Eliana Sanchez

Eliana Sanchez awoke one morning to someone whispering in her ear: “Open your heart, dear. Open your heart.” Startled and curious, she opened her eyes expecting to see the bearer of this unsolicited advice, but found only the darkness of her bedroom. “My goodness,” she muttered. “It’s the middle of the night.” A glance at the glowing face of the clock on her nightstand confirmed it: 3:17! Never one for nocturnal angst and its exhaustive tossings and turnings, Eliana decided she’d been dreaming. She felt carefully for Caroline, her companion of twenty-seven years, and immediately located the familiar bony elbow a few inches from her face. Reassured, she rolled onto her side and drifted back to slumberland. “Open your heart,” she mused. “That’s funny. I hope it doesn’t mean surgery.”
Photo: Pug-nacious pups stand their ground. NY, NY. August 2005.