I was in QFC in a bad mood (I've been PMSing) with only bean dip and a pizza in my cart trying to find the Pepsi. I finally spotted it under a large neon sign that said "Foreign Cuisine" and was about to go grab one, when the clearance section caught my eye. Nine times out of ten, I find nothing even remotely interesting and/or useful in the clearance section, but I always am compelled to look. So I'm poking at useless and broken items and I see something out of the corner of my eye that appears to say, "Female Urinal Device." I bend down and, sure enough, that's what the box says. Don't get me wrong, I know there's a perfectly good use for these things when one is in traction or whatever, but the last place I would go looking for one would be a QFC. So I'm standing there bent over, staring at the Female Urinal Device with my mouth open, when I hear a voice behind me say, "Can I help you find anything?" I turn around (stand up and shut my mouth) and see the butcher behind his counter, looking worried that I might make off with the Female Urinal Device. "No thank you," I say in my most professional voice and turn and walk over to the Foreign Cuisine section and snag myself a Pepsi.
Something strange happened this month: I missed my 12 Short Stories deadline. There have been many things changing in my life, and I’ve realized that there are a few things I will need to put less energy into. That doesn’t mean I won’t write anymore, but that I may write less, or may just focus on longer pieces. That being said, I did write something, it just didn’t meet the word count. So here is one more story. It’s not a story about politics, it’s a story about human nature and human feelings. ——— The war is over, or at least that is what they say. But how do you stop such a thing once it is started? Charles sighed when I asked him, “You act as if you don’t understand politics.” “I don’t,” I scratched a sliver of paint off the window with a razor, “I’m not even sure we should be doing this.” “They said we could remove the blackout paint,” Charles swiped an even curl of latex to the ground. It fell among the budding roses, an artificial petal. “But there are still soldiers ove