This is a story.
Well, by that, I mean it has a beginning and an end.
It has a climax, reaching a critical mass in the nuclear reactor of drama
and a denouement as soft as the greenest rolling hills under a radiant sun,
so carefully constructed, the story's end is that single point in a sunset
where you're not sure if it's done setting.
It has characters so fully developed that you'd think them real.
Because they ARE real.
And the setting? Well, it's here. It's here and now - that's where it starts, anyway.
The plot twist makes little Laura Cleveland,
the girl in your third grade class with the tightest curls y
My carpet is my own.
It has lines across it -
strips of dark and light sand-colored shades
that indicate, perhaps, an incessant need for cleanliness.
Barely visible under alternating trails,
areas of fiber, once crushed underfoot,
still showing the remains of that weight.
Some shaped like feet themselves,
some like shoes,
and some like boots during those times I am running late,
but all the same size.
My carpet is not new,
but its patterns recognize only me.
Its wear and tear, fraying on the edge
that sticks out against the wall
by the back door
where no footprints are to be found,
and the stain behind my chair,
slightly ora
Thump, thump.
His heart pounded in his chest,
looking at her picture on his desk,
then, a phone call,
"Can you come on over?"
"Yes, I'll be right there."
Thump, thump.
In time with the car radio,
but he didn't feel the song,
all his mind focused on
was the drive so, so long.
Thump, thump.
He was going to see her,
his friend, his fiancee,
his dream, his life -
and, as he had always thought,
eventually,
his wife.
Thump, thump.
Like the time he proposed,
his heart thrashed, a tympani drum
of emotion fear
exposing his intentions early,
but not ruining the sweetness of the moment
as he dropped to one kn