For his workaholic wife, he’d become a coffee maker, pillows, the soothing sound of rain.

The girls knew him as a tricycle, pastry chef, fairy tales.

Wife gone, kids flown, rather than shift into an empty nest, he took up writing, went for walks, and baked himself a birthday cake.

Michelle Wilson’s words have appeared in A Thin Slice of Anxiety, Rejection Letters, Potato Soup Journal’s Best of 2021 Anthology, Maudlin House, Litro Magazine, The Drabble, 50-Word Stories, Flash Fiction Magazine, and Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood, among others. Her story ‘Fish Brain’ was nominated for Best of the Net 2022. She lives with her partner in Miami Beach, Florida.