Opening Pandora’s … Vase

March 10, 2025March 9, 2025 / roughwighting / 85 Comments

I’m enervated and enthusiastic as I return home after meeting with some of my writing besties for lunch. Ah, the stories we share!

Smiling, I park in the garage, gather my purse and lunch leftovers, and open the door into my home, ready for a hot cuppa tea.

But then I stop as if an anchor is placed on my ankles. Something is wrong, or at least not right. I feel a subtle shift in the house. Yes, a shift.

Occasionally, I get this sensation; after all, a house is not a static object. It’s full of wood and plaster and beams and then walls and ceilings that absorb all the inhabitants’ moods and pains and joys and … I suppose some may think I’m weird. But living space is alive with energetic cells released by each of us. Continue reading →

A Better Dress

January 23, 2025January 22, 2025 / roughwighting / 100 Comments

Hold fast. Now is just now, it’s not then. Hold fast.

“Did you hear that?” I ask Natalie.

“What?” my daughter replies. She is much more practical than me. She only hears what is “visible” to her ears, so to speak. Continue reading →

The Invitation

December 16, 2024December 15, 2024 / roughwighting / 90 Comments

Katy searched for the correct way to reject the invitation. She was not inclined to meet Adam at midnight and drive to the open field 20 minutes away to see some famous “shooting star.”

Adam was a nice colleague, good-looking in an academic, black-glasses-hiding-thick-black-eyebrows kind of way, with a shy smile. Katy could tell he was interested in her. He acted as if she was a fairy princess who lit up a room whenever she entered. Continue reading →

Dare You!

October 25, 2024October 24, 2024 / roughwighting / 88 Comments

“So, it’s your fault he did that?” Debbie asked.

“Well, it was a dare. I didn’t think he’d actually do it,” Judith said.

“What did you think he’d do?” Debbie stared, perplexed, at her best friend. Judith was a scientist, gorgeous, and somehow successful despite being a scatterbrain.

Judith pondered Debbie’s question. “We’ve been dating for 101 days.”

Continue reading →

with a Dash of . . .

September 13, 2024September 12, 2024 / roughwighting / 102 Comments

I beg Murial for her mysterious cookie recipe. I asked her five years ago, four years ago, three, two and now. Now, I ask her again as I take a small bite of this delicious, delectable cookie.