Patricia Merewether

“Mrs. Robinson's List” by Patricia Merewether

Submitted to Contest #231

Attorney Robert Wainright began opening his mail on a Sunday morning, after church. The office was quiet then and he used the time to catch up on paperwork. He picked up a letter from Mrs. Herb Robinson, who'd died only a few days earlier. He'd go to her funeral. It was sad, she was ninety-two, so her death wasn't shocking. To be opened after my death. The cover letter merely stated: To Whom It May Concern: November 20, 1982 After my release from the Mental Health Facility, in the 1980's my therapist suggested that I make plans a...

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“You Can't Make This Stuff Up” by Patricia Merewether

Submitted to Contest #226

Not many people can say they led their own Thanksgiving Day parade. The lead vehicle was a sheriff's squad car, I rode the back of said car wearing my grandfather's big yellow rain slicker over my underpants. That's all. I Learned later that a State police car, an EMT bus, a fire truck, three pickups, and a tractor followed. Now, this is on a very desolate road with miles and miles of flat farmland, post-harvest so all those lights and sirens (trucks and cars of volunteer firefighters who had portable flashing red lights) put on quite a show...

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“The Thank You Tin” by Patricia Merewether

Every summer of my childhood my parents drove six hundred miles from Michigan to Pennsylvania and dropped me off at my fraternal Grandmother's home for a two-week visit. However, the visit of my eleventh year was so very different from all the rest and filled me with awe, and confusion with a pinch of fear thrown in. The first day at Grans was pretty much as expected. We made sugar cookies and used all sorts of cookie cutters, some had belonged to her grandmother. unpacked my things in my Aunt's old bedroom, she was married by then. ...

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“Sisters” by Patricia Merewether

1889 June 12 Dear Millicent, I was so relieved to read your letter about the Johnstown flood in Pennsylvania. My goodness, to think you and your husband and your dear babies were out of harm's way! I do worry about you all living in such a large, untamed land. Situations here are becoming more and more difficult. We are down to only six staff! Maggie (our cook), her daughter Gretta, and Gretta's young boy are still here. They all do so much more work now that three maids left to work in the weaving factories. I can't pay them much more...

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“Stich and the Man In Black” by Patricia Merewether

Submitted to Contest #210

Stitch: If you are reading this, I have gone Home. I appreciate your assistance and patience, as my early entries show my naivete and unpreparedness for your world. I leave this journal and hope it will inspire your writing. Thank you, my friend. "Mibs" PREP: A med-tech applied patches to my skin to keep my body motionless and remove memories of the experience, which they learned was most unpleasant. The team used new coordinates and logistics to ensure I didn't end up inside a wall or at the bottom of a sea. I hate to think of what my prede...

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“Barbie's Secret World” by Patricia Merewether

Submitted to Contest #208

Mrs. Baker took care of Barbie five days a week while her parents worked. She talked on the phone to her sister, Helen every day and Barbie listened. “She's such a strange little girl, Helen. She sits cross-legged in my flower garden and just stares, but seems to listen to something. I watched her as I washed dishes and the child began talking to thin air! She never talks to any of us, not a peep to anyone. I couldn't hear what she was saying, but it was a lengthy, serious conversation! There's something wrong with that child. I wouldn't h...

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“The Blanket” by Patricia Merewether

Submitted to Contest #206

I wanted to arrive at my friend Carol's cottage in the wilds of northern Michigan before dark. I'm not an outdoor or woodsy person and feared driving there, mostly because of the suicidal deer. She'd invited me several times, and I made excuses, so this time, I said yes. However, road construction detours and lane closures cost me an extra hour, and I drove the last twenty miles in the dark. In the dark in rural Michigan means total blackness, no street lights, Fast Food signs, or Gas Stations. I had a cell phone, but who would I call?Her lo...

