Categotry Archives: 3WW
Suzie’s House 270 : Hey, Hey, I Wanna Be a Rock Star
“We could do it.” Tracy’s eyes shone all bright like they do when she gets one of those ideas, the kind that get everyone in trouble. “Seriously. We should do it.” Gene sat on the bed with his guitar across his lap. He’d rather have had Tracy across his lap, but that always made Ben and Lisa uncomfortable. Instead, Tracy bounced next to him, making his fingers slip off the frets. If he’d been serious about playing, he’d have made […]
Suzie’s House 269 : and Miles to Go
There were worms crawling on the ceiling. They differed from the ones Drew could feel crawling under his shoulder in ways too easily explained by scientific things like distance for him to easily dismiss. Drew lifted his hand for comparison. The fingers looked like worms.
Suzie’s House 268 : Lost Puppy
Sonoma picked through her collection of botanicals, looking for a combination she thought might help settle the man she and her husband had taken in for the night. She had everything from yarrow to Echinacea in her suitcase. She glanced at the guy, sizing him up for muscle mass and mental stability. Drew had a couple of day’s growth of beard – just enough so it clearly wasn’t intentional – and clean hair about shoulder length with gray around the […]
Suzie’s House 267 : Where’s Drew?
Drew stood in front of a narrow window in the foyer of the inn in Yellowstone and stared at the darkness. No taxi would come for him. No busses ran now. And he did not have a place to stay. In the early evening moonlight the deep piles of snow gleamed eerily, taunting him with his own stupidity.
Suzie’s House 264 : The Devil Is in the Details
Ben stopped to ditch his bulky jacket when his mom and Gene went off to the kitchen. There wasn’t much room on the coat rack, so he slung it over the suitcase that Drew had mailed to them. Something was bothering Ban. His thoughts were a little too misty to be sure, but it might have something to do with the way Gene figured out all about how the suitcase got there without being told, but Ben couldn’t. He’d been […]
Suzie’s House 263 : How Do You Vindicate It?
“Hey! Who put this here?” Ben gave the suitcase a kick for having tripped him. “Huh. A suitcase?” Gene squatted down next to it. There was something kind of familiar about this suitcase. It was black canvas, with wheels; the kind you put in the over head compartment of a plane. A little silver thing on the handle jingled when he moved it. There was even an airline tag attached. But the tag said Denver, not Madison. “Mooooom! Where’d this […]
Suzie’s House 262 : Novice to the Searing of the Flesh
“I’m so nervous.” Miranda stood in the kitchen with a spatula in her hand. It wasn’t like she’d never done this before, but the chances of messing up were high enough to make her sweat even in the middle of winter. “You’ll be fine.” Vin gave her arm a reassuring squeeze. “I’ll be with you the whole way.” “All right.” She swallowed hard. “Let’s do this.”
Suzie’s House 261 : Navigating the Rocky Shoals of Finance
Suzie ripped the check out of the checkbook and stuffed it in the envelope along with the tab from the bottom of the utility bill. She licked the envelope, glanced at the clock, then winced. The mail man would be coming any minute, and this bill was already overdue. Lately her finances had been as steady as a newborn fawn.
Suzie’s House 259 : How to Kill Your Darlings
“This was bugging me all night,” Ben complained as he stepped into my house. “I don’t think I want to kill any darlings.” I giggled. “Let’s go sit in the kitchen before we talk about it.”
Suzie’s House 258 : A Look at “I Am From”
Ben brought a poem of sorts over for me to critique. I actually have some university training in poetry, though it’s been long enough that I couldn’t tell my limerick from my canticle. All right, I’ll admit I’ve got my limericks down pat, but you know what I mean. It’s not my focus. Then again, neither are a teenage boy’s homework assignments.
Suzie’s House 257 : When the Truth Broke Loose
“Would you quit being so pissy already?” “Ben?” Lisa and Tracy both looked at him like he’d just grown another head. Gene didn’t bother to look at him at all, just kept walking. Then again, he was well ahead of them on the sidewalk, so maybe he couldn’t hear. Or he just didn’t want to hear. “What? Don’t I have a right to get fed up with him? Weren’t both of you just complaining about him?”
Suzie’s House 256 : Math Teachers vs Social Studies Teacher
“Ron,” Mr. Foster, the math teacher, nodded as they passed in the hall right after third period. “Chris,” Mr. Gordon replied. He didn’t notice at first that Mr. Foster had something more to say to him. “A word, if I may.” Mr. Foster held a hand up, stopping him without actually touching. “It’s about Tracy Martin. I believe you have her in second period?”
Suzie’s House 255 : Math vs Social Studies
“How come Gene’s all scary-moody again?” Tracy sat in the Math classroom, but had her Social Studies book open. Lisa had never seen her act so studious. Tracy paused to wave her pencil in the air. “I mean, just because he’s got his nose all bent doesn’t mean he has to growl at me.” “Um… Tracy? Math is going to start soon. Are you sure you should be working on that?”
Suzie’s House 254: To Jostle a Remnant of Memory
Gene thought about hiding so Mrs. H. wouldn’t catch him watching, but then his jaw got tight and his back bunched up. He told himself he wasn’t mad, but he didn’t hide at all. So right after kissing that guy, that lawyer guy, she turned around and there he was, standing in the window with his arms crossed, looking right at her.
Suzie’s House 253 : The Mistaken Impulse
Jeff liked to think he was diligent in his attorney-client relations, house calls to Mrs. Hammacker not withstanding. He nurtured his business relations carefully, often at the expense of anything resembling a private life. His focus on family law tended to put him in awkward positions. So he was used to acting as an amateur psychologist. He liked to think he handled it well. This he wasn’t handling well at all.
