From across the orange formica table at Denny's, Delbert Hooper's strange, kind eyes regarded Tracy through the steam rising from his vegetable beef barley soup.

[Editor's note: this may be the worst first line of a chapter ever written.  So sue me.  It was fun.]

"Thanks for meeting me," h… Read full post »

Tracy woke to spring sunshine and the sound of a robin outside.  She didn't recall any dreams - a relief, just now.   Sophie was already up and clattering around the kitchen.  Then the memory of Jennifer intruded into her golden morning.  She pulled on her bathrobe and… Read full post »

Tracy woke up sweating, scared.  She'd been dreaming about Jennifer, the hostile young charge nurse in ER - she couldn't remember much at first,  just breaking glass and screaming.  "God, don't let this be what I think it is", she thought.

There was a young man, a car.  A spinout.… Read full post »

After 2 months away, Tracy was nervous about going back to work.  She still felt a little scattered, and she wasn't prepared for the chaos of ER.  Her boss, Becky, had kindly given her a few "orientation" days, when she worked alongside her friend Joe, shadowing another nurse like a new… Read full post »

"You've never had something like this happen before?" asked Dr. McDowell.

"No.  Never.  Not before my accident."

"Hmm.  Electricity can do strange things.  Not to mention your head injury.  But to be honest, I don't have any personal experience with these things."

Dr. McDowel… Read full post »

Tracy came home on a Friday afternoon; Sophie had made a "Welcome Home, Mom!" banner out of white butcher paper and lots of glitter in the shape of hearts, and had strung it across the front porch of the little house Tracy loved so. 

She had bought it when she… Read full post »

So, I got a call on the way to one of my jobs yesterday, in ER, where I work as a travel nurse (a good deal, tax-wise, and flexible).  I've been working at the same ER for over a year, because I like it better than any of the other 6… Read full post »

When Sophie started hanging out with the goths, she thought she had, at last, found a place where she wouldn't feel like a misfit.  The goths were, after all, PROUD misfits - they rejected fitting in to the stupid social circles at school.  She felt strong.  She wasn't shy, she was… Read full post »

Tracy gagged and coughed as they removed her ventilator tube, but it was a relief.  Nothing like having a tube the size of your finger "down the wrong pipe".  It was only tolerable if you were in a coma, natural or induced.  Once you started waking up, they knew you didn't… Read full post »

 How long had it been?  Hours?  Weeks?  Tracy opened her eyes to light that seemed much too bright.  Long, fluorescent tubes, incessant electronic beeping.  There was a tube in her airway, gagging, choking her.  Her hands were tied to the bed - so she wouldn't pull… Read full post »

"Your Mom's doing OK, right now", said Becky, "but she fell and hit her head pretty hard.  She's getting a CAT scan, now - kind of a fancy X-ray of her head.  We'll know more after that."

Sophie was silent on the other end of the line.

"Is there someone… Read full post »

Tracy Haight knew better.  She KNEW better.  When someone yells "CLEAR!", you back away from the bed.  She just wanted to tape the IV a little better - Mr. Hooper was in V Fib, sweating like a pig, and they were about to lose the IV, which they really REALLY needed. … Read full post »

I heard Destinee screaming before the ambulance bay door opened.  She rolled in, 18 years old but looking around 30.  Long, wavy red hair, formerly pretty.  She came in yelling "Where's my baby?  Do you have my baby?"

Her baby, it turned out, was with her grandmother.  The ne… Read full post »

I just listened to a  "how could this happen?" discussion on NPR of the recent gang rape and beating in Richmond, where bystanders either cheered, participated, or did nothing while a 15 year old girl was raped after the prom (except the ones who finally did something, it should be noted,… Read full post »

So, I just noticed there is such a thing as "Foodie Tuesday".  PLUS, I just noticed it's Tuesday.  What a happy coincidence THIS is.  Because there is, right now, roughly 50 pounds of produce covering my kitchen counters, sink, and floor, and I really don't want to deal with it. … Read full post »

Omigod.  I saw the aborted-then-rescheduled Larry King Live interview with Suzanne Somers, a woman I'd been only dimly aware of - first through her silly, "aren't I vacuous and cute?" performance on "Three's Company", a show I accidentally and briefly turned on once and quickly turned off becaus… Read full post »

I recently spent 45 minutes talking about death, and hospice, with my husband’s sister in Maryland. Her mother (my mother-in-law) — a delightfully quirky 91-year-old activist who still spends her days faxing her congressmen — just signed on with the local hospice.

I’m a hospic… Read full post »

Outside the gate was a familiar green Toyota truck. 

Just inside the gate stood Michael, with a tormented expression and a bouquet of white roses.

The word on the street was that Michael had been dating in the months since he'd left.  Dating a lot.  Various friends had warned… Read full post »

Spring arrived, like it always does.  And, like it always does, it brought light and hope.  Annie was in her yard admiring the snap pea seedlings along the front fence when George, her old neighbor from across the street shuffled over.

 "I just put a pie in the oven.  Think you… Read full post »

Over the next few weeks, the pain got less constant.  Some mornings still felt like waking up to a nightmare; on others, though, she could remember what it was like to wake up happy.  Happy, and free.  The late winter sun and  Oscar the cat warmed her, coffee and the newspaper… Read full post »

Briefly reveling in her new freedom to do such a wild thing, Annie made popcorn for dinner that night.  Just popcorn - no basic goddamned food groups, no plates on the table, no silverware.  Popcorn.  And lots of butter, which Michael eschewed.

Then she curled up on the couch in… Read full post »

1-29-03

She wasn't expecting it.  They'd had a fight - a worse-than-usual fight - where she imparted her wisdom, in her most annoying fashion, about how he should fix his relationship with his daughter.  Lots of wise counsel that, unfortunately, kept starting with "You need to. . .", … Read full post »

It is cold, tonight;

outside, the wind snarls, rattling the doors,

looking for a way in, but

here,

I feel your warmth. 

In the center of the bed we share, we sometimes meet,

entwining limbs, trading secrets, trading heat, then

recoiling,

wary of… Read full post »

FACT:  Americans spent over $15 billion on bottled water last year.  That's 50 billion plastic bottles being produced from fossil fuels, shipped full across the country or world, and mostly discarded in landfill.

FACT:  In Fiji, from whence come 1 million bottles daily of the grooviest… Read full post »

OK, I have a few questions.  Like, who ARE the OS editors?  Does anybody KNOW who they are, or, like, where one might mail them cookies?  Do we get to know how they work, or are they more like, say, God, or Dick Cheney?

 Not that I CARE about getting an… Read full post »