Month: December 2023

November 2023’s short story of the month

“Galileo was put on trial and spent the last years of his life in prison for suggesting that the earth revolved around the sun. We think we have a pretty good idea of how the universe works now, but what if we don’t? What if we’re wrong? What if…” I stammer.

“You can’t possibly think that esoteric argument is going to work? You’ve had how long to prepare this? They are going to eat you alive,” Anima says and then takes a sip of her coffee.

I scowl at her over my own cup. I wait before I take a sip. We’re trying to appear to have normal human behaviors, and sometimes it’s hard for us. We tend to over or under due some traits, including eating and drinking in a rhythm that is distinctly non-human.

“You need to stop over thinking so much,” Anima says. She pushes her hair over her shoulder. She’s clearly been practicing her human tics.

“Well, what am I supposed to say? I’m being asked to defend all of humanity? How is something of that magnitude even possible?” I ask.

I’m defending humanity, all of humanity, throughout all time in a trial. The trial is being held in a few days. I’m not ready. I’ve been preparing for this for my whole life, but it’s still not enough time. I’ve only been observing humans for a little over three centuries. It’s just not enough to really know them.

“Well, you should reconsider anything that asks questions,” Anima says. “Make statements. Tell them what to think. Don’t let them think for themselves.”

She was right. I didn’t want to admit it, but she was. I needed to go in there with a strong argument. The rest of the Elementals were against me.

I was the youngest Elemental on Earth, and somehow I’d lucked into the toughest job. My title was the representative for Humanity on the Elemental council. I not only had to study and observe all human activity, but whenever humans came up in legislation or other activities involving the council, I had to show up to represent them. It was exhausting, and not to mention, nearly impossible.

I did have a team working for me, but even with several hundred lesser Elementals at my disposal, I was constantly running behind on my duties.

The next council meeting was a doozy. (A word I liked that humans used). There was a trial set to begin in a few days, a trial that would decide whether or not it was time to reset the Earth.

You might find the idea shocking, but it was one of the functions Elemental performed. Of course, to my knowledge, we’d never actually acted on or performed a reset on an entire planet, but it was up for debate now.

Anima was talking again, “Of course, if it were me, I would pass the buck.” She really was getting much better at faking being human, even her blasé attitude was accurate.

I shook my head. “No, I can’t do that,” I answered. I didn’t admit to her that I’d considered sending in a team of my lesser minions, but that seemed unfair to them. Plus, if I didn’t bring my all, even if I lost, I would be punished. Who knows what assignment the council would stick me with.

“Anima, I have to go. I need to go rethink my entire strategy. Thanks for meeting with me today, and please don’t tell anyone what we talked about.” She nods as I talk, and smiles and winks before she walks away.

I take a deep breath and another sip of my coffee. I don’t really like coffee, and I don’t need water and food to survive like a human. We drink and eat human things as a novel experience. I also like that people (and other Elementals) will leave you alone while you finish a cup of coffee. It’s like it comes with its own force field.

I don’t know what I’m going to do. How can I argue that humans should be allowed to continue being the dominant species on Earth. (Though technically they only think that if you consider that we can reset the planet without asking them). Humans are blissfully unaware that they don’t actually control their own fate.

The few times that one of them has discovered us, we’ve allowed them to think we’re extraterrestrials. Honestly, we do live on other planets, but we also live here. We don’t think of ourselves as aliens. We monitor the whole universe. We’re everywhere.

Our primary function is to observe. We watch and take notes. We don’t judge, not usually.

As I sit, trying not to panic, a human comes and sits at my table, uninvited.

I don’t say anything. I’m not comfortable interacting with them.

For several minutes, she just sits there with her hands on the table not saying anything. She is smiling in what I think is supposed to be a kind and gentle expression.

“Can I help you?” I ask because I can’t understand why she is sitting there staring at me.

“I’m sorry for eavesdropping,” she says. “I heard you and your friend talking. I assume you were talking about a law case of some sort. I didn’t get the details.” She stops and waits, acting like I should say something.

“I can’t talk about it,” I say and start to stand up.

“No, please stay.” She pats the table. “I’m not trying to get details. I just wanted to help you.”

I’m not sure what to think. How could she help me? She doesn’t really know what case I’m working on, and there is no way she’s guessed because she doesn’t even know Elementals exist. What could she possibly say that could help me? And what did she overhear that she latched on to?

“What do you want?” I ask.

