Mr. and Mrs. Poe (369 Words)
“I think if you are rare,” said Mrs. Poe, “you must be a criminal.”
Mr. Poe was not mollified. The truth of the matter is, compliments from loved ones are too often like pennies in the hand of a beggar. We take them for granted and dismiss them as too poor for our needs. It is a selective partiality.
Mrs. Poe got up from her chair. Pale and fragile, when she sought his face she was determined and strong.
The Intelligence Plan (679 Words)
“Miss me?” he said, and kissed her.
It was a firm kiss, soft but passionate. His hands at her elbows were not confining but relaxed. It would have been simple to translate his laxness as overconfidence, but there was something in his expression that warned Li otherwise. And she couldn’t help it—not when his glance was lost to her, not when she saw how tired he was—not when he looked as if he had read her thoughts and his heart was close to breaking.
Red Roses (99 Words)
Clair had never liked red roses. They seemed to her too garish. Anyway there wasn’t much to be lost our gained in philosophizing over flowers, so Clair never really thought twice about whether she liked red roses or not until that roadside walk.
Moonstruck (198 Words)
It wasn’t a fairy tale. The day after the wedding, she went back to her job as one of half-a-dozen lifeguards at the community beach. He had the early morning to evening shift at the grocery store. And sitting at her post in the burning heat, her eyes shaded by the brim of her hat, Carrie wondered if anything had really changed.
It hadn’t. She knew that. Yet something was different.
Betty Dances (291 Words)
Five years old and Betty was as much a mystery to her mother as she was the day she was born. The little girl seemed so serious, straightening her hair with pudgy fingers, watching not her hair but her own frowning face in the mirror.
“I never wanted to be a ballerina when I was her age either,” said a man’s quiet, teasing voice.
Falling Forwards (1267 Words)
But oh, what joy to see him! To find him, alive! I could not stop but embraced him. Rupert patted my back with light affection. I was surprised, cavalier as he was in nature, that he did not withdraw entirely.
“Thank God,” I said, “thank God!”
“Steady on,” said Rupert, the smile in his voice as plain as any wholesome laugh. “What’s this, then?”
After the Adventure (99 Words)
She found him sleeping. The sun through the leaves warmed his skin in green and gold light, his long lashes casting shadows across his cheek.
