Rocky Road: Stories

By Louisa Dang

Rocky Road is a mini-collection of short stories set in a quirky South. A young woman must choose between her marriage and her snapping turtle. A mother worries about the color of her son's aura. A grandmother weighs the love of her grandchildren against her set-in-stone ideas.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Louisa Dang
• Release date: Sep 28, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465815606

Louisa Dang

Louisa is a freelance writer and editor. She's done just about every kind of writing under the sun, including technical writing and newspaper reporting. She's also been a fact checker and copy editor for Our State magazine and has taught English at the college level. She lives in North Carolina with her family and a crazy Jack Russell mix who is 16 years old and still going strong!

Book preview

Title

Copyright 2016 Louisa J. Dang

Published by Southern Bend Books

License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and is entirely fictitious. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

Table of Contents

Rocky Road

Candles and Enlightenment for Sale

The Birthday Present

Whatever Happened to Dr. Jones?

Rocky Road

Brenda heard a car pull up in front of the trailer and held her breath. The car door slammed shut, and heavy footsteps crunched on the new gravel she had laid six months ago to cover the eroded earth that Derek kept dragging in on the bottom of his boots whenever it rained.

Brenda drummed her fingertips over the top of Rocky’s shell and waited for the door to bang open. Derek must have gotten laid off at work to be home this early. Someone knocked, and Brenda relaxed.

Honey? It was her mother, Vera.

Oh, Lord, Brenda muttered, putting Rocky back in his cardboard bed, lined with the crocheted baby blankets from Derek’s mother. She put the turtle behind the couch; her mother wouldn’t approve of a pregnant woman owning a snapping turtle. What does she want?

Brenda opened the door, and Vera came bustling in, hands full of plastic grocery bags. The fur coat she’d gotten from her latest suitor smelled of Winstons. I got you some food, Honey.

I got food, Mom.

Not proper food.

Vera set the bags on the floor and began unloading them, pushing cans of beans and corn aside as she made room for lentil soup and New England clam chowder. She’d bought a packet of gourmet coffee beans. Brenda didn’t even drink coffee.

I want you to start taking Omega-3. Vera shoved a jar of pills at Brenda. Are you taking folic acid?

Brenda shook her head. Didn’t bread have folic acid in it? She couldn’t remember from high school.

I’ll get you some. Now, I bought you whole milk, instead of that 2% you’ve been drinking.

Brenda peeked behind the couch to check that Rocky hadn’t gotten out. The flaps of the box were still closed.

Mom, I have to go soon. I have a doctor’s appointment.

Vera put a jar of sardines in the refrigerator and then turned around. Nothing wrong, is there? Did you get the results from the genetic tests yet?

No; it’s just a check-up.

Oh. Vera nodded. She started to take off her coat and then stopped. Now?

Brenda stood up. Yeah, I got to leave now.

Vera gave her a look. Why don’t I give you a ride?

No, I’m fine. There’s a bus coming. I need to feed the dogs and get going.

Vera hated the beagles. One of them had left a muddy paw print on her khakis the other day, and she’d whacked it with her Liz Claiborne purse. Now the dogs growled whenever she came close. Brenda knew the threat of the dogs would get her mother moving.

I have a theater date, anyway, Vera said. An Appalachian Christmas. Call me as soon as you get the results. Don’t forget.

Brenda waited until her mother had driven off. Then she put on her jacket and put Rocky in the inflatable kiddie pool in the kitchen.

Bye, Rocky. I’ll see you in about an hour. She did have a doctor’s appointment, but it wasn’t just the regular checkup; Vera had paid for Brenda to get every kind of test done. Their family had a history of genetic defects – cystic fibrosis, breast cancer, diabetes, Huntington’s disease – and the results were in.

Although, Brenda didn’t particularly want to know if her babies had an incurable disease. It had only been her mother’s threats to stop paying for her health insurance that had forced her to stick her arm out for the lab assistant to stick her arm with a needle and collect five vials of blood.

Truth be told, Brenda didn’t even know if she wanted the babies. She locked the trailer and started down the path to the main highway where the bus stop was, her lower back aching every time she took