It was hard to be in the world. Harder than he’d ever dreamed. Without his cocoon of medications, he was a bare, ragged worm clinging to a branch. He certainly wasn’t a butterfly. This wasn’t a child’s story with an easy, happy ending. To Haruto’s dismay, Jasper had refused to give up his medications entirely. One to make him sleep, one to keep his seizures at bay. The other prescriptions from Dr. Avakian at Raindell had ended, but Jasper was still hoarding the last of each bottle.

“The more you fear, the worse you suffer,” Haruto had said at their last appointment. Samson, lying at Jasper’s feet, had whined sadly enough to make Jasper’s chest ache. “It is not the medications that bother me, Jasper; it is your fear. For this to work, for you to flourish, you must have faith.”

“I don’t know how.”

Find it here.

Happy Valentine's Day from Foley

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, oatmeal, dry milk, and baking powder.

In a separate bowl, mix the pumpkin, egg, and loosely-packed brown sugar.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until the dough
forms. Knead the dough until it comes together in a large ball.

Form the dough into two-inch diameter balls (or one-inch balls if your dog
is smaller than Samson), and lay them out on a cookie sheet. Press the balls
with a fork to flatten them to a uniform thickness so they bake evenly.

Bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until golden brown. Let the cookies cool
completely before giving them to your dog. Samson has burnt his tongue more
than once out of impatience!

There never was. Jasper sat up with his back to the cinderblock wall and tried to breathe. Breathing didn’t help, even if he breathed right, but Jasper had to try. Everyone said he would feel better if he just tried. No one seemed to notice that he was trying, that he had been trying ever since he was a kid. He breathed, in through the nose and out through the mouth, counting and trying to relax his shoulders and warm his fingers. The blue nightlight at the foot of his bed cast everything in an eerie glow, but Jasper tried to use it as a focus. If you were trying, he thought, it wouldn’t happen.

It happened anyway. It always did.

“No!” Jasper gulped and shook his head. “It’s okay. It… it just happens. I can get home.” Samson could feel him shaking; maybe it was the seizure, but now Jasper smelled like fear. “Come on, Samson.” He wasn’t ready to be walking, but he tugged on Samson’s leash to get Samson to move.

“Jeremy can walk you home,” the woman said, patting at the arm of the scrawny teenager lurking behind her. “Go on, Jer.”

“Oh, no.” Jasper clutched Samson’s leash to him as he backed away, about to fall off the curb. “Samson can help me.”

Samson made sure to flash the SERVICE DOG panel on the sides of his harness as he circled and settled himself at Jasper’s side. Whether it was that or his unusual size that made people back off, Samson didn’t care. As soon as the walk sign lit up, he guided Jasper across the street. The sooner they showed that Jasper was well enough to walk, the sooner the strangers would leave him alone. And then the sour smell of Jasper’s fear would stop clogging Samson’s nose and throat.

Jasper leaned against him as they walked, giving up on the leash with one hand to hold the harness between Samson’s shoulder blades. He could stay upright as long as Samson steered. “I saw something in the street,” he muttered as they got to the other side. Looking over his shoulder, he let Samson guide him so he didn’t walk into the newspaper box. “It was so dark. There was a little white cat. It was trying to get to me, but it ran in front of a car, and…”

“This one was by turns a serious, erotic and emotional read. A lot was packed into a comparatively small space. Very satisfying.”
-British Bull Dog, Rainbow Reviews (read the review here.)

Stop by and say hello! Who knows, there might even be a contest and some prizes…