The contractors had been in the house for a week replacing French doors that opened to an outside seating area. When the bulk of the work was done, the only person remaining was the painter finishing the inside trim and other paint touch-ups around the house. The owner of the home has gone through the same routine every day for years. She puts the jewelry into the safe or on the vanity tray on her bathroom counter every night. She didn’t put her jewelry on the next morning as she had a rescheduled water aerobics class. The painter was left alone. The three pieces were her everyday precious things: the Rolex President’s watch; a platinum gold diamond wedding band; an emerald … Read More
Buyer’s Remorse
She spent over $300 on a bottle of perfume. In the moment of purchase, she felt high on a new drug. It was ludicrous. This was the first time she had ever used her own hard-earned cash for such a superfluous transaction. She grew up under a budget. She learned to stretch her paycheck and rub the green off a dollar. She now lived anticipating the next bill due. But this extra cash, she said it was ‘burning a hole in her hand.’ She may have lived on the lower-income scale, but she still managed to associate herself with moneyed people and occasional luxuries. Fancy clothes, fancy jewelry, fancy meals…they weren’t new -just not at her expense. There was always a current … Read More
The Transient Ones
In a child’s bedroom, the ceiling is painted navy. Glow in the dark or sparkly stickers are affixed above to give an illusion of sleeping beneath a galaxy of stars; to play pretend at falling asleep under a personal solar system. This child will likely grow up to like science, too. Environment predicts and enables so much. There was one period during my elementary school years in which as many as thirty vintage hats were tacked to my bedroom ceiling. I have no idea how they were acquired, but when one has more than two of anything, outsiders view this as a collection in waiting and start giving you more of this thing. (no one needs this) I would lie there reflecting … Read More
Lives of Others
I hear the beat and it brings me back to you. We are dancing together in the living room. In our own little world -spinning each other, then pushing apart to individually croon into our imaginary microphones. We are putting on a show in the living room. Attendees are half engaged in muted conversation and half giving us attention. We sing alto and soprano off of one another and when we bellow out the moving, crescendo parts of the song, all attention fully focuses on us. Always. We concentrate the room. We are performers. Many of these people have little in common, but we brought them together. ‘Oh Lacey, why are you afraid? Look how you get up in front … Read More
Starched and Proper
There is the hiss of the steam and the smell of fresh laundry; the mist of the starch before it stiffens. Her movements are methodical. She lifts and turns the shirt just so, pressing the point of the iron into any nooks and crannies. She smokes a cigarette while she irons. The glass ashtray sits on the edge of the board. Her cigarette spends more time dangling from one corner of her mouth than being smoked. She only waves it over the ashtray seconds before the accumulated weight of ashes fall. Her husband sits in his black slacks and white wife beater at the Formica kitchen table. He is waiting, reading the newspaper too close to his face. ~When I am given this … Read More