ONE DAY SUSAN

starts to search for her mother. When Susan was born, she was left on a doorstep and taken in by strangers. They were kind and all, but somehow they weren’t enough.

So when Susan grows up, she places in an ad in the paper – Wanted – the woman who didn’t want me. That is funny to Susan, who is sure she got irony from her bio-mom.

Weeks go by and nothing till one day, Susan picks up a crackly phone, and there it is. The call that will explain her life. Fill in the cracks like putty. She is so excited; she spends her entire paycheck on a new dress and rose bouquet.

She waits under the bridge that the phone call told her to, and when the night blanket comes and still no one, she understands. She returns home to find her whole house emptied by thieves.

Still, they left the doorstep intact, and when Susan is ready, she will lie down there and curl herself into a tiny, baby ball.

Francine Witte