“Darling, you can’t marry your Teddy Bear.”
“Why not?”
“He’s not real.”
“Of course he’s real. You tell me to talk to him when I can’t sleep. Anyway, I’m not marrying anyone else.”
“Darling, you’ll find someone just like your Daddy.”
“Exactly. I’m marrying Ted as soon as I’m eight.”
Ruby Ray has been a Jill of many trades and mistress of some of them. Anyway, she hopes to have mastered (mistressed?) a few more before she takes it easy for good.
Trapped in a cellar, with little ammunition.
They shouted to him:
he’d heard propaganda,
they weren’t barbarians,
he’d be treated okay,
Geneva Convention.
He was doubtful, but he didn’t want to die. He threw the AK rifle up through the trapdoor.
They beat him senseless.
Some time later, he died.
Ruby Ray has been a Jill of many trades and mistress of some of them. Anyway, she hopes to have mastered (mistressed?) a few more before she takes it easy for good.
She flushed the toilet three times, washed her hands three times, folded the last sheet of paper on the roll exactly as before, wearily descended the stairs never touching the handrail.
He grinned; she noticed his thrice-polished shoes.
She must leave, while there was still time. Apparently OCD was contagious.
Ruby Ray has been a Jill of many trades and mistress of some of them. Anyway, she hopes to have mastered (mistressed?) a few more before she takes it easy for good.
y=x³-4
This stuff on the page would never mean anything to her. And history: names, places, dates… What was the point?
Glancing into a mirror, she saw snow-blonde hair, river-blue eyes, cute ramrod nose. Remembering other eyes, other glances, she knew that these fixed constants would circumscribe her entire life.
Ruby Ray has worked as a barmaid, cleaner, kitchen porter and gardener. After that she had a career in teaching. Now she wonders what will be next.