“Like I said, I want to help. I heard what your friend said. I used to be a lawyer, and she isn’t right. You can ask questions. Get whoever you are talking to and about to think about things, and the best thing you can do is sow doubt. Questions lead to doubt.” She nods as if she’s said something profound.

“Well, thank you, I guess. I’ll try to keep that in mind.” I stand up all the way this time. “I should go.”

She smiles and nods.

I walk home trying to think what about the interaction with the lady is bothering me.

She was trying to be nice. That’s when it occurs to me. SHE WAS BEING NICE! For no reason at all, she was trying to help me. She didn’t have to go out of her way to say anything to me, but she honestly thought she was telling me something I might need to know. She didn’t have to do that. Why do humans do that? Why help someone you don’t know?

Could I build an argument from there? Something about there being kindness in humans, even when they had no reason to be. I needed to think about that some more. I’d seen plenty of examples of it. If nothing else, it was a possible line of defense. I needed to get some of my minions to compile some really great examples for me.

I needed to make a call. I walked up to a pay phone. I loved pay phones, but sadly, they were going the way of the cassette tape and would soon be obsolete.

I didn’t have any coins or cash with me. Drat! As I patted myself down, hoping to stumble upon a missed coin, my frustration increased.

And then, a hand shot forward holding two quarters.

“Here,” said a voice from behind me.

I spun around very quickly.

A man was standing there. He’d seen better days. He was dirty and wearing several layers of clothes.

I didn’t immediately take the coins.

“What?” I asked.

“Take these,” he said.

I looked him up and down again, trying to be subtle.

“No, I can’t,” I said. “It’s not that important. You keep those.”

“No, it’s okay. Really. I’m going to the shelter tonight, and there isn’t much I can do with only two quarters anyway.” He dropped them into my jacket pocket and walked away.

What was going on today? I reached in my pocket and took out the coins. I studied them for a long time. That same feeling hit me again. This person had nothing of their own, and yet, he’d given me two quarters to do something like make an unimportant phone call.

I had another thing to add to my argument. I needed to make that call now. If my minions started compiling now, maybe they could find enough examples of this sort of kindness in time. It would need to be a lot.

And then the hard part would be convincing the council that it was enough to counter act the terrible things humans did.

October 2023’s short story of the month

My options were dwindling by the minute. Right or wrong, I had to do something I couldn’t just wait this one out. I told my secretary to cancel all my appointments for the afternoon and slipped out the back door and into the alley. And sure enough, waiting for me there was another ghost with a list of demands.

“Okay, fine,” I said. “Follow me to my house and join the others. We’ll talk there.”

The ghost shrugged and followed me to my car.

At my house, the ghost drifted to join the others who were waiting for me to come home.

I stopped on the top step before opening the door.

I turned to face them all. They were lined up in the yard, most just milling about. Some were sitting on the porch swing or leaning against the porch railing.

“Okay. I see you all. I’m going to talk to you one at a time, so please be patient.” I moved to open the door and stopped again. “And please give me a minute. I need some coffee before we tackle all of this.”

I made the coffee slowly. I was in over my head. The problem with being able to talk to ghosts is that they all wanted my help. In order to help them though, I sometimes had to do some illegal things. When I’d been younger and my “power” had started, I’d helped them all, no matter what they needed.

I had to work hard to get my life back on track after several run-ins with the law. Law school had been challenging, and I’d avoided trouble for most of my life since then.

For the most part, if you ignore them, the ghosts will just go on about their business and bother someone else. Most of them liked to stay near people they knew anyway. However, once I spoke to one, the others found out and spread it around. And then, just like before, I would be swamped with a herd of ghosts who wanted my help. They were hard to ignore in mass.

The current gaggle of them on my lawn was my own fault. About ten days ago, I’d spoke to one when I’d walked across the cemetery after attending the funeral of a client.

As soon as I said, “Nice hat,” I wished I’d kept my mouth shut. She, of course, followed me home, and since then, one or two more had tracked me down each day.

The very first ghost I’d helped had been stuck in our place of existence for revenge. I helped. I shouldn’t have, but I did. It involved cutting some brake lines on a car. Not one of the proudest moments of my life, but that ghost had been able to rest in peace afterwards. Didn’t everyone deserve a chance to pass on? That’s how I reasoned it to myself.

I took a deep breath and poured my coffee. I settled at the kitchen table.

“Okay. One at a time,” I said to the empty hallway. Before long, the ghost from the cemetery appeared.

