The Life and Writings of a Blind Women
Fiction Story Published in Academy of the Heart and Mind Literary Journal
Last Thursday, I had a fiction story published in Academy of the Heart and Mind Literary journal. The genesis of the story is from a walk I took on a late fall morning. I was walking by an apartment complex and as I passed by, I heard a woman call out her window. Since I couldn’t see, I just kept walking. But the fact that I didn’t stop haunted me for days. Eventually, I turned the experience into this piece of fiction. As the title suggests, the major theme of the work is really about living with the choices we make.
Paths Not Taken
You wouldn’t know it, but Nadine walked just fast enough to miss the little details in life. Today, like most other days, she walked in the early morning. Skippy, her white, shaggy-haired mutt, trotted alongside her. He panted heavily, not from being overweight, but because Nadine hustled to get in her five thousand steps before breakfast. If she didn’t, she could be so distracted by her failure she’d forget to feed the dog before she left for work.
A cloudless, April morning in the high desert, the cool air was a slap in the face if you underdressed. In a light windbreaker, Nadine shivered as she trotted past a group of two-story structures that reminded her of the summer cottages on Cape Cod. Though dominated by elderly residents, it was not an assisted living facility. That was across the street.
“Hello,” a woman’s voice, cracked with age, called out.
Skippy turned his head, then scurried to catch up with Nadine.
“Hello.” This time the voice was more forceful.
Tall and lean, with her long brown hair clipped to the back of her head, Nadine abruptly stopped, twisted her trunk nearly a hundred and eighty degrees, and made a sour face.
“Yeah you, I’m right here,” the voice persisted.
Nadine quickly scanned the area. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, she pursed her lips and looked at her watch. “Come on Skippy, move it.”
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