JT EVERGREEN SHORT STORIES

Annabella gazed from her kitchen window. It was spring and the two cherry trees in her back yard, a Stella and a Windsor, were in full bloom. Mark had planted them the day they moved into their home at 440 South Evergreen, in the small town of Arlington Heights, Illinois. He subsequently planted a Honeycrisp and a Macintosh apple tree behind the cherry trees, but the cherry trees stoked melancholy on this anniversary of his passing. They had been happily married for almost seven blessed years when fate took him from her. She often wondered why the gods thought so little of her that they allowed him to go, casting this fate upon her. She sipped her coffee and thought about what she would do on this day. It was Sunday. She was in the choir of Saint Peter’s Lutheran congregation so she would attend the early and regular morning services. It would give her a chance to be with others she knew and loved, and who understood her loss. She had been in the choir before she was married b...

As told by her Grandson, Romeo Lombardi Grandma Rose was only ill a few days before she passed away. It was like a knife in my heart when I was told she was gone, a pain I could not show or share with those near me. She was more to me than my own mother who would have been saddened if she knew I cared more for Nama Rose than I did for her. But it was true. They say your life flashes before your eyes at the moment of death. Well, it happens when you lose someone as dear to you as my Nama Rose was to me. The reality that she was gone hit me again as I approached her casket and the vision of her beautiful face came into view. The twenty-one years of my life with her flashed before me in an instant. I wanted to reach out and touch her but my hand trembled, so I withheld it. I was alone and would never see her again, be able to talk to her, be near her. I wanted her to hold me once more, to feel her hands pull me to the comfort of her breast, to hear her soft words that worked mag...

I’m on the verge of my thirtieth birthday and still haven’t found the love of my life, my soul mate, my squeeze if you will. I’m reasonably good looking, well educated, well read, even-tempered, can converse intelligently on almost any subject, and I’m just a nice guy to be around. In spite of all that, not to mention the extraordinary efforts my mother has put into ‘the project’ as she calls it, I’m still alone and not liking it. Singles bars, online dating, and church socials – nothing seems to be working. I’ve met a number of beautiful and very charming women and also a few who were not so charming, but none of them clicked. Mom threatened to engage the help of a matchmaker … even though we aren’t Jewish. I put my foot down on that one. I was waiting for her to ask me to make a donation to the local sperm bank which would have brought about a conversation she would not have appreciated. I found out later, she was seriously thinking of hiring a surrogate to accomplish her pen...