On "One of These Things Is Not Like the Other" by Stephanie Johnson (480 words) ***

Here's a story of loss and the manner in which it can affect seemingly disconnected people. I've never experienced something quite akin to this, but I have experienced the loss of a friend who was still alive, and that--that breakup--can be in some ways more haunting than a death. You think on failures, on what-ifs, on how maybe something you'd done differently might have salvaged what was there. People who have children abducted and then never know the final result; spouses who lose spouses to the MIA list in war--these is the themes of this story. Read it here at Wigleaf.