Rock Paper Scissors

by Alice Feeney

Affection is like playing the piano and you can forget how to do it without practice.

I doubt he felt the same way, but feelings don’t have to be mutual to be real.

I wish people were more like books. If you realize halfway through a novel that you aren’t enjoying it anymore, you can just stop and find something new to read. Same with films and TV dramas. There is no judgment, no guilt, nobody even needs to know unless you choose to tell them. But with people, you tend to have to see it through to the end, and sadly not everyone gets to live happily ever after.

Sometimes I feel like I need to check out of life the way other people check out of hotels. Sign whatever I need to sign, hand back the keys to the life I am living, and find somewhere new. Somewhere safe.

“I’ll clean that up,” I say, stepping away and finding a dustpan and brush in the first cupboard I open. “How did you know that was in there?” she asks, and I hesitate before answering. “Lucky guess, I suppose.

Hes been here before

watch as he locks the front doors with a giant old key. I’ve never seen it before, but I’m so tired, maybe it was there the whole time and I just didn’t notice.

Some of the pictures have almost completely faded, bleached of life by sunlight and time, but the newer ones—closer to the first floor—are in good condition, and even look a little familiar. I don’t recognize the faces in them though. And there is no point in asking Adam, who doesn’t even recognize his own in the mirror. I notice that three frames are missing; discolored rectangular shapes and rust-colored nails where they used to hang.

Enjoy the stories of other people’s lives, but don’t forget to live your own.

She thinks the time has come for him to be told the truth, but he isn’t going to like it. People rarely do.

Bob would have barked if a stranger had let themselves in.”

It wasnt a stranger

There are residents in our lives, the ones who stay for years, and then there are the tourists just passing through. Sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference. We can’t, and don’t, and shouldn’t try to hold on to everyone that we meet, and I’ve met a lot of tourists in my life, people I should have kept at a safe distance. If you don’t let anyone get too close, they can’t hurt you.

The scariest haunted houses are always the ones in which you are the ghost.