Tag: story
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Do You Do Weird Things?
Just the other day, I texted my husband a picture of fresh thyme posing on a cutting board, with the caption, “Do you do weird things?” Now, before your mind plunges into the gutter, you should know that there’s nothing dirty about this text. When my husband and I first met, we were one month…
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Nursery Dreaming
Our house has a hallway that leads to a nursery. For many, this is an ordinary sentence. For us, it’s extraordinary. We bought a house down a quiet lane from a man who doesn’t believe in hallways. He called them corridors. “I don’t believe in corridors,” he said. I have never forgotten it. I spent…
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If You Don’t Mind Me Asking
We say hi, hi, how are you, good, how are you? I don’t think she answers. And if she does, it’s a muttered fine or a shrug of her lips as she looks away. I comment on the weather with the mail of mostly coupons for oil changes and credit card invitations in my hand,…
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I Need to Know How Many
It’s the middle of 2020 and I’m writing a grocery list for my husband. He has been shopping for our groceries since the day we all realized how people sneeze all over carts then abandon it for the next set of gullible hands. Sometimes I save our grocery lists and I mix them in with…
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A Story: One Winter Day in the Life of a Writer
In our house, taking out the trash involves scooping cat litter and adding a week’s worth of poop to our trash. This is usually my husband’s chore. Today, I decide to help my stressed-out husband who is in back-to-back meetings at the office. He says he doesn’t have enough time to take sips of water…
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For the Ones With a Unique Voice
My husband replies, “What?” like a reflex after 98% of what I say. This isn’t something new for me. My entire life, my mom would read warnings from my teachers on slips of paper tucked inside our take-home folders, “Ashley is very sweet, but she really needs to speak up or her grade will drop.”…
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Black Market Dumbbells
There’s a shortage of dumbbells. Here’s a list of things I never thought I would care about: Dumbbells. A shortage of dumbbells. How to acquire dumbbells on the black market.
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How I Ruined the Magic of the Mail
A seemingly innocent email from the United States Postal Service when we moved: Do you want to sign up for Informed Delivery? Sure, I thought, it will be nice to know what’s coming.
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Gardening in the Rain
In case you’re wondering, our garden is still growing weeds. I’m learning that this is how it goes (so they say): you pull the weeds, they’re gone; then the weeds grow back, and you’re down in the dirt again.
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Saving a Hummingbird
The two best friends know this already, in fact, they’ve had more than 60 years of learning that there are things you just can’t plan for, like how many days you’ll spend playing nurse after the other recovers from surgery, for instance, but this one, well, this one is a new one: spending the day…
Ashley Fenker 