West Coast Review

The wild decade following high school I spent moving from job to job and hanging onto a relationship that was not healthy. When that relationship ended, I had a strong desire to establish security in my life through stable employment.

I took a job with a bank, worked hard, and met all new friends. I managed my life confident that I did not want to become enmeshed in another relationship that was controlling. For a few years, I worked, went clubbing, dated, and toyed with the idea of marriage and children.

I don’t know if the idea is so ingrained in the minds of females that we are supposed to be in relationships and care for the partner and offspring, or if it is really something that I wanted for myself. I guess that during all of this dating, I was actually looking for a life partner. Eventually I reached…

I know it sounds cliché, but it was Halloween night when my neighbor Roy told me his story about the girl in the mist. We were sitting at my kitchen table having a few cold beers, talking about things that go bump in the night and other topics appropriate for that particular eve. We eventually reached the subject of local folklore. Our little town had ghost stories aplenty.

Honeymoon Bay was formed in the late 1800s by pioneers, mostly loggers and later mill workers as the town grew and industry gained a foothold. During the mid-twentieth century, a sawmill dominated the tiny village. The reason I included this somewhat dry bit of trivia is that it has relevance to the story that follows.

At one time, the main road through…

You can look through the peach leaves portal into the future. If you are quick you may see what will pass.

Dale, @ A Delectable Life, rightly noticed that her Peach Tree had not been getting much attention. Here it is in day-glow peach.

I couldn’t resist doing an Over/Under shot. Inspired by Marina.

Sweat beaded on Saul’s forehead. Being summoned to a meeting with the executives seldom meant good news. After thirty-seven years in the business, one would think he’d be used to it, but he’d never managed to shake the sense of impending doom he felt before every meeting. His fingers closed around the small cylindrical container in his pocket and resisted the urge. Xanax would dull the panic, but he needed to remain sharp when meeting with those piranhas.

* * *

Zorn reminded him of a bullfrog on Botox. His closed mouth, thin-lipped smile stretched impossibly wide across a face much too smooth for a man his size. He overflowed his chair like Jabba the Hutt crammed into an Armani suit. Saul half expected a long tongue to zip out of…

It started out the way so many of these things do: A slice of potato, a needle and a cigarette lighter. Piercing my ears against my parents’ wishes was the ultimate act of rebellion, in my thirteen-year-old mind.

My sister was all for it, in the beginning. Sadie was a saint. She always had my back. Sadie was more than just my identical twin. She was my best friend and my savior, always willing to run interference to hide my rebellious antics. Like the pierced ears. Sadie chose to remain unpierced, and stood in for me when I hid to avoid my parents until my ears healed and I could remove the earrings around them. And when my amateur piercing job went bad and my ears turned scarlet with infection, Sadie was there for me.

It was the same with the tattoo. And the nose ring. And then the numerous…

Dear manager of The Homicidal Homily Hotel,

I will have you know that I am deeply disappointed with your clearly false advertising. You had said in your brochures that this was a place to get away from vampires and ghouls and other paranormal creatures. You had promised me a fearfully rollicking good time. Ax-wielding maniacs and dangerous traps and secret trap doors….. THAT was the good time I had in mind when I paid for my reservation.

What did I get instead? Well, let me tell you.

First night of my stay at your “esteemed” establishment —your brochure’s choice of words. Not mine — I went out for a late night swim. I had assumed that the pool would be empty. But no. There was a merman in the pool. Can you believe such audacity? A merman!

Oh, of course, he was quite beautiful with his silver streamer hair…