• 1,001 Confessions
    Chapter One


    The rain crashed on the roof as Alice stared out into the wet cloak the sky had put on. It was the Monday after graduation, and all she had accomplished since Saturday was making, and then crumpling up, lists of things to accomplish. She trudged over to the computer to see if any of her classmates were on. She muttered as she checked people off the list in her head.

    “Marcy is busy with college work, and Laura is traveling Europe. Kevin is out fishing with Bob and Joseph. Georgia is probably playing in this downpour while Francesca will be trying to convince her to come back inside. Paula is busy designing web pages with Vince.”

    She checked off a few more, then just decided to play solitaire. Alice had the highest solitaire score of her class, and was partially proud of it. No one had really hung out with her after school or on the weekends, and she had to fill up the time somehow. She was just about to click the last card when an intoxicating aroma wafted into the room. An intoxicating pumpkin aroma.

    She sped into the kitchen faster than a tornado can pick up cows, and stood, mouth agape, over the pumpkin bread. She was interrupted in the hunting of her pumpkin prey by her mom.

    “Just a minute there, young lady! Let‘s try to make this pumpkin bread last until its destination to the dinner table.”

    Alice just stood there with a sad puppy look on her face. Her mother was not convinced.

    “There have been too many massacres of the pumpkin variety in this household.”
    “Bu-but I just wanted to…. cuddle this one, give it extra love!”
    “Maybe so, but once you get a hold of it, you’ll never let it go! You’ll have to wait until dinner to continue your bread-of-the-pumpkin-type rampage.”

    Alice sulked off into her room and hugged her pillow. She glanced over to her Edgar Allen Poe collection, and picked up a book, “The Pit and the Pendulum.” She had read it at least a dozen times already, but always managed to end up reading it again and again.

    She flipped open the worn-out text and started reading eagerly. Alice was so deep into her book, she didn’t hear her mom call her down for dinner until pumpkin bread was mentioned.