Thea Pueschel is a writer and multimedia artist in Southern California. She writes ESL readers to pay the bills and literary fiction to feed her soul. She won the TAEM Flash Fiction Summer 2020 Contest for her pandemic based satire 'Safer at Home.' "Summer of 1985" is in Short Circuit #05, Short Edition's quarterly review.

The cool breeze drifts in from the Pacific Ocean through the banana plant leaves. Shadows dance across the pastel pallet of the bedspread; the charcoal nude woman looks over her shoulder. Jesus clasps his hands in prayer. Julie Garwood books with crumpled covers of chiseled men and collapsing women appear well-read. She lies next to her little sister, under the covers.From the living room through the door, the newscaster's words float: "Police are searching for a six-foot-tall man...dark curly hair, dubbed the Night Stalker...who has killed...though the crimes...He enters through open windows.

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