The Smothering Mother

by Angela Carlton

She calls 1-2-3-4-5-6 times daily. Your mother’s impatient, demanding, living among the elderly. There’s problems Monday, Thursday, days in between. The phone keeps ringing-ringing-ringing. The piercing sound is like blasting sirens in your ears before a wheezing cough develops deep inside your lungs. And you can’t breathe...you can’t breathe-breathe under the smothering mother.

6S

Angela Carlton's fiction has been published in Every Writer, Everyday Fiction, Pedestal Magazine, 6S, 50-Word Stories, Spillwords Press and Friday Flash Fiction. In 2022, “A Jigsaw Life,” a collection of stories was released. In 2023, her story “Swallowed,” was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. See more on Facebook.