Photo by senivpetro Pixel.Com
by Louella Lester
I chose a different roof each day because I wanted to limit the risk of getting caught. I never did anything with the info I collected watching the world through binoculars, but I was short for a 16 year old and with each secret I grew a bit. A prim lady picking her nose at a red light— I gained a quarter inch. My catechism teacher holding hands on the car seat with a man, not his wife— two inches. A snotty neighbour meeting with her dealer on a street corner, her toddler on her hip— another two inches at least. Then one evening I saw my Dad, who had left us three years before, with a baby in a car seat— I returned to my usual height before I even made it down to the ground.
Louella Lester is a writer/photographer in Winnipeg, Canada, author of Glass Bricks (At Bay Press 2021), contributing editor at New Flash Fiction Review, and is included in Best Microfiction 2024. Her writing/photos appear in variety of journals/anthologies.
