By Kelsie Thorschmidt

Genevieve watched fat snowflakes flurry around a charming Victorian home. Indoors, she imagined a happy family opening presents around a glorious tree. How different from her shabby, mostly empty stepmother’s house with its orange shag carpet.

Genevieve sensed the cashier with the long beard eyeing her suspiciously. I don’t got any money. He knows it. A man in a suit carrying his luggage shuffled out after purchasing a magazine. 

She returned the snow globe to its shelf. Maybe in her dreams she would see that house again. Asleep on the plane later, all Genevieve dreamt about was orange shag carpet.

                                                         *   *   *

Kelsie Thorschmidt is an emerging writer and middle school Language Arts teacher. She recently received her MA in English & Creative Writing from Southern New Hampshire University. She lives in Portland, Oregon where she takes advantage of the rainy weather to catch up on her reading and writing.