Goldberg Variations

Our lives could go in many possible directions.

What if we had taken that turn? Or this other fork in the road; said that one thing; or learned to hold our tongue and so not have to wish we could un-say it.

Meet Anna and Ruth Goldberg, again and again, through many of the possible relationships between these women, mother and daughter.

This set of stories is an experiment in applying the form, often used in music, of a theme and variations, to story. Anna and Ruth act and interact across their lives, and beyond, as they confront who they are and what their relationship is.

Bracketed by the same story, told once from Anna's perspective and then Ruth's, we see thirty glimpses of how these women could interact in a kaleidoscope of different worlds and different situations. Magic; the hard realities of life; death; birth; love; loss; all the way to the city at the end of time itself.

Variations on the theme of relationship between these two Goldbergs.

The stories are available from Amazon, Nook, Smashwords, iBook, and Kobo for $3.79 and local equivalents.

A paperback version will soon be available from CreateSpace.

Below is an example of one of the stories.

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The Woman She Will Become.

"I knew all along this wasn't a good idea," Anna said quietly to herself.

No one would have heard anyway. Ruth, her daughter, was posing for the photographer they'd been working with for over an hour.

Anna watched as the woman with the camera gestured and Ruth followed, laughing.

Then, serious,  Ruth gazed forward, the camera catching the light artfully shading her features.

Anna looked down at the images Jenna, the photographer, had already taken. She swiped her finger across the tablet's screen, looking at one image, then another, then another. Two women, herself and Ruth, her sixteen-year-old daughter. Sometimes together. Sometimes solo pictures.

Aaron's idea. Or Ruth's, but her father, Aaron, couldn't say 'No' to her. Glamor photographs, now that Ruth was leaving girlhood and becoming a young woman.

"I knew all along it wasn't a good idea," Anna said again.

She looked at the photographs, and back to Ruth. The makeup, or rather the makeup artist, had drawn the woman from the girl.

"This is the woman she will become," Anna said. She suddenly felt afraid for her daughter. And proud of her. Such a strong face. Such a beautiful face. But too soon. Too soon.

"I can't protect such a grown woman," Anna thought with something like despair.

She looked at her own photographs. The same miracle had been wrought there, but in reverse.

"This is the woman I once was," Anna said. So long ago now. "I can barely remember her."

Anna turned back to her daughter. The photographer was adjusting Ruth's leather jacket, slipping it off one shoulder and draping her dark hair to one side. Ruth looked at Anna, smiling, and Anna caught sight of the girl who was her daughter, laughing at the excitement of it all.

Then the woman looked out again from behind her daughter's eyes and Anna felt a great gulf open between them.