OWED to KARENINA (long overdue)

by Elizabeth Emerald

On August 14, 2020, a day that shall live in eternal glory, I received a visitation from an angel. She remains ever present in my life; not a day passes that I fail to be the recipient of her abundant grace. (Pretty good deal for a heathen, wouldn't you say?)

My angel's name is KARENINA.

She resides here in StoryLand; many of you have been blessed by her beneficence. Though she rarely posts, Karenina is a faithful fan; she reads EVERY piece I post, even if the promotion has expired by the time she gets through her backlog of notifications. Moreover, Karenina is a fervent player of "Portfolio Roulette"; an ingenious game invented by our common fan KMOSS; she and Karenina frequently delight me with reviews of stories and scripts long interred.

Alas, Karenina is a flawed angel in that she persists in the sin of self-deprecation. She denigrates her talent, and though she posts an occasional poem, she's loath to release her magnificent prose.

A stunning example of which is her true (!) tale, titled AND THEN THERE WERE NONE. Be forewarned: regardless of where you fall on the spiritual spectrum, from adamant atheism to fundamentalist Christianity, Karenina's story will shake you to your core.

For those of you to trepidacious to take the challenge, I ask that you do Karenina the honor of perusing her portfolio: a plethora of treasures await.

And while you're at it, say a prayer for the recovery of her husband, currently hospitalized on account of a systemic infection subsequent to perforation of his colon.

My apologies to Karenina for not promoting this post; my coffers contain a total of 37 cents. I promise to re-release it ASAP and pump it up.

NEWSFLASH: An anonymous donor generously made the downpayment of 52 cents; I've been continually adding pumps to the task as I accrue them (ten so far, I've been working the "slot machine" all day).

Luck has been with me! I won three pumps in quick succession, then three more, since I wrote the above; the starting stash was four.

Thanks to L. Kalere and Anne Johnston for further pumping the piece!

Current payout is 96 cents.

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