She stopped as she came into the kitchen and looked around. She didn’t seem impressed.

“It’s still a nice hat.” I watched her finally stop judging my house and make eye contact with me. “Why don’t you tell me what you need.” I pulled out a notebook and prepared for her to launch into her story.

The story was the most important part. Each ghost seemed to hold onto only one memory. They would recite it exactly the same way every time. For some reason, it was the only thing they clearly remembered, and it was always the key to figuring out what they needed to do to move on.

I waited for the ghost in the hat to start, but she stood with her hands folded one into the other and tapped her foot like she was waiting for me.

“Um, okay, well why don’t you tell me about yourself,” I said.

She nodded. “I was supposed to be buried in my diamonds.”

After that one sentence, she stopped talking. “Do you care to elaborate?” I asked.

She shook her head.

“Okay, so you expect me to help you because you were buried in the wrong jewelry?” I asked with a skeptical look on my face.

“I need those diamonds,” the ghost said.

I wasn’t actually that surprised. Greed was another common reason ghosts didn’t cross over. Usually the only requirement was for them to see the item again and they would find closure. Sometimes I had to put the item in their grave with them, and that got into a whole lot of issues. Opening graves was not my favorite thing to do.

“Do you know where the diamonds are?” I asked. At the same time, all I could think was that I hoped they were just sitting in her house in a safe or jewelry box.

“If they weren’t buried with me, like they were supposed to be, that means one of my sisters has them,” the ghost answered.

Well, damn it. This was going to be overly complicated. I rubbed my face in frustration. Why did I get involved?

“Okay, any idea which sister? I mean, how many do you have?”

“Five,” the ghost answered.

I sat back in my chair. “You have five sisters?” I asked in disbelief.

She nodded.

“Right, well. Let me talk to the others and see what they need, and I’ll circle back to you. This might take some time.” I made some notes on my paper. How was I going to figure out which sister and get the diamonds? Maybe I could just find the diamonds and then point the ghost toward them. She could haunt that sister for all eternity. It would save me a lot of trouble.

Most of the other ghosts had simpler demands. A few of them just wanted to leave messages to apologize to their loved one. Those were easy. I created fake emails at an internet café and made it seem like the deceased wrote them before they passed. In some cases, I would type letters and drop them in the mail from the post office closest to where the ghost had lived so their loved ones just assumed the letter had been delayed in the mail.

There was a couple who wanted to go to their favorite place again. They usually disappear as soon as they set foot on the place. The only reason they needed my help was they couldn’t remember how to find it.

I took care of the others in a routine manner and within a few days, I only had two that still needed my help. One of them was the ghost in the hat. She’d spent the whole week sitting in my living room waiting with her hands folded in her lap.

The other ghost had arrived that morning. All he wanted was to play basketball with his kid brother one more time. I was still working on how to accomplish that. I could direct him to where his brother was, and I could watch, but there wasn’t a way for him to actually play. I’d explained it to him, but he wasn’t giving in. I told him I’d think about it for a few days.

That left me with the hat ghost.

“Okay, it’s your turn again,” I said as I sat across from her in the living room. “Any idea where to start?”

At first, she just shakes her head, but then she gets a look in her eye like she’s thought of something. “Actually, we should start with Gertrude. She is most likely to have them. She was with me when I passed.”

“Well, that is actually helpful. Does she live around here?” I ask.

The next evening, I’m sitting outside her sister’s house trying to think of an excuse to knock on the door. I’m hoping I’ll get lucky, and she’ll just be wearing the diamonds and save me a lot of trouble.

The ghost in the hat hasn’t been helpful at all. She won’t tell me what would get her sister to answer the door.

I am tired of sitting there, so I grab an empty package from my car and act like I’m delivering it to her. I printed a fake label with her name and address.

I ring the doorbell and wait.

A woman who looks a lot like the ghost opens the door. “Can I help you?” she asks.

“I think I got this by mistake,” I say as I hand her the fake package.

“Okay. Thank you,” she says and closes the door.

Back in the car, I look at the ghost and try to hold in my anger. Her sister wasn’t wearing the diamonds, but I recognized her sister.

“You should have told me your sister is the mayor’s wife,” I yell as I drive us back to my house.

August 2023’s short story of the month

Sally was a half hour late, which I guess was a half hour early by her standards. She operated on her own clock, lived in her own world. Which explains how she missed the shuttle. She would have to wait another month to join us at the space station, and by then we would be out of quarantine and living with everyone else.

