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Esmeralda’s Makeover

In Issue 38 by Phyliss Merion Shanken

I don’t remember my mother’s face. Just her voice. I was about three years old when I awoke to sounds of screaming. Between her huffy sobs, I heard these words streaming from my parents’ off-limits bedroom:

“They are monsters! Ugly monsters! How could anything so ugly come from inside of me?”

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I’ll Let You Know When I’m Dead

In Issue 29 by Phyliss Merion Shanken

Henry caught a hint of heavy breathing somewhere in the bedroom, but these days he couldn’t quite trust any noise that entered his large, pear-shaped ears. On too many embarrassing occasions, the old man’s fuzzy hearing had betrayed him.

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The Comeback Kid

In Issue 26 by Phyliss Merion Shanken

“Who?”
“A jerk from the past.”
“What? Who is this?”
“I woke up this morning. And out loud, I said your name. It just came out! From nowhere! I haven’t spoken your name for sixty-eight years, so —”
“I’m about to hang up the phone. Take me off your list!”

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