Life Odd

Life Odd is a collection of science fiction, fantasy, and paranormal poems and short stories by Pamela Caves. It features the short stories, "The Hand", "The Crazy Ole' Bird Lady", "An Unusual Cupid", and "Slurp".

"The Hand" is a story about the heartache and burden a breast cancer diagnoses has on a newlywed couple. Cicely expects those issues; she has accepted that her life is crap. But when she begins daily radiation treatments, she finds that she has bigger problems. She starts seeing human shapes and a disembodied hand keeps grabbing at her. There is a mystery surrounding the house, and she means to uncover it, no matter how dangerous.

"The Crazy Ole' Bird Lady" tells us to listen to our elders. Ashley and her son, Kevin, moved to a small town to get away from his abusive father. Now, though, she has to worry about Gerty Wallace, a crazy old woman who harasses Kevin about huge bird creatures that will come down and carry him away. The senior citizens in town all claim to have seen the beasts before. Ashley thinks they're all nuts; until she sees one of the creatures for herself and finds herself fighting to save her son.

"An Usual Cupid" shows how love can transcend all. Marcus is offered $100 from an annoying stranger just to go up and say hi to a woman seated near the front of the bus. Although Marcus figures he'll never see the money, just to get the guy off his back would be worth a little dull conversation with some random girl, right?

"Slurp" is an odd tale about what unexpected things you can find when you buy a new house. When Maggie finally buys a house she loves, she can't decide which is worse; her nosy, annoying, and hateful neighbor or the curious "thing" that slips into her house and turns her world upside down.

Also enjoy poetry that travels into the future, slips beyond death, and explores other plans of existence.