Compartmental Lives

a collection

Compartment 1:      A Frigid Heart

Compartment 2:     An Angry Woman

Compartment 3:     A Folly of Regret

Compartment 4:     The Inertia of Fear

Compartment 5:     A Sharpened Blade

​

Beginning August 2020

 

Every woman has a story.

 

Cooper Ross: Writer, an early victim of the AIDS epidemic. His Living Will summons five women.

 

Mary-Jane: haunted by their failed relationship and her selfish act done in the shadow of Roe vs. Wade.

Freddy: a fellow writer tormented by her weight. Their last meeting set her on the perilous road to a heart attack. Freddy survived, but her spirit and desire to write are lost.

Wilma: Cooper – her great love, watching him die is too much to bear. Their miscegenational relationship bore them a son; who is the victim of retaliation for her politics.

Jemma: Cooper infected her late brother Clarence; he took his life so the disease couldn’t. In Jemma’s opinion, Cooper’s a murderer. Reluctantly she nurses Cooper in his final days.

Kayla: Cooper’s cousin, she has changed much over the years. As Cooper succumbs to the disease, Kayla questions the choices she’s made and needs to make.

 

Five women: their task; hasten death or let Cooper suffer as they have suffered.