Well and not so well-wishers, slapping Stanley on the back. Snickering about the wedding night that way too many knew would be her first time.
Signs aplenty as she looked back.
Heated arguments about money. Always her money. Stanley of course didn't have any money. Paula found this out too late, long after vows read and wedding night consummation. Long after loving smiles turned to ugly frowns and lips that used to say, "yes my lovely darling," now uttered blasphemes.
Her final ultimatum. "Get out and never come back you scoundrel."
All that remained was that damned killer smile of his. He had painted upon the sole unblemished mannequin a red lipped smile. His calling card of sorts.
No one needed to tell her it was him. She knew his style by now. How he took what was joyous to her and corrupted it beyond repair. How he belittled her at every turn ... her ideas were stupid, her designs plain, and her shop too small and unimaginative. She herself was not what did it for him anymore, as if she ever had.
But, to destroy her shop was to destroy her, and he knew this was all she had left. She had been the fool for him for so long. No more! Paula gathered her last shreds of dignity around herself. Determined to take the last stand; she squared her shoulders and placed her own killer smile upon her face as if it were a mantle of protection. She made her way home to her silent house.
Paula opened the one drawer in her bedroom dresser that Stanley had never bothered with. It was her underwear drawer that held her womanly magic. Thinking back, she laughed to herself. For Stanley never realized her most prized possession lay among her plain white cotton panties.
She unwrapped the small coin that lay in a plain black box. It had symbols and etchings only she could read, plainly displayed on its surface.
Paula clutched the coin to her small breasts and pictured Stanley in her mind. She released the wraith that slumbered inside.
As she turned off the last light in her bedroom, she whispered, "Stanley, if you only knew. Wait till you see my killer smile."
Silken Threads
The Web of Man-Kind
Finer than the thinnest spider’s silk
Is the web of mankind’s time
Each line, each thread, uncountable
Holding ten million times ten million strands
And each thread could hold much more
Streaming from the ocean of sources
Each piece intertwined into silken yarn
Finer than the thinnest spider’s silk
The path, the strands, they twist
They turn, they circle, but ever straight
As if the line was drawn with a compass
Directly from the beginning to the end
Each strand gives us free will
To follow to the end or the beginning
To spiral from one to another
Intersecting, dissecting, blending, blurring
Once Chosen and it is a choice
Traveling it’s given length until
Becoming one, starting another
Finding love, leaving life, ending
Love at first sight
The True Meaning of Love
THE HOSPITAL CORRIDOR was silent as Kathy Packard hurriedly walked down the corridor to the maternity ward. She was expecting the frantic pace that television shows portrayed.
Her favorite TV show, Grey’s Anatomy, often had the doctors and nurses rushing around as if their asses were on fire. There were always orderlies dragging machinery around the hallways and pushing wheelchairs full of bandaged patients with IV’s hanging out of their arms.
Today it looked like all the staff had taken a holiday and were at a sunny beach somewhere. After all it was March 20th, the first day of spring and she too wanted to be somewhere else. But love brought her here.
Kathy had gotten the call last night from her mother. Her baby sister, Janice had gone into premature labor and Jake, her husband, had taken her to the hospital. The baby girl wasn’t due for another twelve weeks.
She had never had a baby herself, and definitely never wanted one, but she knew the baby coming this soon was not a good thing. She didn’t know what to expect and dread filled her heart for what awaited her.
It had been so difficult getting a flight out of San Francisco. Kathy was a junior executive for an advertising agency. It was one of the largest firms there. But even with this pull, it had been time consuming and expensive getting a flight to Dallas at the last minute.
Kathy had had to wait three hours at the airport just to get a standby. It had been worth it for now here she was at the Dallas hospital. She checked her Rolex watch and saw that it was 7:00am. She had been going non-stop since last night. Of course she was worn out, she had put in a twelve hour day at the ad agency, but her family was too important to her not to be here.
Long before the call came, she had been nervous. All day her mind was consumed with thoughts of her sister and the baby. The night before she had one of her premonitions. Most folks, like her mother called them just dreams. But Kathy knew they were much more than that.
Her mom, Delores was so skeptical about the whole premonition thing. Kathy kept quiet after her mother tongue lashed her the one time she told her about one of the dreams.
“You know that’s just a lot of stupid superstitions that simple minded people use to rationalize the world.” She had shook her head at Kathy and gave her one of those ‘mother looks’ that said she should know better.
But Kathy knew her dreams meant so much more. So much that she risked her high paying job on it. She loved her sister Janice, and no one or nothing was going to keep her from being by her side.
Kathy’s cell started chiming a lively tune. She rushed to quiet it.