No one was surprised, but most of us were annoyed. We would have to wait even longer because of her to leave the station and join a transport for the new colony. The policy for travel to the new colonies was set in stone. After the quarantine, which was currently at six months from arrival on the station, all family members must wait on the station at least one year.

The year wait wasn’t negotiable. It gave the station time to train everyone in all of the necessary skills needed to travel long term in space. Everyone needed to know how to recuperate from deep sleep, and then how to transition back into it if needed. Some of the colonies were years away from Earth, and the travel there was easier if most, but not all, of it was spent in deep sleep.

Sally was going to delay everyone’s trip to the colony.

In her absence, the rest of the family always turned to me.

“Why does she do this?” Mom asked.

“Does she really expect us to wait for her?” my aunt Teresa asked.

I shrugged but didn’t actually respond to any of their questions. I’d learned long ago that Sally was Sally. I don’t know why any of them were surprised. I’d suggested we make someone travel with her just to prevent this very thing from happening, but as usual, they all ignored me. You think they would have known by now, not only were Sally and I siblings, but we were twins.

It wasn’t telepathy or anything like that, but I just knew better than anyone how Sally thought. And I knew, even a year before we made the trip that there was a very good chance she would be late.

And the one thing the space travel authorities were not flexible on was time. They stuck to their timetables, their quarantine standards, and their training schedules.

Quarantine was rough. We were kept in a very small part of the space station. We were only allowed around other people who’d arrived on the same flight as us. The flight from Earth had fifty people on it. Thirty of them were my relatives.

Every hour one of them pulled me aside to ask me why Sally had missed her flight. I stuck to my non-answers. I honestly didn’t know.

And unfortunately for me, Sally hadn’t tried to contact any of us since our arrival. I had texted and called her several times, but there wasn’t any response. I wasn’t worried. Sally was always like this. She lived in a world that didn’t have time, unlike the rest of us.

I, however, had six months surrounded by thirty relatives who were quickly moving from annoyed with Sally to angry. And since she wasn’t around for them to direct their anger at, they started being short with me.

Ten days into our quarantine, I was sitting at a table with my parents. It was one of our scheduled mealtimes for the day. I was barely eating. I just kept pushing my food around on my plate hoping it would turn into something that looked less grey and mushy. No such luck.

Two of my aunts dropped their trays on the table right in front of me and then proceeded to sit down while glaring at me.

“How are you today?” I asked, purposely ignoring their pinched looks.

“We’re not great,” said Teresa. She stabbed her fork into something that was supposed to be chicken but like everything they served on the station, it was a shade of grey that made me think it was chicken flavored and not real chicken.

“We are having a family meeting tonight,” said Melinda. “Make sure you’re there.” She ate more like me. She just moved the food around on her plate without eating any of it. She did drink the juice though.

“She’ll be there,” said my mom answering for me.

I shrugged. Where else was I going to be? We were all sharing living quarters. We went everywhere as a group. If they were having a meeting, I would be there whether I wanted to or not.

****

The only thing worse than having your family mad at you, is being stuck in a space station in quarantine with them when they are mad at you.

At least, I thought that was the worst thing.

In reality, the worst thing is having them all mad at you while you’re stuck in quarantine on a space station and them having a family meeting where “you” are the topic of discussion.

When the “meeting” started, I sat with my parents, but at some point during the discussion, they moved away from me and joined everyone else on the other side of the room. Every eye was watching me. It was literally me versus the other twenty-nine members of my extended family.

I mostly just sat there. I answered questions that weren’t just them putting me in my place, but I didn’t respond to anything that was just them trying to admit that Sally was to blame for everything.

I mean, yes, technically, they were right. Sally was delaying everyone’s future. But what could I do about it? I was here with the rest of them. And as far as I knew, no one had been able to reach Sally.

My parents had spoken with the space travel authorities, but I suspected they were more interested in whether or not they could get Sally’s ticket refunded than actually finding Sally.

“We have to do something,” said my aunt Teresa. “I don’t want to wait six more months. And that’s if she even arrives when she should on the next flight.”

“Is she planning on being with the next arrivals?”

I hadn’t heard who’d asked. I shrugged. I didn’t know.

“I’m not waiting,” said Teresa.

There was a pause and then several more of my family started to agree with her.

I finally looked up. “We have to. If we don’t wait for Sally, we don’t know if she’ll be assigned to the same colony as us. We have to travel as a family. That’s what the space authorities tell everyone.”

