Member-only story
Double Take
A short story
Hester Brown stuffed the last handful of M&M’s into her mouth and tossed the bag behind her onto a mountain of candy wrappers, coke bottles, crumpled napkins smeared with dark red lipstick, drink cups with lids and straws, fast food bags and boxes, used kleenexes, and old clothes which nearly reached the roof of the old Plymouth station wagon. The ripe sweet smell of candy and rotting fast food remnants filled the car.
She drove around the block once more, trailing blue smoke from the car’s exhaust. She parked at the top of the street where she had a clear view of her house with its peeling brown paint, and heavily curtained windows. May Street had once been a classy residential section of Fort Worth, but in recent years it had become home to elderly residents on restricted incomes and young families with far too many children. The old frame homes reflected the general neglect and despair of their inhabitants. The Victorian style homes were no longer fashionable as they once had been; now they were just run down.
Hester popped opened the package of chocolate chip cookies with one hand while she stared straight ahead. She slid the first cookie in her mouth, and quickly followed with another even after telling herself that she was only going to eat just one. Between cookies, she scraped the hot pink nail polish off her ragged fingernails. With her mouth full…
