Thanksgiving is a holiday I dread. It just seems to be a hotbed of dysfunction and a recipe for disaster. Like Uncle Burt asking people to pull his finger in between inappropriate off color and mostly unfunny jokes. As a kid, I giggled and reveled in the somewhat forbidden nature. But now it’s just aContinue reading “Family Gobble”
Category Archives: short stories
A Christmas Quest for Power
Parents want to give everything to their kids and deny them nothing. Before I had children, though, I remember watching with confusion and slight disdain the news coverage of otherwise normal parents turning into mob rioters just to score a Cabbage Patch Kid for their children’s Christmas present. I couldn’t believe people could put suchContinue reading “A Christmas Quest for Power”
Ghost Light
Stepping onto the darken stage, I feel the wood boards under my feet. The seeping glow of the single bulb ghost light provides very little light, but somehow I see everything clearly. There’s the full audience enthralled with every note and spoken word. Over there are the actors dancing on the stage in perfect rhythmContinue reading “Ghost Light”
Fun, Fame and Family Secrets – Episode 2 Tales from the Backseat
Traveling in 1970 something was quite different than in 2020 something. Without the all-powerful and knowing internet, planning a trip meant visiting the library to look up travel books or arranging everything through an expensive travel agent. Hours in a library for a busy mother of three was not an option and travel agents wereContinue reading “Fun, Fame and Family Secrets – Episode 2 Tales from the Backseat”
The Gamble
It was as if they were statues all standing still… no one talking or laughing, just holding up their cards and sizing each other up. It was the tensest poker game of her life. Inside she was sweating bullets. For most of the game, luck was not her lady and the cards favored others. StaringContinue reading “The Gamble”
I Left A Lot in San Francisco: Tales from the Backseat Episode 7
The difference between being a preteen and a child on a family vacation is like the comparing Mount Everest to the dirt hill kids jump their bikes over. It’s a continental divide. During my preteen years, I wanted to be cool and strived to seem grown-up. And I definitely did not want to act likeContinue reading “I Left A Lot in San Francisco: Tales from the Backseat Episode 7”
Never Have I Ever
It was a cool and somewhat snowy Chicago weekend in early April. The point in winter when everybody felt listless and annoyed with one more month of gray days, cool temperatures, and intermittent snow that was supposed to be gone in March. So five friends decided to embark on a long weekend to sunny warmContinue reading “Never Have I Ever”
Work To Live
Work was frantic in Stephanie’s real estate office. On one line she was talking a buyer with cold feet off the edge while on the other lines she had an attorney and another agent on the phone about problems with other pending deals. And in front of her, an assistant holding bunches of files tryingContinue reading “Work To Live”
A Dream is a Wish your Heart Makes
Episode 6 – Tales from the Backseat California here we are. After three weeks navigating most of the lower half of the US and a bit of Mexico, we finally made it to the golden west coast. And as any red-blooded American family, the first place we went was DISNEYLAND. It was the mecca of small childrenContinue reading “A Dream is a Wish your Heart Makes”
The Solution
Walking always clears my head. Maybe it’s something about the fresh air or the freedom of moving in any direction I want. I love the dense warm summer air as a myriad of sensations hang in the thick atmosphere. The city has its own rhythm. The melody of sounds is deafening and chaotic, but whenContinue reading “The Solution”
SUZANNE RUDD HAMILTON 