First published at Pure Slush 9 March 2016  |  This one is short and sweet, and took me to an unexpected action by the time I was through writing it.  I was workshopping my novel in Manhattan this past summer, and on the way up W 8th I got a text from an ancient phone number that was still in my contacts.  A superficial, back-stabby co-worker from years ago.  She wanted to get something off her chest. Ugh. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to respond, because it stirred up such a brace of bad memories.

So of course I asked my workshop about it, and they said it sounded like a story.  My workshop, my friends, my husband, all counseled me to ignore that woman and let her sort out her own problems and leave me out of it.  “She wants to apologize for herself, not for you,” “what is she, twelve-stepping?” and etc.

So that very same day in the 30 x 30 Workshop at Eckleburg with Christopher DeWan, the prompt was:  7 Deadly Sins.  Mmmm. Pride.  I wrote about hamartia, because who am I to stop someone from saying they are sorry.  We all have our flaws.  When I named her Hamartia (Marty) I started thinking about hubris.  I don’t want to be an overweening, self-righteous person.  We all need to keep moving through life.

Anyway, has a bully from your past ever tried to make amends?  Feel free to share in the comments.  And if you’ve got a minute, tell me what you think of Hamartia Lippincott.  Should she have returned that call?  Thanks to Matt Potter at Pure Slush for accepting this story to his “Suit-“themed call.  This is my second story published with Pure Slush, and I’m so grateful.

Thank you for reading!!  Please meet Hamartia Lippincott.