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“Taken 2 Moonlight Ritual” by Patricia Merewether

Submitted to Contest #205

All three of us sat in a horse cart covered with a blanket draped across a pole, barely leaving enough room to sit upright. During our journey back to their mountain, we whispered if we talked at all. The driver stomped on the cart floor and yelled in a language we didn’t understand but learned meant: Stop! Quiet! The fair one is Bridget, and the dark one is Sala. I’m Anya. Each of our villages is far apart. We speak the same language but with different accents. Our stories are the same. Someone took us from our beds while we and our family ...

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“Remember Us” by Patricia Merewether

Submitted to Contest #204

At first, I thought it was a mirage. After walking for two nights of freezing cold and two days hiding in any shade, a boulder, a large cactus, my tarp to escape the searing sun, hallucinations may have joined in this taste of hell. My trip started on May 24, 1990. like most, a three-hour drive from one small town to another, recording information about America's dwindling small towns in the Southwest. I took hundreds of photos of dead or dying towns. I gleaned information from old newspapers in musty basements and interview people who sh...

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“A Chance Encounter” by Patricia Merewether

Submitted to Contest #203

I looked out of my third-floor walk-up apartment and groaned. Another four inches of snow atop the original covering of ice. I was really tired of clearing snow and scraping ice from my car. This was the third day in a row. I was also a bit fearful of doing another impromptu break dance routine on patches of black ice. My boyfriend had dumped me, and my rent went up another twenty dollars a month, and I was barely scraping by on Ramen Noodles and pasta. The phone rang, and it was my Mom in Florida. She had tripped over her ancient labrador r...

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“We Don't Use That Word Anymore” by Patricia Merewether

Submitted to Contest #203

Day 1I arrived by ambulance. Actually, it's Night 1. I don't remember if I was rolled or walked in, or why. Well, maybe why.I had my own room, complete with a bathroom with ashower stall that didn't work, no curtain, no curtain rod, and no shower head, so I'm guessing, no way to hang myself.Someone put me to bed, and I drifted off to sleep. Then, bright lights and loud chatter, and raucous laughter woke me. Sorry to the good third-shift workers, but I believe the worst hospital staff are assigned to the night shift. Loud, rude, and dismissiv...

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“Ziggy's Mystery Plant” by Patricia Merewether

Submitted to Contest #202

My sister called, asking, “Can you help me identify a mystery plant?” This was an unusual question because she'd never shown an interest in plants.“Sure, Jen!” I was a bit full of myself having recently graduated from the Master Gardener course and thought either I or my friend Shirley would know. "Can you bring me a leaf or take a photo?"“Not really. I see it from my office window since they moved us up to the third floor. The people who live near there have a billion kids, and with all the 'stranger danger' talk lately.”“Fair enough. When ...

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“Taken” by Patricia Merewether

Submitted to Contest #200

"Fill your mind before you empty your mouth." ― Habeeb Akande Anna sucked in sweet fresh air through a small opening at the bottom of her prison's door. She listened to crickets and peeper frogs, wishing she was back in her cottage with her parents and little brother. This tiny, dark, stone cell only revealed a slice of daylight when someone brought her meal and changed her water bucket and privy pot. Even then, she was told to turn away and not speak. After the door closed, darkness again descended, and Anna felt for her food bowl. Fo...

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“Travelers” by Patricia Merewether

“What if God was one of us?Just a slob like one of usJust a stranger on the busTrying to make His way home.”Alanis MorissetteTravelersI looked out of my third-floor walk-up apartment and groaned. Another four inches of snow atop the original covering of ice. I was really tired of clearing snow and scraping ice from my car, this was the third day in a row. I was also a bit fearful of doing another impromptu break dance routine on patches of black ice. My boyfriend had dumped me, and my rent went up another twenty dollars a month, and I was ba...

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“Another Brick In The Wall” by Patricia Merewether

Submitted to Contest #197

Katy looked around her ugly gray cubical, and the walls started to grow taller, then they turned to brick. She closed her eyes; the twelve-hour work days, caring for her dying father, and being dumped by her fiance made her edgy and tired, or like a machine. Four people worked with her in the advertising department of a city newspaper, and companies paying for the operation by buying ad space dwindled more daily. Her staff was laid off permanently, and Katy had to tell them. She had to look into their shocked sad eyes and listen to the co...

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