Rose waddled her way to her car after having waved goodbye to her book club buddies. Starting up the 1987 Honda Civic that put-put-puttered its way home, running on E and in need of power steering fluid, she muttered a prayer that it got her back to her squished duplex on the lower side of downtown. The last thing she needed was to be stranded in this blistering summer heat. Arriving home, she took the keys out of her pur...

As Geneen told her version of the first time she and Paula got together, we continued to wash each other under the pulsating spray of the shower. Geneen paid special attention to Paula as she described their caresses, duplicating them in real life as she told of that day. We moved around in the shower, and we were soon clean and more than a little aroused by Geneen’s words. I reached out and turned off the water, and grab...

After the previous, very late, night out in the West End, Inge, Lani, Tanya and me were worn out. We had all got into our beds and fallen asleep pretty much straightaway. What woke me up was the noise from the shop downstairs rather than the noise from the street. My bedsit was at the back of the building so street noise was minimal compared to that of the shop. The shop was a dry cleaners' and, although the front of the...

Several years ago, I was the headteacher in a major capital city in Southeast Asia of a private girls’ secondary school that taught in a rather traditional British manner. We catered partly for the children of wealthy expatriates, of whom there was a large number, but we took local girls as well, usually from wealthy local families, although we ran a scholarship system for less well-off local girls. I was the only expatri...

I spent a little over a year working in a Southeast Asia country, looking after a major project for my company. It was close to the time when I could hand it over to local colleagues and go home. I viewed this with dismay, but a grateful company was letting me hang on there for a few months, partly as a present for doing a good job. Completion of the project was required by a certain date. We were likely to achieve it. Th...

The trees have yet to find the colors of fall, nor has the autumn chill found its way down from the mountains, but a new season is slowly on its way and with it, many memories of falls gone by. In memory of one such fall, it shall be stated that the State Fair was underway in Nashville when the following story took place. I was meeting Carmen, a Latin woman, whom I had worked with as an intern at Chapel Hill. We began see...

I don’t think “Food porn” was a thing in 1969, but California’s food culture was awakening just as Ella, Alice, and I were. Ella’s Momma was a legendary home cook who also loomed large at home and in the kitchen at Berkeley’s schools, where she was already introducing fresh vegetables and from-scratch food to the cafeterias, and was frequently invited to give guest demonstrations in Home Ec. We asked her for advice on an...

Safa was laying on the bed sharing memes with Stef like they did every night before bed. Ezra and Mickey were curled up on the bed between them, fast asleep, as asleep as cats go. Stef made a soft chortle of amusement and Safa glanced at her and bounced her eyebrows in a question. Then, as if on cue, Stef tapped on her phone to share the meme. Wouldn’t it be funny if someone went to a job interview and actually did this?...

“Daddy, daddy, come meet my sexy bestie,” nineteen-year-old Heather said to her stepdad as he climbed the cement steps of her friend’s house. Caledon checked his watch and said, “No, no, no, I just came to pick you up.” Heather groaned. “No hissy fits, missy,” he said sternly. “We gotta go. Your mom’s waiting on the plumber.” “Just come in for a second!” He shook his head. “I said no. I never agreed to meet your friend. Y...