Unicorn

Ken had a great, big, unsightly, and slightly off-center horn right in the middle (though not quite middle) of his head. Yep. There it was, big as life, right smack-dab in the not-quite-middle of his forehead. Of course, it's not exactly the kind of thing a person can hide. Everyone in school made fun of him over it and called him “unicorn boy” or even “uniKen” when they were being particularly clever.

Everyone except Jenny. She was always cool about it. “It'll be fine,” she told him before the big speech. “Just go out there and give it your best. They'll be listening and not looking, I promise!”

Easy for her to say. She didn't have a horn in the not-middle of her head. Ken let out a defeated sigh and stood up when the Dean called his name. Him and Jenny were parked off-stage on a pair of folding chairs and when Dean Markey stepped aside from the podium, it was his cue to go. Jenny had to push.

No sooner had he stepped onto the stage than the entire auditorium burst into a barely contained giggle. Smiling kindly, Dean Markey shook Ken's hand and passed him his diploma. Being valedictorian, he was certain, was more of a joke vote on the part of the student body; one last chance to point and stare at the unicorn. But he had learned to take what he could. Anyway, his parents were so flipping proud.

He took up his place behind the podium and spread out his notes. Nearly two hundred people were there for graduation and all of them were gawking at him. He kind of hated them. All of them with perfectly centered horns, and most of them in triple sets. Even kind old Dean Markey was double-horned.

Off-stage, Jenny gave him a thumbs up. She had a dozen horns...in spirals. Why in the world did she push him into this? Just smile and get through it, Ken told himself, just smile.

Phony

I'm a fake, a fraud, a complete phony. It's like I'm going through life, pretending to be someone else and just terrified that everyone will find out who I really am inside. Sure, I do well at work and put on a good show at parties, but it's like I'm just pulling the levers and pushing the buttons. It's like the smile's not real and the stories are just anecdotes I read in a book. They're not me. None of it is.

When you go through life with this shell over yourself, you can feel like you're lost inside your own skin. It's like you're one man trapped in another man's life, living his day-to-day routine, driving his car, going to his job, kissing his wife goodnight.

Finally, you snap. I did. I snapped. It was a complete break with reality, but I think it was more like I was finally becoming “me” and not “that other guy”. I wanted people to know me for who I really am and not who I pretended to be. I wanted them to know who I am inside. More than anyone, I wanted my wife to know.

I mean, how can you go through life not even being yourself in front of the person who's supposed to know you best? The person who's going to accept you for yourself no matter what? Isn't that what love is? Isn't that what a marriage is?

With my hands shaking and my voice trembling, I told her I wanted to know me and I pushed the button. My fake self fell away, the machine dropping off like old clothes and there I was, all of me, without the levers and the buttons and switches. Just me. All three feet, six inches of me. All five legs and three arms of me. Looking up at the love of my life with pleading in all my eyes.

“This is who I really am,” I told her and reached out for her embrace. I just wanted to hold her in my webbings and be together for the first time.

She freaked.

Going out of my mind to let you all read the new "Dorothy Gale: Vampire Hunter" book! It's loads of fun with even more action and adventure than the first book.

If you thought the first book kept to a small corner of the world, you are right. The world gets a little bigger in this new story and the adventures become more perilous.

As Dorothy copes with the outcome of her first adventure, we'll see the toll it takes on her as a person. She revisits some old friends, but spends more time forging new alliances and exploring new parts of the world.

Story Snippet below the fold!!

Good Therapy

Lonny was terrified. He was afraid of the dark, nervous about close spaces, mortified of germs, and positively petrified of loud noises. So, how did he find himself, time and again, in a situation that brought all of his horrors together at once? Sure, facing your fears was supposed to be good for the soul, anyone knew that. Heck, he'd even written a paper on the subject. It was better to take them on and--wait. There was a noise. Lonny swallowed a lump in his throat. It was time.

He steeled his nerves and grabbed the door handle. This was it. But right before he opened it, the door flew open on its own and he was face to face with a child! A red-headed, snot-nosed, germ-ridden boy! The kid screamed, Lonny screamed, they both turned and ran. Of course, in Lonny's case, there wasn't really anywhere to go. He banged his head into the wall and fell half unconscious to the floor. It was time to face facts: being a pediatrician did not prepare him to be a real life closet monster.