Archive for Archive for June, 2008
My sister’s dress
Would the Prince have found Cinderella anyway, without the dress and glass slippers? Who knows. But I say, never underestimate the power of one good dress. For me, it was my sister’s dress—not even mine. Mother made it from looking at a photograph in Vogue magazine. She sewed two hours a day, five days a […]
Newton’s third law
It was cool and clear, a perfect October day in Houston. Darla enjoyed the yard work, mowing and cleaning out the flower beds, raking it all together in a tidy pile and sacking it for the trash. She borrowed lopping shears from the man next door and cut off some low branches in the tree […]
Fat Girls
Mary’s mother always said, “Fat girls can’t wear white.†Save for her christening dress, and her First Communion dress, Mary didn’t, until she left for nursing school. She worked nights, her quiet measured pace and steady presence a comfort to patients and reassuring to the staff. “I want that nurse in white,†some querulous old […]
Confession
Rose Martha Sims was sick to her stomach with worry. Seven weeks had passed since she sent off a story to the confession magazine. She’d mailed it from another town, fearful that someone at her little post office would notice her name on the envelope. Now she was nervously watching for the return envelope to […]
The last president of Texas
The last President of Texas lies in a peaceful, leafy park decorated with fine marble carvings of weeping angels, children, and lambs. Left behind and overlooked in the exuberant thrall of statehood, he died by his own hand. “Of a broken heart,” others said. On pretty days, runners pass in and out of the grounds, […]
The best day of his life
During a baseball game on a balmy night in late June, with runners on first and second, the batter hit a hard line drive straight into Charlie Ben’s glove. He backed onto second base to force another out, then tagged the bewildered runner between first and second base for an unassisted triple play. Charlie Ben […]
Glove Box Stories—new and improved
The genesis of Glove Box Stories began in February 2005, when my husband gave me a domain as a birthday present, SanLeon.net. Imagine! My own domain, and I had no idea what to do with it. I tried blogging, but I didn’t have the heart for it. SanLeon.net languished until February 2006, when I started […]