Rescue Me

Mrs. Szewzcek and the Rescue Dog is my best short story...not all mine of course, it was pounded into shape by a dramatically artsy woman whose lover insisted she join our tiny (3 person) writing group in Boston me hissing protests when I got a load of her and not just because I thought she would eat all the cheese which she did but I thought she would have nothing to offer and then she sliced into Rescue Dog in its raw form articulating what I was trying to say and why it wasn't being said and where to stop it and she was right and I called out after her when she danced out of our condo down Beacon Hill "who are you?"...I had no opinion of Stephanie when she came into our family and "came into our family" is a funny phrase because she was creating her own not joining ours and when I did form an opinion it was hypocritical ignoramus which she is but just thinking those things put me square in the face of my own limitations which I won't go into here.  Love me love my limitations, I always say, but they seemed less quirky more limiting after that....I was scared of the dark long into adulthood then I met my husband who, using a few junior magic tricks--like asking me "do you believe in God, like a God who looks like Santa Claus but acts like Chucky because if you do we can't continue"--put a face on my fears and they looked a lot like failure and death and being exposed and when I could pick them out of a line-up they ran out of the darkness and I was saved.