“Everyone knows my pool is green by this time of the year. My daughter spotted this idea and I figured why not try it.”
By LJ Herman -
‘I throw one of these in the skimmer basket and… holla bing holla boom! The cloudiness left and my sponge looks like this.’
By LJ Herman -
‘The first time I ever injected methamphetamine I knew I was going to have a problem with it – because it was the best feeling I had ever felt.’
“My reputation had changed from an honor student who liked to go church – to learning how to cut dope and use drugs intravenously.”
By Eliza Murphy -
‘Every one of the police officers and EMT’s agreed, his car seat, and the fact he was properly restrained in it, is what kept him from being seriously injured or killed.’
“I could hear my grandson crying behind me, yelling ‘YaYa, I falling!’”
By LJ Herman -
‘I got out of bed, got dressed, and left my apartment with no intentions of ever returning. I then pulled out my phone to request an Uber to a bridge in my area.’
“I began walking onto the bridge, passing a sign that held the suicide prevention lifeline number on it. ‘They can’t help me,’ I thought.”
By Eliza Murphy -
‘EWWW WHAT IS THAT? I saw it hanging out of my daughter’s chewing mouth, while she smiled smugly. I pulled it out and realized it was a HAIRY LEG OF AN INSECT.’
“‘Should I take her to the doctor?’ I start crying hysterically because I failed her, and now she’s going to be like that little boy on ‘Stranger Things’ and the bugs are gonna host her body and she’s going to doom us all to the Upside Down!”
By LJ Herman -
‘To My 12 Remaining Embryos: I have been thinking about you a lot lately. You have been frozen now for over 3 years.’
“I grieve giving you to her. You won’t be mine anymore.”
By Eliza Murphy -
‘What would you do with your time if you knew today was your last day?’
“Would you keep hiding from everyone you knew, ducking behind grocery store displays in an attempt to hide your less than perfect hair day or to avoid awkward small talk?”
By LJ Herman -
‘The cops yelled we couldn’t be there. I told him frantically, ‘This is my house. I live here.’ I demanded to know what happened. ‘Your mom is dead.’ He told me bluntly.’
“Mom left us a note. She said she was not ok and didn’t want to be burden on us anymore. She said she was so sorry and to please not hate her. She told us she loved us.”
By Eliza Murphy -
‘He introduced himself as Marv and offered to clean one room in our house for free. I listened, mostly because he said ‘free’ and also because our entryway needed to be burned or bleached or both.’
“Against my better judgment and while also trying to drown out the ‘stranger danger’ chant in my head I allowed him in. Then there was the knock that changed everything.”
By LJ Herman -
‘It’s Dad, Mom fell getting out of the shower.’ We get her in her recliner next to Dad and she immediately reaches for his hand, and closes her eyes.’
“It’s kind of weird, but when I was young I used to love watching the ‘Twilight Zone.’ Now there are days when I think I have entered it when I open their door.”
By Eliza Murphy -
