Amongst my mother-in-law's hoarded treasures, a rusted Normal Rockwell tin weighted down ... [+]
My Horse of a Different Color
Besides Short Édition, FC Pierce has published in magazines and short story collections. He writes "My Walks with Stanley" (Substack) about aging gracefully. Website: www.FCPierce.com "My Horse of a Different Color" is in Short Circuit #10, Short Édition's quarterly review.
It was the summer of '82, my first year at Saint Vincent's. I'd just arrived in the city, a newly minted nurse from the Midwest, and taken an apartment on Perry Street with three other nurses. He was our neighbor—about my age, skinny, with long, dirty blond hair and delicate, manicured hands. When I asked, he told me he was a hand model for TV commercials. "Really?" I said, skeptical. "That's a job?" "Dorothy?" he replied. "This is Emerald City. Anything is possible." I told him my name wasn't Dorothy. "Well, you'll always be Dorothy to me," he said dramatically. I told him I'd never met anyon