Shrouded Musings

  Because I was more or less trapped in this one-horse town, I ended up renting a 2-bedroom efficiency apartment several blocks from the main drag. My intention was to stay three years until my husband returned from overseas. Hopefully, we would move west or north by at least two state worth. I had never lived in this part of the country before, and, to tell the truth, I was finding it to be quite foreign. The appearance and the language was the same as mine, but I soon realized most of the social norms of the region were somehow still in the 1960s. I had already lived that decade thirty years prior. Now, seeing it as an adult, it was a slightly different experience. Lizzy seemed to fit right into the society of the burg, although not as one of its model citizens, more like one of the poor and downtrodden. At least, that was the persona she exhibited when I went with her to various stores a couple of days after I got settled into my new abode. She took me to her home, expl...

    Many years ago, I befriended a woman. To be accurate, she actually befriended me when I showed up without any ties to family or friends. Because I feel that it is wrong to brashly point out people publicly, I'm giving this woman the name, Lizzy, Lizzy Falk. Besides, I don’t want her coming after me. Lizzy didn’t always have the last name of Falk. She started her life out with the last name of Riley. I’m not sure why I’m telling you this right now, but there it is for you to file for a possible later date. Lizzy wasn’t a beautiful woman. Nor was she ugly either. Her dark auburn hair was unduly curly without being kinky. The entire time I’ve known her, I don’t remember seeing her in a dress except for one time. Her normal attire was a man’s t-shirt, blue jeans, and sneakers. The first time I met her, she was sitting at the picnic table on the back deck of a relative’s house. Like me, she was an in-law, but I got the immediate feeling that she considered herself a cut...