In Short – Volume 1, Issue 1 (Spring 2024)
May 31, 2024
A Life of Not Doing
By Lisa Sheldon
I didn’t grow up with my siblings because, four kids deep already with no money and no man, the last thing the cleaner needed was another mouth to feed so she gave me to the big-haired lady and the American who took me across the Atlantic en route to the chrome-tinted life my new mother imagined for herself; though some years later, having grown weary of lying in the bed she’d made, she ran back to the one of her childhood and I, weary too, didn’t go with her; but left all alone (with no money and no mama), I didn’t apply to college to become a judge and, instead, feigned attendance by living off-campus with students, not getting credit for the lectures I snuck into, and not making my roomies pay me back for pizza and wine coolers bought with the money I earned at that dumb bank job with the mandatory panty-hose rule, all fun and games until they graduated and I didn’t; so I certainly had no reason to resist the nice older guy who wanted to take care of me and act like my dad, nor did I correct him when I said I liked girls and he thought I meant in a freaky way and got hard imagining a benefit to him, so we had sex and didn’t use protection, which didn’t not cause babies; then, for seventeen years, I didn’t leave but I also didn’t stay faithful and I didn’t tell the truth and I didn’t ever ever stop thinking about girls, which must’ve been a little obvious because a woman at my office confessed her love and although I didn’t believe her, she persisted for so long that when she finally asked me to marry her, I didn’t say no.
Lisa Sheldon (she/her) was born in the UK and travelled around with her military family until finally settling in Louisville, Kentucky, where she now lives with her partner-turned-wife of 15 years. Together, they’re moms to four unique young women and one food-obsessed beagle. When not working or writing, Lisa enjoys music festivals, hiking, cooking, crochet, and reading queer poetry. As an emerging writer, her dream voice would land somewhere between David Sedaris and Kay Ryan.