SHE WADDLED WHEN she walked, favored her left. It took her four tries to get the order right, doesn't matter what it was — groceries, breakfast, DoorDash, something from Amazon... Took her ten days to learn how to use the TV remote. She loved to cook but couldn't cook worth a damn. Her legs swelled, and putting compression socks on her was like trying to wrangle two suckling pigs into gunny sacks. She couldn't take baths anymore because she was too weak to lift herself out. But she kept trying anyway. She loved baths. The paramedics knew her by name.
— LAURA SHELL
Laura Shell has been published in NUNUM, Typishly, Maudlin House, Citron Review, and many others. Her first anthology of paranormal stories, The Canine Collection, was released this year. She’s currently a prolific writer and submitter of flash fiction who lives in South Carolina.