Marbles

Another story, "Marbles," has been published by the excellent Typishly (who, as I've said, I love not least for their perpetuation of the serif!).

This is a new addition to my collection of stories inspired by aphorisms, which includes "Swallows" and "Moss" (co-winners of the Literal Latté short-short contest in 2012), "Pishing" (published by The Walrus in 2013), "She Who Hesitates" (published by The Wild Word in 2019), and "Milk" (to be published by Minerva Rising this spring). 

Its heroine, Tess, is accused of having lost her marbles, and she agrees that "she had lost quantities of marbles, more than she could count," but "in some incalculable calculus all of the losses added up to make her what she was."  And what she wants now, instead of marbles, is the fairy tales she's illustrating happily,

"animals with magic powers, gray ocher wolves and burnt umber owls; women healers in carmine cloaks; genies curled like unctuous snakes in natural sienna pots; flying Turkish carpets of blackcurrant red with Rumi verses stitched around the edge, ready to dart off on transforming quests.  She wanted Fionnoula, their soft-coated Wheaten terrier, at her feet as she worked; to drink white peony tea from the stoneware noodle bowl she used as a teacup; to see the cottage garden out her window, with its leggy chives and echinacea, lamb's-ear, Russian sage, wild indigo, and pale pink hollyhocks.  To be at home, finally, fabulously, after so many years being somewhere else."