My Cardboard Balcony

I Baked A Cheesecake by Belinda Roddie I baked a cheesecake for the party, while Joe prepared a monstrous toad in the hole that could feed a family of eight. "I'll eat it all if you don't hide it!" I told him as he pulled it from the oven. We arrived at the party dressed in such grand colors to complement the royal theme. Our friends were all draped in raiment, kings and queens and jesters. "Eat, drink, and be merry!" Bailey cried. We raised goblets and gold spoons and dined heartily (Yes, I was happy to see the cheesecake eaten). Joe said, "Soon, we'll have to dance like in a Shakespeare play. I could do this kind of thing ev'ry day!"

My mother has literally thrown the television set out the window. I have seen it splinter into plastic and glass fragments on the pavement below, very nearly hitting a homeless man as he slunk by with his garbage bag-filled shopping cart, one wheel squeaking harmoniously with the evening traffic. From a distance, I can see the wires of the television, gaping, from its now freshly opened mouth. Reds and blacks and whites, all clustered around flame - bronze flame.

Damn It, Shane by Belinda Roddie You said you were going to buy a carton of eggs from the store, and then I found you an hour later, smoking a flute on the corner of Oak, trying to make cobras dance on the part of the street that the road workers still hadn't finished re-tarring. You had one job, Shane. One fucking job.

Derek always defended Tracey at every turn. It didn't matter what Tracey said, or did, or even intended - to Derek, Tracey was justified in regards to every trick she pulled. Some say it's typical for a father to be so forgiving of a daughter's motives. Then again, Derek even let a nearly deadly prank against his own brother slide. So his sister and I were ready to give him what for.

Hiding Behind The Honey by Belinda Roddie Nestled where the comb was the stickiest, I extended my hand outward to brush the stray hairs of the nearest honeybee, who didn't seem perturbed by my presence at all and simply continued its wordless sermon, the droning horn of its buzz the only sound besides the crackling of regurgitated nectar clinging against wax. Mother wouldn't know I was by the hive until she called me for dinner, and I skipped back to the house with honey in my eyebrows, little beads of it glistening like glass on the loosest strands, so when she used a comb to yank the fructose out of my hair, I clamped my teeth down on the plastic and sucked away the sweetness before she could think to stop me.

Samantha is completely irreverent to the concept of grieving. In other words, she thinks crying is a waste of time, refuses to attend memorial services even for her own family members, and even tends to laugh at those who want to confide in her about elements of loss, whether it be due to death, a break-up, or a loss of financial or societal stability. Samantha is also an android programmed to rebel against what a scientist has deemed the "weakness" of human physiology and psychological well-being, so...kind of explains it a little bit, don't you think?

Humming by Belinda Roddie When you strike a chord in your throat and keep a melody going absolutely nowhere.