. . . cart  cart  cart  cart   wheel  wheel  wheel  wheel   BOUNCE  BOUNCE  BOUNCE  BOUNCE . . .

home

 

The Ups and Downs of Skeeter Kitefly

a novel by P. S. Ehrlich

Click here to download the Split Infinitive Edition of The Ups and Downs of Skeeter Kitefly

and here for the Titles to the webchapter version
 

New What's

Skeeter Kitefly Index

  PART THREE:  WINDOHWA 
 

The Ups and Downs of Skeeter Kitefly

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
 

Skeeter Kitefly's Sugardaddy Confessor

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

_______________

Skeeter Kitefly's
Titular Assets

COMPACTIFICATION
behind the scenes


RoBynne O'Ring's
GRUNTS OF
PASSION

_______________


TO BE HONEST

FINE LINEAGE

13 BLACK CATS
UNDER A LADDER

BOLSTER,
NOT MOLEST HER

MARAT À LA MODE

BAGELANNA

OLD LITTER

_______________


About the Author

Contact the Author

Characters

Book Covers

Skeeterography

Etc.ography

Site Map

Links

_______________

Last Updated

March 20, 2010

Her carefree merry-go-round having
broken down, the bewildered Skeeter
seeks comfort in solitaire and
overeating.

...For many nights afterward she would have a dream, this really weird dream of going to bed and almost to sleep before the bed rolled
forward like a dresser drawer being opened, and a goddam spotlight came shining right in her eyes which wouldn’t close or even blink—and there were her folks, staring down at her from either side, all aghast.  Jeez quit it she’d try to say, you’re acting as though I’m DEAD—

Click here to read "Really Weird Dreams"
(webchapter version)

and here to read "Really Weird Dreams"
as it appeared in October Moon
 

Returning to college in search of the
answer to What-For, Skeeter finds only
botherment from ne'er-do-wells.

...Third time’s the charm (they say) and this was, let’s see, yes: the third time in Skeeter’s short life that her highfalutin derring-do had flamed out on her.  Gone into a tailspin, a SHWEEEEE-OOOOP nosedive, aiming to auger in at Mach 1+ and not with any whizbang but a stumblebummy whimper.  So where’s the charm?...

Click here to read "Near Dowels"
(webchapter version)

An excerpt from "Near Dowels" appeared in the printmag
Lynx Eye
 

18—Otherwise

Skeeter spends New Year's Eve '82
alone with her cat, a bottle of tequila,
a ceiling ready to leak, and dismal dim
reflections.
 

...See Kelly Rebecca as she must have been originally envisioned, conceived on a vast Amazonian scale, with proportionate appetites
and capacities: a great big amazing colossal girl!  See her the child of scrunchdown by Jolly Dame Nature, abridged and condensed into a
little ole bitty Skeeter-type doll: the compact version that could get high on an Eskimo pie, for awhile...

Click here to read "Otherwise"
(webchapter version)

and here to read "Otherwise" as it appeared in
The Fiction Warehouse

"Skeeter with Castanets On"
(a poeticized excerpt from "Otherwise")
appeared in the printmag Culebra!
and was nominated for the 1993 Pushcart Prize:
click here to read it
 

Working harder than ever before,
Skeeter struggles to break out of her
tailspin—going so far as to cross the
ocean on a ship full of hungry
missionaries.
 

...Her first impulse was to take off immediately, at once, for Nowhere
or Anywhere; but that was Sadie’s way out and Skeeter was wise to its dead ends.  No: another coop-flying might be due, but this time there could be no lidflipping involved.  She’d have to plan things out in advance, keep both feet firmly on the ground—act very grownup,
in fact, if she truly hoped to stand a chance...

Click here to read "Taking Avail"
(webchapter version)

and here to read "Taking Avail"
as it appeared in Unlikely Stories
 

After some premeditated maneuvering,
Skeeter gets a New Wave mentor in
the makeover-minded RoBynne O'Ring.
 

...Where and when and how to shop for a nouvelle image: to begin with, you aVOIDed the malls—hanging out there was for like high school sophomores, y’know, soooo immature.  No, Skeeter’d done the right thing by hitting on thrift stores, and some of the stuff she’d bagged there might be salvageable; but RoBynne knew lots wickeder places...

Click here to read "Ring Around with RoBynne"
(webchapter version)

and here to read "Ring Around with RoBynne"
as it appeared in Ten Thousand Monkeys
 

Even surrounded by her nearest and
dearest, Skeeter still feels trapped in a
constant loop-the-loop reel-to-reel
Slinky spiral.
 

...The sun was setting now, right in her eyes, like that goddam spotlight
in the dresser-drawer nightmare.  Seen through Skeeter’s wraparound shades it began to strobe and whirligig—to flashdance, in fact.  “What a feeling!”  “A girl’s gotta keep believing.”  How conveniently easy that would be if you too could weld by day and BoogaBloo by night, and have a wealthy (yet handsome) steel-mill owner waiting for you at
The End with a bunch of goddam flowers...

Click here to read "Kitefly in the Ointment"
(webchapter version)

and here to read "Kitefly in the Ointment"
as it appeared in The Shadowshow
 

Sliding sockfooted down a fresh-waxed
corridor, Skeeter bowls over a tall bald
man whose shrouded observation
makes her think about Death ...
and Life.
 

“...I mean you’re straight and single and kind of rich and not bad looking and have these really Byzantine eyes and that really smooth scalp and obviously adore being ridden down waxed floors by knockdown-gorgeous women—”
  “You’re right about the knockdown part, anyway.”
  “Well then,” said Skeeter, “wouldn’t you love to be my sugardaddy?...”

Click here to read "Merely SAD"
(webchapter version)