Heh. Allyson, it wasn't a problem - I figured you'd gone zoooming through it, putting it together - and that's just the sort of thing I do myself, tense-swapping or losing commas, when I'm working at hyper-speed.

Feedback any help?

Yes, deb, thanks! It's hard to do a cleanup this late in the game when I'm tired and punchy. Almost there. Almost.http://www.buffistas.org/images/btn_post.gif

That one barely needed cleanup - it was far more along the "three lines there really need to go byebye, three single lines needed to be added to connect the dots, check the speed-comma dealie" and hey presto, there you are.

You know what, I just realised, I'm supposed to be signing this week, once at the Persephone table (we're the womens' arm of the Horror Writers of America, and the HWA convention starts this week) and once during a humongous event at Borderlands on Thursday night, and I have no idea where or when the Persephone signing is? I should probably find out.

Sliding in under the wire:

The Big Reveal (100 words)

"I like your father."

"Who? WHAT?"

"You know, your dad. T."

Quietly: "T's NOT my father. He and my mother got married when I was twelve."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Yeah. Only met my father once. He was married to my mom's sister."

".... Oh, hell. Was it consensual?"

"I think that depends on who you ask."

Great. Just great. What do you say when you find out that your best friend is the product of a rape? "I'm sorry that your mother had to go through that, but I'm very glad you're here" just doesn't cut it, on so many levels.

Dagnabit. I can't see to find an old drabble of mine. Grr.

Aimee, do you remember the topic? I might be able to poke through the posts on the LJ community and find it for you.

ION -- New drabble topic!

Challenge #108 (the big reveal) is now closed.

Challenge #109 is lies my parents told me.

I realize this is a VERY potentially 'splodey topic. But it's been rattling around in my brain recently, so there it is.

Lies

"You can tell me anything."

Sure, we can tell you, Mother. It's not even really a lie, come to think of it. You make no promises as to how you'll react.

Which is why Sharon stormed out of the house and went back to school early that one Christmas vacation. Which is why Linda lurked upstairs until just before the school bus got there so you couldn't see she was wearing jeans to school. Which is why you threatened not to let me go back to college when you found those birth control pills in my dresser drawer--"except I'd have to tell your father."

"I wouldn't read your diaries if you'd just tell me things!"

I can't imagine why we didn't tell you things.

Over word limit, probably awkward, but I can bleed all day about lies and parents...

It’s a fine line between lies and omission. There were so many things I didn’t know about my father. I knew about the beer. I knew he spent his weekends anywhere but with us. I knew he didn’t like being around us very much. We never spoke of it.

It was only after that I learned the other things. That he had an affair. More than one. That he hit you, when my sister was small. That he left us for another woman, the life he "missed" when he made the mistake of having a family. That he wanted you to get rid of me.

You didn’t lie. I understand it now, though I resented you for lying when you didn't tell me sooner. But you were ashamed, and you couldn't speak of it, and now I understand that too.

Just Check the Box

True/False: You were a wanted child.

True. You thought my father was leaving you, you got pregnant in your mid-forties, even though you had cancer. You wanted a weapon. True.

True/False: Your father was sick. He needed me. You didn't.

True. Diabetes took a great musician out of his game. The five-year-old with polio, well, she had an aunt.

True/False: You'll never be loved - you aren't lovable.

Unknown. With the one man where it counted, I was young enough to believe you. So call that one true.

Well, what do you know? You never lied to me, after all.

God, all of those are awesome. Karl brings the pain again, just before the deadline.

I think I'm going to have to do fiction again, as my parents never really *lied* to me....