"And Helen Thought She Was Going to Have It All" by Jeff Harvey

With her tangerine cat Misty in hand, Todd’s mom parked her red scooter, wiped the manure off her Birkenstocks, and burst into the jam-packed wedding shower held at Applebee’s party room on that muggy August afternoon screaming “For Pete’s Sake, Stop this at once,” and then let Helen know her son changed his mind after illuminating him about how the calendar worked and now he was certain the baby couldn’t be his, so the trick was on Helen because Todd received his medical school acceptance yesterday and was headed for Texas in a month to tangle with those know-it-all Longhorns.

Jeff Harvey lives in San Diego, writes short fiction, and edits Gooseberry Pie Lit.