Teresa shrugged. She smirked at me too. “See how helpful that is.”

I rolled my eyes.

“That attitude is why I don’t care if we wait,” said Teresa. “I think we should go without her.”

I looked at my parents in shock. Were they listening to this? “We can’t go without her,” I pleaded.

My mom and dad both tried to avoid looking towards me. “We can’t even get a hold of her,” said my mom. “Maybe we should take that as a sign that she doesn’t want to join us.”

“You don’t believe that. She hasn’t objected to relocating even once. I’m sure she was just being Sally and assumed she could show up late and get on the flight anyway. You know how she is.” I was doing my best to defend her, but it was falling on deaf ears. “We can’t leave her behind. We just can’t.”

“You mean you can’t leave her behind,” said Teresa. “You can stay here and wait then.”

“Seriously, do you hear what you’re saying? Mom. Dad. Talk to her, please. We can’t separate like this.” I still couldn’t get my parents to look at me. “If you leave me here to wait for Sally, chances are you won’t ever see me again.”

My argument didn’t persuade any of them.

“I think we should put it to a vote,” said Teresa. “After all, that’s how we decided to all relocate together. If the majority vote to continue on without waiting for Sally, we all go.”

I shook my head. “I won’t leave until I know what’s happened to her. Vote or not.”

“Fine, you can do that. But the rest of us should still vote. Who wants to continue on the earlier ship we can?” Teresa asked.

Every hand went up, even my parents.

“Mom! Dad!” I pleaded. “You are just going to leave me here.”

My mom nodded.

“Fine. I’m waiting for Sally. The rest of you don’t deserve to call yourself a family.” I would have stomped off and slammed a door to make my point, but we were in our quarters for the night. I went to my bunk and flopped on my bed.

June 2023’s short story of the month

“I’m not making excuses. But I have my reasons, and there’s a difference. What else was I supposed to do when all that gold was just sitting there? How could I not take some? I needed it.” The young man paused and looked up from the table. “Are these really necessary?” He shook the chains and cuffs that bound his hands to the table.

“Yes,” the police officer answered. The officer didn’t move. He leaned against the wall just inside the door to the interrogation room. His arms were crossed over his chest. His dark features were heightened by the poor lighting in the room, creating deep shadows across his scowl.

Another officer watched through the window. This one wasn’t scowling. Instead, she was rolling her eyes and shaking her head. She didn’t appear angry. She almost seemed amused. “Let’s get this over with,” she mumbled as she made her way to the interrogation room.

She patted the scowling officer on the arm. “I’ll take it from here, Matthews.”

Matthews hesitated as he moved. “You sure the captain is okay with you questioning him?” He nodded towards the man still chained to the table.

“It’s fine. And don’t worry. If he gets mad, tell him I pulled rank.” She took a seat across from man. “I’m waiting.”

“For what?” The young man’s bravado was noticeably gone. Instead, he was the one scowling now.

“Your reasons. Let’s hear them,” she answered.

The young man leaned back. “You won’t believe me, even if I’m telling the truth, so why should I?”

“Because the only thing preventing you from being locked away for life is why you took some of the king’s gold?” She paused to let the severity of what she was saying sink in. “Royalty don’t like it when you take their things.”

“That’s not unique to royalty,” the young man snapped back. “How about we stop playing whatever this game is? Tell me what you really want to know, sister dear.”

Detective Maggie Brown smiled. “Fine. Cards on the table, David. Why did you do it? This time the judge won’t go easy.”

David sighed. “What do you want me to say? You want me to lie. To say I had noble reasons. To say I’m using the money to save the poor.” David laughed. “This isn’t a story, and I’m not a hero. I’m just a man. A man who likes gold.”

Maggie rolled her eyes. “Enough of the goofy nonsense. I need answers. I need to know how you got into the vault.”

David leaned back as far as the chains and cuffs would allow. His smile spread slowly from ear to ear. “Of course, that’s what this is about. Not that something was stolen. You want to know how me, a little old nobody, broke into the royal vault.”

“Stop being flippant. Tell me how you did it.”

“What’s in it for me if I do?” asked David looking very smug.

“Wipe that smirk off your face. This is not a game you can win. No matter what you tell me, you’re in trouble. And this time, little brother, I can’t get you out of this mess. All I can do is hope that if you tell me what I want to know, they might go easier on you.”

David sighed again. “I don’t have anything to say.” He shrugged.

