The Dramatic Hollywood Rabbit

          It’s difficult being a liberal when you grew up in a conservative area.   I pay my taxes.   There are days I cringe as I put my signature on a check that is actually more than my mother brought home in a year.   Yet even though it hurts I feel I am doing my civic duty in writing that check.   I have family members who have relied on welfare, food stamps, and disability.             When I was younger my mother made $4 more a month than was allowed to receive food stamps.   We were lucky she knew how to stretch a dollar and she had a mother who would loan her some cash, I do mean loan not give, only IF things got very tight.   Which is why  we ate a lot of spaghetti and tuna noodle casserole.   I worked from the age of 13, granted initially it was babysitting, but I have worked in restaurants, a nursing home, hotels, and libraries. ...

           I don’t think I was supposed to see him.    He stood there in the early morning gray haze of dawn.   I woke early and made myself a cup of coffee.   Leaning against my 4 th floor kitchen balcony I looked out as cars whizzed past below me and gazed at a man dressed all in black.   His slender build silhouetted against dirty grey brick of a boundary wall.   The corner he was standing on was missing half of the grey tiles revealing the dirt below.   He just stood there for several moments seemingly motionless.   As I wondered who or what he was waiting for I looked around and saw no one else.   Not in the darkened balconies in the complex behind him or on the streets his corner entertained.   I leaned on the balcony rail with my fore arms as I slowly inhaled the heady scent of my sweet milky brew of java.   His clothes hugged his body like a second skin.   Lithe is the wo...

Hubby and I were legally married, but we wanted and needed to be married in front of his family.   Personally for me being married was never about the piece of paper, it was standing in front of our loved ones and saying this is it, we are in it for the long haul.   In the US it is more about two people coming together.   In India it is two families joining, which made it imperative that my parents-in-law give us a traditional Jain wedding.   I had only flown once before and that was in the US, this time I needed a passport and was flying halfway across the world.   Life was funny because it was during this trip that I realized the perks of having a US passport.   Hubby was with a well-known consulting company.   I worked as a temp. Before we could go to India I needed to get an Indian visa. Luckily that was fairly straight forward and done by mail.   In addition, we were flying Air France and they were offering a deal where you could b...

Donna picked up the pile of photos and looked at them then placed them  face down on the table one by one.   Each photo transported her to the past when she was happy and in love for the first time.   The night they met.  Each had gone to the Fourth of July fireworks, Donna was with her girlfriends and Jake was with his buddies.   Donna’s best friend had just started going out with one of Jake’s friends and the two groups just kind of joined.   Seven teenagers just out having fun, eating junk food, and watching the sky light up.   The photo was all of them sitting on the hill staring up as a rainbow of colors fell from the sky.   After that evening the seven began hanging out with each other.   As Jake had a van he would often pick up everyone.   Sometimes they would just hang out in the basement of one of their houses, go to movies, or go swimming at a nearby lake.   Just before school started they had an all day pic...

I grew up in a midwest town of 10,000.   Most of the weddings I attended were at the local church with the reception being held at the local VFW hall or something similar.   Usually, the dinner was served on disposable plates with the table cloths being large rolled out paper.   The important part was people had a good meal, had a few drinks and danced the night away.   Decorations were paper fold out balls and crepe paper streamers.   The hall would be filled with family and friends, from infants to great grandparents.   Hubby grew up in New Delhi, the weddings he attended would last several days, filled with family and friends, days filled with feasts and music.   There would be functions and rituals and a multitude of small traditions that needed to be followed. 1987, Hubby and I had been together for four years, we were officially engaged and the wedding planning started in earnest. I was 23 years old as we began planning the wedding...

I first saw my husband in December of 1982, at a Western Campus party.   He was on the dance floor, I can remember him in a turtleneck and a flannel shirt with his hair just overflowing.   I’m not sure why I remembered him, as we were never introduced, but when we met after winter break, playing Risk at a house known for its international parties, I was crushing big time.   Problem was, I was 18 and had just ended my first serious relationship.   I just wanted to have fun, I didn’t want to be serious with anyone.   So I became friends with my crush and dated other guys, for about a month.   One night, after celebrating two friends’ birthdays I planned to take a walk alone around campus and think about my crush, my friends sent Hubby with me for my protection.   We walked around for a while, talking.   I’m not sure why we stopped, I’m not sure how I ended up near the tree.   All I know is one minute we were friends and the next minut...

His heart began to race, he couldn’t catch his breath.   He saw her sitting at the bar as soon as he entered. She was drinking from the big fruity drink in front of her as their eyes met in the mirror behind the bar.   Beautiful…mine, were the only thoughts that swirled in his brain.   He walked over as she twirled around and jumped off the bar chair.   As he stood before her she raised her arms and pulled his head down for a kiss. Pulling back and looking at her shining eyes he smiled.   Lovingly he caressed her face as he stared and wondered how he could feel like this again. He took a quick glance at the wedding ring he’d worn for thirty years.   How life had changed.   When he and his wife were first married, they were full of energy, and passion.   Planning and dreaming for the life they were going to have.   Life was their oyster. Work, travel, love.   They did and had it all.   When the pregnancy test came back posit...