Sixteen

By Courtney Seiberling

What's it like to lose your father at 16 or fall for a man 16 years your senior? Be stuck in a small town for too long or have to leave a place after too little? Lose your innocence to sin or gain strength through weakness? Sixteen brings together 16 vignettes of experiences in love and loss. Part fiction, part not, the anthology collects the truths of what it means to love and lose, want and wonder...how we are never the same once everything changes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Courtney Seiberling
• Release date: Nov 7, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310808203

Courtney Seiberling

Courtney Seiberling is a writer, director, actress, and songwriter in Los Angeles.She received a BFA in Dramatic Performance from the University of Cincinnati – College Conservatory of Music, studied at the HB Studios in New York, and under Joan Scheckel’s Filmmaking Labs, Jill Soloway, and Jack Grapes in Los Angeles.The assistant to the director of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival official selection 'Una Hora,' a co-writer on Jamie Chura’s 'The Room So Still Sessions' album, and a collaborator with many artists across the United States and England, Courtney loves projects, executing and bringing them to an audience. theStations, www.thestationsproject.com, is her current one, an electronic experience of Sam Shepard’s one-act 'Cowboy Mouth.' Modeled after The Stations of the Cross, the story is explored in 14 parts.She is the author of 'Five Leaves Left' (Antar Press) and 'Sixteen', writer and producer of the short film 'Like the Penguins,' and director of the Check in the Dark band documentary 'Who Are We Now?' Her one-acts have been a part of festivals and reading series in Los Angeles and Pittsburgh.With the theater company Odds & Ends Productions, she wrote, produced, and acted in issue-based plays about body image and marriage, all selected and performed at the Cincinnati Fringe Festival.New York stage credits include: Halfway There, The Scarecrow, Out of Site...Out of Murder, and Grandma’s Getting Married.Los Angles film credits include: The Night Girl, Objects, Astronomy, A Dark Stroll. A Hapless Dance, and The Runner.Her blog, where she wrote about her experience of not buying anything new for a year, is http://www.yearofnothingnew.blogspot.com/. Her instagram handle, where she takes pictures of things she’s grateful for is things_im_grateful_for.You can contact her at [e-mail] Web site is http://courtneyseiberling.wordpress.com/.

Book preview

SIXTEEN

By Courtney Seiberling

Copyright 2014 Courtney Seiberling

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this ebook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied, and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. If you enjoyed this book, please return to your favorite ebook retailer to discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.

CONTENTS

SIXTEEN

FIRSTS

ARTIST

LOS ANGELES

R@^3#!

PRAY

SAVIOR

SIXTEEN.5

THE GATE

BEGGAR IN THE BLUE-FLOWERED SHOES

LEMONADE

THE SNUGGLE

TIPS

PRIME

MISAO

HERS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

SIXTEEN

My brother and I were called to the dining room. He was 10; I was 16. My parents were already at the table; it was summer and the air conditioner was on in the adjacent window. I hated the fake air; it made my shoulders cold, but I took a seat next to my mother and didn’t complain. My brother was toe-headed and distracted, his little legs dangling and unable to touch the floor, wanting to go back outside and play.

My dad started the one-way dialogue, saying how much he loved my brother and me. It was strange to hear him speak so formally. A mosquito buzzed by and he continued, saying he had something difficult to tell us, but that it was all going to be okay. My mother sat quietly beside him, her hands crossed one over the other on top of the round, pine table. She was usually the one to speak up in situations, but stayed still.

My dad was sick. He kept saying that it would be okay, that he was going to have a bone marrow transplant, but that he’d be back to normal in a few months. My uncle was a match. My brother scrunched up his nose, trying to make sense of it; I’d never seen his face so adult-like. My mother kept looking down, staring at a groove in the table, and I was thinking how strange it was that she still hadn’t said anything. My dad’s voice was soft in the air, his hair the same earth-gray color of his eyes. My brother was back to looking like a kid; he was getting impatient again, his little legs kicking all