A Stroudsburg Story (pt. 3)

By Elissa Greenwald

Jeanette hadn’t been to group therapy for four months, Kelly realized when she did her quarterly review of patients’ records. The young woman was so quiet in their sessions that Kelly hadn’t realized how many Jeanette missed. Kelly had worried about her ever since Jeanette called to tell her she was in the hospital with a rattlesnake bite. She felt guilty since, against regulations, she had driven Jeanette to the trailhead. She offered to visit her in the hospital but Jeanette said…

A Stroudsburg Story (pt. 2)

By Elissa Greenwald

Sunlight flashed in Kelly’s eyes as she drove home. The bright light reminded her of the summer.  She thought back to how she had met Carl.

It was the first time she had placed a personal ad in the Pocono Record, after answering ads led to a miserable series of dates from which

A Stroudsburg Story (pt. 1)

By Elissa Greenwald

Eight years after Jeanette Gustavson left her native Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, she returned to the familiar streets lined with three story brick buildings. Jeanette had planned never to return. Yet here she was, outside the second-floor clinic on North Seventh Street on a windy winter evening, hand shaking as she vaped. She stood under the streetlamp on the deserted street, waiting in the midst of a pandemic for her appointment with a drug rehabilitation counselor.