I don't know how long it'd been since I'd seen a panhandler on the side of the road but today it occurred to me that the streets were surprisingly empty on such a clear, blue sky, 58 AQI day.

The bus stopped at the light just behind of the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial bridge and on the column I noticed there was a nasty mural which showed people, starved and disheveled, imprisoned waiting for death and cremation.

In my mind's eye I could see all the panhandlers -- those too…

Our manager, chipper lady always smiling and cracking jokes, pointed out the new girl who looked plain and uninteresting, "Moody ain't she? One of those 'it's the quiet ones you gotta watch' postal-worker types."

Over the next few months, she remained 'the quiet one' who worked diligently, often finishing assignments early, and always ate lunch alone - although, on occasion, she allowed me to sit with her - while reading some book on various world atrocities past and present, female…

Begin a story with the word 'because:'

"Because is not an answer!"

The words resonate in Emilie's mind but she can't do anything to make it stop because she promised. Being grounded for the night without music or even a book to read hurt but come tomorrow her Daddy will say he's sorry because tomorrow is his birthday. Miss Higgins is a beautiful woman who not-so-secretly loves her Daddy and helped her make his present and keep it hidden for her so he…

"I just wanna say that I'm thankful for having you in my life."

Strong man that he is over the last twenty-one minutes, nope twenty-two, he feels himself weaken to the point of tears and now with this last song, he can't help but reach for the phone.

"Deborah, thank you so much."

"I love you, Daddy."

Eight hundred miles away but joined together through the power of technology we restart the video, sitting in silence over the phone for twenty-three minutes and…

Everything is so dark and every morning when I wake it seems to be getting worse. This doctor is no better than the neurologist that said I was having pseudoseizures. Why would I be making myself blind? I told myself my 'seizures' were aggressive panic attacks but there is nothing I can call this other than blindness. Damn therapist said it won't get better until I face the past. Well I confronted that bitch and now I'm going blind.…

Prompt #1:  Muddy Me

List six not-so-great, or secret, or embarrassing things that you or one of your characters want a potential new significant other to know before going any further into the relationship.  Ex:  I have quit shaving under my arms or I hate for someone's feet to touch me or cut flower arrangements make me sad.  Be creative because this prompt could be fiction.

Sweetness, there's a few things you have to realize about me that…

Prompt #2:  My Space

Describe your ideal writing space.  Compare/contrast it with your actual writing space now.  Are there steps you could take to get closer to your ideal?  Be descriptive, make us feel where you'd love to dwell as you create your pages. 

The field is empty with a zephyr blowing in such a way to move my dark brown curls across my cheek but not enough to curl the pages of my notebook.

The sakura block out enough…

Walter chose to use his chair today because: he felt it would make the other guests less uncomfortable than if he hobbled around using his strutter crutches, it wouldn't damage his tux, and he would be more independent while he grabbed all he could eat from the buffet without anyone's assistance.

He appears absent-minded to those who dare take a glance at the cripple but he is absolutely focused, watching Vivian as she pretends to be enjoying herself with each of the men inviting her…

All this time, for months now, he'd hoped to get Ava to come out and have a good time with him instead of going straight home after work, wasting so much of her life, because she had 'nothing better to do' being an asexual woman with no chance of romance 'alone in the world'.

Seeing him around so many women so much of the time, rarely with another man, maybe she couldn't believe someone so handsome and debonair could be a homosexual and was just using a 'lie' to coerce her into having…

It was three years ago today I got out of the hospital after about a week's observation to find out while my health was curable my life was over.

We'd been friends seven years before she called out of the blue saying she wanted to move back to North Carolina and live with me, if I were willing, because she knew it was something I'd wanted since we first met back in college.

A week in the hospital and she only came long enough for me to sign a check to pay the light bill even…