Tag: sickness

All Stories, General Fiction

When Pain Grew a Beard by Rania Hellal

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It’s been almost a month now since she first became acquainted with pain.

When she’d first glanced at him, half dazed under the strong pull of morphine, she knew straight away, even then, that she would never forget that face.

It was the face of a young man; Plump at the cheeks and lips and sharp at the jaws.  Round and soft where one would expect it to be, yet angular in all the right places.

A perfectly balanced face, she thought.

However, it was the eyes –or rather the lack of them- that grabbed her attention, almost by the throat.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Embracing Your Evil Twin by Marco Etheridge

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Up until quite recently, you were a very sick man. The Big C, of course. Leukemia, a nasty version. Picture the scene, sitting across the desk from your oncologist. You hear the word cancer, then the hunky doctor lays out the projected timeline of your now limited existence on this earth. The oncologist speaks with precision, each phrase an expression of practiced compassion. He’s done this before. You haven’t. All you hear is blah-blah-blah. That’s how it was for you.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Strays by Annie Moore

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On our third date we did some petting. She said she didn’t mind my nose that drooped like burnt wax and was porous with puss. She coiled her hands into my chest hair which was whitening with the withering days. I couldn’t afford to pay her much, hence she only gave half-assed blowies. Out of pity she called this encounter a date. She knew I was dying, and I knew I needed to put that pity where my pennies weren’t.

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