Please start the first time, she begged, her eyes scrunched tight. She paused for a couple of seconds to lay her hands on the dashboard. Using a gloved hand, she dusted the snow off the windshield of her baby blue 1979 Ford Pinto and climbed inside. Outside, three or four inches of new snow covered everything.

She’d been late the last two months, and her landlady wasn’t taking any chances. She knew it was a reminder of the rent, which was due today.

She grabbed her winter jacket from the back of the couch on her way out the door. She turned the faucet off, leaving the cat glaring at her as she hurried out of the bathroom. He batted a paw at the stream of water running from the faucet and then licked the water off. I’ll be home by six, Chester, she said to the cat sitting on the vanity. She blotted the toothpaste with a washcloth and inspected the spot in the mirror. She pulled the least-wrinkled pants and shirt she could find from the pile of clothes taking up half her bed and dressed while she hastily brushed her teeth, dribbling toothpaste down her chest. She ran to her bedroom, yanking off her sweatshirt and hopping on one foot to get her flannel pj pants off. Penny leapt up from her chair, and loose pages went flying all over the kitchen. THE SOUND OF A SNOWPLOW scraping its way down the street made Penny look up. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions. Modifying or making copies of this work or distributing it to any unauthorized person by any means, without limit, including by email, CD, DVD, memory cards, file transfer, paper printout or any other method, constitutes a violation of International copyright law and subjects the violator to severe fines or imprisonment. This work is copyrighted and is licensed only for use by the original purchaser and can be copied to the original purchaser’s electronic device and its memory card for your personal use. She Sings of Old, Unhappy, Far-off ThingsĮ-mail: site: Cover design by Patty G.

Twist of the Magi by Caren J. Werlinger