sigh

I wanted so desperately to keep this light, I wanted so much to be able to write about the fun and good stuff that's been happening. Right now I can't.

Sick or Treat!

The doorbell chimed

upon that night

and it was not a shock

When I peered out

the kids peered back

it must have been

a flock

.

I quickly counted

heads and found

it was a group of eight

And as I handed

out the treats

I dropped the whole

full plate

.

To my chagrin

they all began

to pounce like starving cats

Upon the sweets

as if they were

some tasty

little rats

.

When they rose

I saw their eyes

which glowed a neon yellow

I swear I saw

the whiskers grow

on the smallest

fellow

.

This tiny child

raised both his hands

which had become his paws

Furry knuckles

in my sight

now brandished

sharpened claws

.

The bile began

to rise within

my throat the acid flowing

I can't believe

the cause to be

claws and eyes

aglowing

.

They were so cute

what happened to

these little girls and boys

I guess in lieu

of sweet treats

I should have had

squeak toys

.

One by one

they all became

the felines eight from hell

It was just then

I heard again

the ring of

the doorbell

.

It startled me

onto my feet

out of my easy chair

I shook my head

and wiped my eye

and laughed at my

nightmare

.

..by DS

The Birth of a Prophecy

Most people rationalize it as a nine month wait but for Don and Elly it had been more like fourteen years before that day. They had gotten married at the young ages of nineteen and twenty one and knew that they had plenty of time to begin a family. There was so much to do right now that the thought of a child was the furthest thing from either of their minds and they were enjoying the new union of their lives.

Don worked down at the Pfizer plant and eventually became supervisor over the crew who bottled Dilantin Tabs for mass marketing. This was supposed to be some sort of anti-epileptic drug which had been used since the 70's but was of late being replaced by newly formulated drugs as well as those damned generics. Elly was a secretary to one of the head honchos upstairs and it wasn't until after the Christmas party of '93 that they started to see one another regularly. It hadn't taken them six months to realize that they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together and when they married three years ago both sets of parents thought they were too young. This was the year however that they were going to get pregnant, it was time to start their family.

God knows they screwed like rabbits and every month they waited for her cycle to end hoping that her period wouldn't show it's ugly presence but every twenty sixth or twenty seventh of the month it appeared as if by clockwork. During the next seven years she had several possible miscarriages one in which the bleeding was so bad that she wound up in the hospital for a week. The tests results that week told them that she would never be pregnant again; they were heartbroken. It wasn't until they were into their eleventh year of marriage that they decided if they couldn't have a child of their own they would adopt and so they began a new mission.

Almost fourteen years to the day they were finally able to say they were parents; they finally had a child to call their own. The child they received was from Indonesian descent and was named Merpati, she was absolutely beautiful, she was a doll. During those first months with Merpati a strange and completely unexpected thing occurred. The twenty sixth, twenty seventh, twenty eighth, twenty ninth and thirtieth rolled by and no period. That next morning Elly used the early pregnancy monitor she had purchased the night before and discovered that the impossible was indeed possible and this time almost fifteen years to the day of their marriage their son was born. They named him Ramelan in honor of his big sister Merpati.