”, conjuring up some new experiment ideas when…
“Ooh! Ingenious idea coming on!! Why sit here and miss Elissa when I can make her?? “Clarissa, you’re gonna have mother again!”
“Oh good. So, you’re gonna do one of your so-close-to-blowing-the-house-up “experiments again?”
“No honey, I’m gonna make an…an android!!”
With that, Clarissa, struggling to quiet her laughter, clumsily walked up the stairs.
That night, Leo worked on the very human-like android he called “Elissa Two”. Wrenches and screws flew all across the room as he scrambled to get every metal part in its proper place. Hours later, he was getting the voice tone correct, and then the shoe color.
Next afternoon, Leo had finished “Elissa Two”.
“Clarissa, you gotta see this! Mom’s hoooooome!!” He flashed a proud, goofy grin as Clarissa came down the stairs.
“Ok, the moment of ta-dah has come! Ready, sweetheart?”
“Sure.”
He un-blanketed Elissa Two. She had life-like soft skin, bright, blue eyes, and a flowing pink dress. “Hi, Elissa Two!”
“Hi Leo, my dear!”
“Ha! Ha! See? It’s really your mother!”
“Hmm. Interesting. It even sounds like her. Good job, Dad, seriously.”
“I knew you’d love it!” His grin still remained.
“Hi, baby! How are you today?” Asked “Mother”.
“I’m good! How are you?”
“Fine, thank you! I went to the store with Wendy today and got such cool stuff! We got matching shoes,” Her eyes look down, “A new dress and some Uggs!”
“Mom, you are so cool!”
“Thanks! Sarah and Ben liked them, too!”
“Oh, cool, Mom!” Clarissa smiled and looked at Leo. “Wait a minute, who’s Sarah and Ben?”
Elissa Two replied, “Oh, you know Sarah and Ben don’t you?”
Clarissa turned to Leo, “No.”
“Well…”
“Oh sure you do, guys!” Elissa Two piped up, “Ben is friends with Sarah’s sister who’s related to John who--“
“No, no no no! Turn her off!”
Leo turned off Elissa Two. “What’s wrong?”
“Dad, what did you do to Mom? She’s delusional with names! Do you know her friends?”
“I don’t.”
“Great. Now I’m gonna have a robot mom with slight Alzheimer’s…awesome!”
“Hey look, at least your mother’s figuratively here again!”
“Whatever.” And Clarissa angrily walked upstairs.
Leo sat on a chair near the android. “All I wanted to do was give Clarissa her mother back.” He got up and turned on Elissa Two.
“Hi Alfred, my dear!”
“Alfred?!?” Leo turned her off and on.
“Hi Donny, my dear!” Leo repeated his actions.
“Hi King George II, my dear!” Leo screamed and tried to turn her back off, but she saved him the work and blitzed herself.
There, still standing up and smoky, was the mom who almost was.
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Mandy’s Game
My girlfriend Mandy is a real trick sometimes. She plays this game with me once in a while in the park. She’ll lay down tracks (things that allude to what she loves) to see if I can find her. Well, today, on the easy, medium, hard level, this was “You Gotta Be Insane!!”
When I turned on my cell, I got this text: ‘Non-txting hour’. The message meant that from now to 2:30pm, there’s no texting allowed, only physical clues. So, I searched around until I found…nothing!! But then, I found what looked like a piece of dirt, but it was actually a chocolate bar wrapper. Then minutes later I found another brown object, a Rolex watch band. Then a black thing, a small coke bottle cap. Then back to brown again, a necklace.
The brown-and-black trail went on for a couple more minutes, until I saw yellow. A big, bright yellow beret she got from Paris. I smiled…this wasn't over yet.
I continued my search, finding a brown drumstick and a black nail polish bottle with a silver cap. And then I stumbled upon a blue toy jeep; that was a model of the type of car she owns. Then I found colorful objects: a peace sign shirt, a video camera, and a book on NJ’s greatest myths. I thought I was close when I saw the book…maybe not. There was nothing else on the ground! I spent fifteen minutes scrounging for more, and there wasn’t; this had to be it.
I stepped on a squeak dog toy. I laughed. This is soooooo nearing the end! Looking straight ahead I saw a line of daisies (she loves SheDaisy) mixed in with an acoustic guitar. She absolutely loves folk music. And to top it all off: a picture of her and me at the beach.
“Ok, Mandy! Where are you?”
No answer. I looked around again for a couple minutes.
