She came downstairs to hang up the phone, and was surprised to see the place devoid of life. One other perk of being a part of a group that had been compared to the Spice Girls was that guys - and lots of them - were there all the time. She wasn’t interested in anyone else, but the attention was fun. But now, it was empty.

She placed the phone on the receiver, and Kim opened the door to her room. Quietly, she walked over to the phone. She wouldn’t meet Kelly’s eyes. Her jaw was set as she hit the “Play” button on the receiver, turned on her heel and walked back into her room, shutting the door behind her.

“Okay,” she heard her own voice on the recording. “I’m in my room now. So what do you want to talk about?”

“You know what I want,” said Sam. She heard herself chuckle. “Honey, where’s the dog?”

“He’s right here…let me slide some peanut butter on my…”

Kelly finally woke up enough to hit the “Stop” button. Someone must have answered the phone after the machine had picked it up, and the entire conversation was not only recorded, but played to the room while it had been going on.

No wonder the place had cleared out.

Sheila stiffened. She turned to see a woman running towards her, bleach-blonde hair stiff with hairspray, circa 1992. She was wearing a faux-fur coat (in Mid-July!) that was flapping with each swift step she took. Her lips were a bright red smear. Sheila could see a few of the store’s patrons watching, eyes wide in amazement. Even here, in hillbilly hell where you see all kinds, Stephanie was something to see.

She stopped right in front of Sheila, and smiled. Lipstick was on her teeth, coloring them a weird shade of dark pink. “Darling, I haven’t seen you since..” she floundered. Not surprising. If Sheila lit a match right now, Steph’s head might explode from all the alcoholic fumes wafting from her mouth. It wasn’t even ten in the morning.

“Yeah. Since you showed up in court. Remember? On his side.”

She then reached out and gave a solid smack across Stephanie’s face. Sheila’s palm sang as Stephanie’s cheek turned a slightly darker shade of red. It hurt, but it was worth it. It didn’t seem to phase Stephanie much - the morning nips probably dulled the pain. Her eyes widened as she held her cheek, her charade dropped for only a moment.

“What the…”

“You know what it was for.”

Sheila turned, walking away, not wasting any more breath. She got two steps before tripping. She looked down, and saw red-tipped nails around her ankle. Then she saw Stephanie’s face. Her eyes were brimming with tears.

Oh, my God. She’s actually thrown herself at my feet.

“I’m so SORRY!” she wailed. Now everyone was looking. Holy Christ. “Pleeeeeeeease!”

Sheila kicked her foot free. She took a moment to look into her shopping cart. Nothing really important there. Before Stephanie could get another lock on her, she was out the door.

Linda’s three kids waved without turning around, running towards the heavy double-doors at the entrance to their school, backpacks bouncing with each step. She smiled and enjoyed the moment - if only for a moment - before her mind started churning with the “to do’s” for the day.

She had to start with some grocery shopping. Not only did they need food to feed the family, but she had a dinner party that weekend. She had been selected by the Chamber of Commerce that year to host the annual Silent Auction - where local businesses would donate items to be sold - all proceeds going to charity. Linda’s home was definitely large enough to hold the event, and as a former chef, she planned to add to what the caterer was bringing with her own winning recipes.

Once that was done, she needed to clean the house

…just because I’ve got money doesn’t mean I can’t clean my own house…

and the pool, and get things ready for the different soccer practices/dance recitals/doctor’s appointments that were going on this afternoon.

Crap - she’d almost forgotten. It was her turn to provide after-game munchies for the soccer team. That was today. She’d need to add stuff to the list and get home asap to whip something up. The kids loved her snacks the best of all the moms, and she didn’t want to disappoint anyone. With a sigh, she drove towards her house. Help was coming in ten minutes, and she needed to be there to answer the door when it did.

As expected, the doorbell rang, and she answered with a bright smile.

“Hello, Jack!”

The young man on the other side didn’t return her greeting with much more than a weak nod and a grunt. He shoved a crumpled paper bag into her left hand with his own as he shook her hand with his right. The money slipped from her palm into his effortlessly, as if he were the maître d’ at the most expensive restaurant in town, rather than a drug dealer making his weekly delivery. He turned on his heel and stalked down her well-landscaped garden path, like a vampire trying to escape the sunlight of her cheery soccer-mom attitude.

She closed the door and heaved a sigh, looking down at the bag.

Help had arrived!

As I said in the “About Me” section (or, if I didn’t, I meant to!) I’ve done blogging before. But this is meant to be a creative outlet for me - a place where I can “hone my skills”, as it were. A blog is a blog is a blog - which is usually a place to rant and talk and yammer on about things that don’t really matter to anyone but those closest to me.

This is different.

I will not be doing that here.

Every now and then, I plan to post interesting tidbits and juicy information I come across that can help me become a better writer. They will be in this section (”On Writing” - named after one of my favorite authors’ books. I’ll let you figure that one out.) - and this post is going to end with a few such tidbits.

But for the most part, you will see me posting short pieces on this site. Most will be for practice only. I welcome - and appreciate - any constructive criticism you may wish to leave behind. Note: I said constructive. If it’s not constructive, it’s gone.

Other than that, I’ll go ahead and post my “juicy tidbit” right here: the Internet Writing Workshop. This is a list that’s run by Penn State, and it’s got some goodies on it. I’m thinking of joining the list - but for now, I’m going to use some of the writing exercises they have posted to get me warmed up. I’m going to keep looking for more “juice” that’ll help me. Who knows, maybe it’ll help someone else too.