The Creature Inside and Out

April 21, 2023April 20, 2023 / roughwighting / 88 Comments

“Stevie, I don’t have a creature inside me,” I insist. “In fact, there’s not much left to me at all,” I stare down at my decrepit body, hunched over from arthritis and age.

“That’s the point, Auntie!” Stevie exclaims. “The creature inside you is young. Vibrant. Viral.”

Readers: I’m Lucia, and my story began at the last post (https://roughwighting.net/2023/04/07/the-creature-within/) explaining that my brilliant nephew Stevie is convincing me to take a pill he invented that will help me become“the creature within.” At my old age, crooked with regrets, I decide to take the plunge, so to speak. Many of you guessed I will turn into a dragon, or a bird, a snake or a butterfly. Some of you even guessed I’d become a … well, wait, I’m holding the pill in my hand …

Continue reading →

The Creature Within

April 7, 2023April 2, 2023 / roughwighting / 108 Comments

I always liked Stevie as a kid. He was kooky, and so was I. But I was in my mid-40s when he was born.

By the time Stevie was a teen, his intellect was genius level, and his nerdiness disturbed his two straighter-than-an arrow parents, so they put him in an advanced program at MIT and crossed fingers he’d be accepted by the other odd souls that hovered in the halls of techno academia. Continue reading →

Tea for Two

September 9, 2022September 8, 2022 / roughwighting / 98 Comments

The first time Leezy appeared, I admonished her. Days after, I berated myself for my behavior.

I hadn’t seen Leezy in over 25 years. I’d decided that she’d forgotten me, despite her promises. Until . . . Continue reading →

What do YOU think?

June 3, 2022June 2, 2022 / roughwighting / 116 Comments

Has it been a month already? A month since the unthinkable happened? A month since my life, and yours, and his, and hers, and all of ours, changed irrevocably. A month since the sky opened and the inconceivable occurred, but truly, it wasn’t improbable.

People have been forecasting this for years, decades, centuries. The only surprising thing is how long it took. Continue reading →

A New Realm

March 5, 2021March 5, 2021 / roughwighting / 127 Comments

Ruby took a breath, and with a shaking hand, signed her name to the list.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Ruby’s twin sister whispered in her ear. The trails of uncertainty in Trudy’s breath caused Ruby’s heart to thump thump thump.

Finishing the n in her last name “Rubicon” with flair, Ruby dropped the ancient fountain pen onto the solid oak table, which had been passed from generation to generation. She nodded a weak Yes. Continue reading →