Emma Emerging
Saddled with an old fashioned name, Myrna gets bullied at school. As a runaway, she learns early on that life can be harsh. When a burned out sign challenges her to emerge from her fears, she starts a journey of self-discovery and reinvention.
Chapter 1
Have you ever experienced that slurping, sucking sound as air filled the void left by your boot when trying to extract yourself ...
Chapter 2
After the first new school, when everyone had a field day with my name, I made a point of arriving early to any new school or cl ...
Chapter 3
Don’t get me wrong, it hadn’t all been horrible. Not long after the refrigerator box incident, we moved to Tucson. M ...
Chapter 4
Michael and I danced together for over an hour, stopping only occasionally to grab a soda and cool off. We stopped and sat ...
Chapter 5: Two years later
I wanted to be an adult so much! I felt my time was near. This year, this month, in fact, I would make my big break. Wherever sh ...
Chapter 6
Mom had a little money from the job she left so easily, so we were able to rent a studio apartment that was furnished with a cou ...
Chapter 7
I would like to tell you that I got my mom to a nearby hospital, that she was taken care of expeditiously and with loving care. ...
Chapter 8
Consuelo invited me to a cookout at the local park one Saturday when we both had the day off. I had nothing else to do, so said ...
Chapter 9
The next day at work to my utter surprise, Consuelo told me that Javier couldn’t stop talking about me after I left the pa ...
Chapter 10
I have been told to “Never say never.” Maybe there’s a reason for that saying, because just when I thought lif ...
Chapter 11
To say the guy made an impression on me would be seriously playing down the truth. Thoughts of our conversation would flit throu ...
Chapter 12
By the time I moved in with Randy, I had accumulated more “stuff” than I’d ever had before. He came to load up ...
Chapter 13
That’s the last memory I have of Randy. I can remember missing the bus, kissing, riding the bike, feeling so free and happ ...
Chapter 14
One week after the “second dull knife incident” I awoke to find flowers in my room. Very strange. I was curious enou ...
Chapter 15
The room seemed emptier after she left. I pulled back the curtain to let a little of the light into the room. I lay on my bed, a ...
Chapter 16
I guess I just wasn’t ready to be happy, because I dreamed of my mother on the stretcher again that night. Only this time, ...
Chapter 17
I didn’t have any more nightmares that night. In fact, I slept soundly and awoke feeling refreshed. Thoughts of suicide we ...
Chapter 18: Margaret's Story
Margaret drank some coffee and took a deep breath. I could tell it wasn't easy for her, but she needed to tell me what was on he ...
Chapter 19
So much honesty in such a short time drastically changed our relationship. I trusted Margaret with the secret of my most horribl ...
Chapter 20
One chilly morning, when the garden was weeded and Margaret had added mulch and other preparations for the coming colder weather ...
Chapter 21
That Christmas was like no other I’d lived through. Margaret brought a pre-lit, eight-foot tall tree down from the attic. ...
Chapter 22
Classes would start the second week in January, and I was enrolled for twelve hours. School would take up all my weekdays ...
Chapter 23
Five months passed and my body was healing. My grief had become bearable, and the nightmares about Mom had subsided. I slept thr ...
Chapter 24
When summer comes to Texas, it comes in with no mercy. The heat and humidity came early and kept me indoors, sometimes in direct ...
Chapter 25
I haven’t told you much about Margaret’s life outside of taking care of me. She was a busy woman. She sat on several ...
Chapter 26
I expected Margaret to react with her normal aplomb, but what happened next was amazing. She stepped over the broken glas ...
Chapter 27
One day, when we were enjoying lattes on the roof, Miko asked me about my past. My first inclination was to clam up, but she had ...