“Mandy?” Still nada, zilch, zero. She’s usually at the end of the trail. After I while, I texted her; it was after 2:30pm. I saw her text and busted a gut:
‘Sorry, this is the “replica trail”. The real trail is in the next park ahead. Try again, sweetie!’
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Big Disgusting Blue Square
WARNING: if you are nicey-nicey and patient with computers, do not read any further. But,
if you feel like pulling out the sledge hammer on your poor computer, read on, fellows!
I was at my computer one day and it started slowing down…then after a while the “Blue Screen of Death” reared its ugly color. I tried everything; from shutting off the computer the bad way, pounding on keys, to banging on the screen. Nothing worked!! So finally, I thought I’d just talk to it. So I did just that, until my voice had an agitated undertone. Then I thought (Hey, computers are dumb, they don’t even respond to burning emotion.) I figured out the next best thing was to bury my pride and call the guys I brought the computer from.
Boy, really nice these people were; they put me on hold for 15 with the Most Annoying Songs of 2009 playlist to tide me over. Well, I was about to hang up when a guy answered.
“Hi, my name is Jerry!! How may I help you today?”
“You could help me by muting your darn playlist.” I REEEEEAAAAAAALLLLLLLLY wanted to say that, but I thought then I’d be hung up on and have to call again. I told him my PC was going slow, and then I got the blue screen. Well, he told me I had a virus and that I’d have to download or update anti-virus software. I bit my tongue to avoid screaming at the guy for my own lousy mistake, said thank you and hung up.
Then I went to download the anti-virus software and it wouldn’t download. Well, a nice dinner with the family cleared my head enough to dive back in. So, that night I tried doing “sane undertakings”, safe mode, system restore, booting off the CD. Nothing, again! The last thing I could do was format the hard drive.
Hey, if you’re not using that sledge hammer, can I please have it?
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There’s Gold in the Backyard!
Vicki Urrman was in her backyard when she started to peer into her good friend Shelly’s backyard. Usually, when Vicky wanted Shelly, she would check her backyard first, because she knew Shelly would always be there. From gardening to shoveling snow, it was like she lived in that yard all year long! But Vicky didn’t see Shelly there this time, she was probably (gasp!) in her house! What Vicky saw was gold. Not a necklace just lying around, but traces of gold flecks on the grass. She went over to Shelly’s.
“Hello Vicki!” Shelly answered her door.
“Hi Shelly! Hey, what’s with all the gold stuff?” Shelly quickly led Vicky inside and shut the door.
”I’ve been meaning to clean that. It’s an unintentional trail to the gold mine.”
”What the…?”
“Well, when my parents brought this house, the realtor told us this backyard was special. It was used as a gold mine before a house covered it up. So, from then on, we armed it with alarms and hid it.”
“But, don’t you want to sell some of the gold and make a profit?”
“Eh, we’re afraid people would get some…ideas, if you know what I mean.”
“Oh come on! People would never assume of you guys having a mine of any kind.”
“You never know.” Shelly looked from side to side. “Listen, V, I-I-I really don’t wanna think about selling the gold. Can we talk about something else?”
“Are you embarrassed by it? Yeah, you’re embarrassed! You know, it’s not that bad--”
“V! Please! Change the topic!”
So Vicky changed the topic, the gold mine was never mentioned again, the family kept it a secret, and the world (except for Vicki) never knew of the oddity near the house.
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A Lovely Game
My friend from America, Maryann, took me to see my first baseball game. I was so excited, because in London (well, in my part of London) it rains away all the players, so I never get to see a good cricket game.
Anyway, we got our seats and grabbed the classic snacks, and then we watched the game. About fifteen minutes in, I started to…yawn. The batter must’ve been in La La Land, the coach was probably blind, and the other players were fumbling all over the place. The only numbers above 0 were on the Visitors side. I was starting to get bored, but I didn’t have the heart to let Maryann know that. So I slapped on a convincing smile and pretended to absolutely love my…first game that totally stunk. How sad is that? So, here’s my view of things:
The batter got struck out twelve times (he got a lot of wild pitches ‘cause the coach thought the batter could use three bloody sets of second chances.)
When that batter finally blew away, another actually good batter came in, but the darn fielders thought they were being ironically funny by forcing the batter out. That was just super.
The rest of the game is too horrible to tell…well, except for the ending. In the end, at least some team managed to win. The Visitors won 9-2!!
And because the Visitors won, I found the desire to go to a second baseball game.