Maggie dropped her voice to a whisper and leaned towards her brother. “David, please, you have to give me something to tell them or you’re in a world of trouble that even you can’t handle.” She paused before she told him the reality of the situation. “No matter what you tell me, accidents happen to people who wrong the nobles.” When she said accidents, she made air quotes.

David leaned back as far as the chains would allow and looked seriously at his sister. “You’re saying no matter what, I’m probably going to pay a very high price.”

“Don’t use coded language or try to be cute, David. You will be lucky to live through this.” Maggie frowned. “I don’t want to tell Mom that I didn’t so something to prevent your death, even if you deserve it.”

“I don’t deserve to die for stealing gold. It’s just gold.” David still didn’t say anything that would help his case.

Maggie sighed. “You’re right. Of course, you are, but you and I don’t get to make the rules, we have to follow them or pay the consequences that the nobility creates.”

****

The conversation with David went nowhere. They talked for hours. Maggie gave up and sat at her desk trying to figure out how she was going to get her brother out of trouble. She wasn’t sure there was any hope this time.

“Brown, my office now,” said Lt. Slater.

Maggie let out a deep sigh as she got up from her desk. She should have known this was going to happen. She tried to plaster a smile onto her face before she made her way into Slater’s office.

She took a seat in the uncomfortable wooden chairs Slater kept for visitors directly in front of his shiny glass and metal desk.

Slater cleared his throat loudly while Maggie avoided making eye contact with him.

“You wanted to see me, boss,” she said looking at the floor.

“What were you thinking? You can’t question your own brother,” Slater yelled. He rubbed his hands over his face trying to keep his calm. “You know better. I know you do.”

“Of course, I know, but I was hoping he might…”

“I don’t care what you were thinking,” Slater interrupted. “You know better. If you thought you were helping your brother, you’re wrong. And now you’re in trouble too. Real trouble.”

Maggie finally looked up. “I know. It won’t happen again. I understand conflict of interest and all that.”

Slater raised a hand to silence her. “You aren’t understanding me.”

Maggie shook her head. “What am I not understanding?” She was genuinely confused.

“You should know this is coming from over my head.” Slater came around to where Maggie was sitting and held his hand out palm up. “Badge and gun. You’re being relieved of duty for the time being.”

Maggie didn’t even protest. She removed her badge and gun from her belt and holster and slammed both onto the desk. She didn’t put them in his hand. Instead, she spit in it.

Slater growled. “Get your desk cleared within the hour.”

She nodded and left. She only took fifteen minutes to clear her desk.

****

She shouldn’t have, but she left the station and drove to her mother’s.

Her mother had always favored her brother, even when he was in trouble with the law. Maggie hesitated as she walked up the sidewalk. Was she really going to tattle on her brother? She stopped.

Yes, she was. She couldn’t take it anymore. Her mother needed to see that her brother was trouble. Not only had he ruined his own life, but now his choices had ruined Maggie’s too.

Maggie knocked on the door. Her mother opened it within a few seconds. As the door opened, Maggie could smell cinnamon and sugar wafting through the house.

“Maggie!” Her mother grabbed her in a hug. “How many times do I have to tell you to just come in? This is your house too.” Her mother released the hug and motioned for Maggie to follow her.

“Mom, we need to talk,” Maggie said.

Her mother turned to study her daughter’s face. “I can see this is going to be a serious conversation. Let’s sit in the kitchen and have some coffee.”

“Sure, but only if you let me talk and you listen.” Maggie didn’t immediately follow her mother. She stopped to look at the picture hanging just inside the door on the hallway wall. It was her mother, David, and herself. They were smiling wide. It was the day David graduated from college.

Except he hadn’t really graduated. He’d never told their mother that. Maggie knew the truth though. Her brother was a world class thief and fraud. He had been pulling one scheme after another since high school.

No matter what Maggie did, her mother always saw her brother as some sort of angel and Maggie as some overly serious determined cop. Maggie grabbed the picture on her way to the kitchen. She sat the picture on the counter where her mother was sitting two mugs of steaming hot coffee.

“Mom, we need to talk about David,” Maggie said.

“Is he coming over too?” A smile spread on her face. “Let me get another mug.” She turned.

Maggie reached out and grabbed her mother’s arm. “No, he won’t be joining us for coffee.” Maggie paused. There was no way to sugar coat it, so she might as well put the truth out there. “He won’t be joining us ever again.”