“Tell me,” she pleads for seemingly the umpteenth time.

“What?” I pretend not to know.

“Tell me!” Her voice begins to shake.

I could rebel. Tease. Start a fight. Suggest a doctor. Prescribe a Prozac. Instead, I acquiesce and recite the magic words: “Everything will be all right.”

“…Thank you.”

Frank Solomon retired from the University of Kentucky after 30 years of writing utilitarian stories for a cybernetic audience. Now he attempts to entertain an audience that lives and breathes.