Queen of Coffins

By Jill Zeller

She abandoned her daughter and got marooned in the future. The tarot cards put her there. By the time she got free, she knew it was too late to win back her daughter's love. But the cards had something else in mind.

• Language: English
• Publisher: J Z Morrison Press
• Release date: Dec 15, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301223046

Jill Zeller

The author of numerous short stories and novels, Jill Zeller lives in Albany, Oregon with her patient husband, and a venerable cat and her thralls, two adult English Mastiffs. Her works explore the complex geology of reality. Some may call it fantasy but there are rarely swords and never elves.

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Queen of Coffins

by

Jill Zeller

SMASHWORDS EDITION

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PUBLISHED BY:

J Z Morrison Press on Smashwords

Title

Copyright © 2012 by Jill Zeller

Cover art by http://depositphotos.com

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Queen of Coffins

My daughter is afraid of me. I can smell it. She moves through the house looking in drawers. Goes into the basement and rummages through boxes and bags. Maybe she's looking for something to restore her trust in me, her mother. Or some way to forgive me. But it's too late for that. Way, way too late.

There's a pergola; I could move in a day bed and a table, a lamp. I could have all my meals out here.

I could read the cards out here.

Mustn't think of that. Don't think of that. You must never, ever, pick up a pack again.

You OK, Mom?

My daughter's voice floats across a rose with gray leaves. She keeps the thorns between us. Safer that way.

Yes, I'm fine.

This exchange of words is almost all we say to each other these days.

There's a creek not far, down a slope. Right now it's dry, but my daughter says in winter it becomes a chocolate-brown torrent and they can hear it's roar all the way to the house.

If I'm still here in the winter,