Her West: Short Story Collection

By Heather Ormsby

This is a collection of short stories about contemporary women living and working in the western United States. They each face challenges - poverty, violence, grief, discrimination - and handle them in their own way, but usually with a spirit of grit and determination. Three of these stories have never before been published, and one was a 2021 finalist in The LAURA Short Story contest for members of Women Writing the West.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Moonlit Skies
• Release date: Dec 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005343583

Heather Ormsby

Heather Ormsby lives in Denver, Colorado. A former library supervisor, she has spent most of her working life surrounded by books and likes it that way. She is currently a full-time writer and photographer.

Book preview

Her West

HER WEST

SHORT STORY COLLECTION

HEATHER ORMSBY

Moonlit Skies Press

Copyright © 2021 by Heather Ormsby

Cover photo Copyright © 2021 Izanbar with Deposit Photos

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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For my Colorado Family

CONTENTS

Introduction

Suns of the World

Then and Now

When Mountains Shrug

Parking Lot Memory

Mountain Trout

Haunted

Enter the Stream

No Safe Place

A Family Place

About the Author

Also by Heather Ormsby

INTRODUCTION

I challenged myself this year to write a short story a week for 52 weeks. As of today, I only have four more stories to go, and I’m right on track. Some of this year’s stories have been submitted to anthologies and contests, others have been published individually. I pulled these nine stories together because they all deal with women in western settings facing challenges that women face universally.

In both Suns of the World and Parking Lot Memory, young women are challenged to stand on their own and face a more hopeful future.

Then and Now is the story of a couple who discover a woman’s tragic history in an old Denver home.

When Mountains Shrug is the story of a woman in later life who reevaluates her life after a traumatic event. This story was written and first published a couple of years ago but I felt it was a great fit for this collection.

Mountain Trout was a finalist in The 2021 LAURA Short Story contest for members of Women Writing the West. This story is a woman’s reminiscence of the uncle who helped raise her and taught her the joys of fishing and surviving loss.

Haunted has never before been published and is a teen’s witness of a friend’s family trauma and escape.

Perhaps the darkest story is Enter the Stream which has never before been published. I do not think that suicide is an answer to life’s troubles, but this story explores how one woman might forsake agency in her own life.

No Safe Place is of a child’s search for safety in a dangerous world, and about the family who bolsters her strength.

And finally, A Family Place, is about the families we lose and the ones we try to create for ourselves, even where interests seemingly diverge. This is its first publication.

Stories that come out of the western United States tend to feature strength of character and independence of spirit. Struggles with poverty, domestic violence, gun violence, and tragic loss may not be unique to the western states, but here’s how some of my characters have dealt with (or failed to deal with) these challenges.

I hope you enjoy these stories as much as I have enjoyed writing them.

SUNS OF THE WORLD

Cecilia was just starting to regret that last bottle of soda she had drunk - the need to visit a restroom was coming on strong - when she saw the sign for the motel where she had made their reservation. She was impressed and relieved by how clean and new everything looked at this post in the middle of nowhere.

The motel was on Navajo Reservation land in the middle of the wild desert landscape of Arizona. Cecilia had expected it to look a bit battered and rundown. Tony would have said it would be for sure. That was one of the reasons she hadn’t told him where she’d booked their night’s stay on the way to the Grand Canyon.

It didn’t matter now. He wasn’t here to see it and be amazed at how wrong he was. Not that he would accept that. ‘Just give it a year or two, and the motel will look weather-worn and rundown soon enough,’ he’d say.

Maybe it would. But right now, it was all new adobe and bright clean windows for the rest-stop restaurant, gift shop, and the attached motel.

The gas station and parking lot in front of the reception area was mostly empty. It was late fall, off-season for the trip. This had kept the rates low and was the main reason they had planned their road trip for October.

Cecilia pulled in near the door and turned off the ignition. The silence, once the engine and fan noises were gone, was a relief. Only the occasional ping from the cooling engine broke the quiet, and she sat there for a while to enjoy it. Even the constantly bickering voices in her head were quiet.

The sensations in her bladder, however, told her she needed to get out. Opening the door of the dusty sedan, she stepped out and straightened up. Her hips were a bit sore from sitting for so long. It had been a long drive from Houston.

Slinging her purse over one shoulder, she shut the car door and then walked up to the entrance. When she got inside, she took off her sunglasses and waited for her eyes to adjust to the relative darkness of the interior. After hours of the sun glare on the road, it took her a minute to be able to see.

As her pupils dilated, she was able to see that she was inside a curio and tourist shop, full of dolls in Native American dress, postcards and books, road maps, ceramic mugs and keychains, and glass counters displaying silver and turquoise jewelry.

In the back to her left was an entrance for a small restaurant. The sign above the doorway said, ‘Navajo Tacos, Fry Bread, Fresh Corn’.

She could imagine Tony, her mind’s companion for all the drive, sneering at everything. ‘Cheap goods made in China and sold to naive tourists."

She walked up to one of the glass counters and looked at the jewelry. The earrings and bracelets that were arranged there didn’t look cheap. They were beautiful works in what looked like heavy silver. Sky-blue chunks of turquoise were inlaid into designs that looked like the images of animals or in geometric designs.

Can I help you? A young woman was now standing at the counter in the back of the room under a sign that said, ‘Rooms for Rent’. She had long, straight black hair, and was wearing earrings that were large silver discs stamped with images of the sun.

Cecilia walked over to her. Yes, I have a reservation under Morris.

The young woman tapped on the computer keyboard in front of her. I see you have a reservation for two people for one night’s stay.

It’s just me, I’m afraid. My husband couldn’t make it.

The young woman looked at Cecilia, and then her eyes flicked down to Cecilia’s left hand that was resting on the counter. She had removed her wedding band, but the white mark it had left on her skin was still visible.

There was a moment’s pause, but then the receptionist said, I won’t be able to adjust the room rate.

That’s not a problem.

Nodding her head, the woman made some more clicks on her keyboard, then she reached under the counter and pulled out a keycard for the room. She put it into a white paper envelope and wrote the number 12 on it in blue pen.

This is your room number. The room is in the building to your left when you go back outside. It’s on the second floor. We don’t have an elevator, but the stairs will be on the left side of the building. There’s plenty of parking along there.

Thank you. Cecilia picked up the key. What time does the restaurant open?

It’s open all the time. Just walk up to the counter there and tap the bell. Someone will come out to assist you.

Cecilia walked back out to the car, putting on her sunglasses again as she stepped out. She got back into the car and moved it to be near the stairs of the motel rooms, then she got out her small suitcase and walked up to her room.

Room 12 was on the far corner, and when she walked in, she was impressed with how large the room was. The bed was a King size, and the bathroom had a full counter at the sink, and a bathtub in addition to the walk-in