The Suicide of Hamsters
Carolyn found three on the floor. She lifted the little box where the nest hid. It was empty. The mother huddled in a corner. Before the hamsters were born, Carolyn prepared the nest as the book told her.

Diane Hoover Bechtler lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her husband, Michael Gross who is a poet with a day job and with their cat, Call Me IshMeow. As well as writing short work, she is working on a novel about a likable character who strives against great odds to achieve a worthwhile goal. She has an undergraduate degree in English from Queens University where she graduated summa cum laude and subsequently earned her MFA. She has had short work published in journals such as The Gettysburg Review, Thema Literary Journal, Everyday Fiction, and The Dead Mule, School of Southern Literature.
Carolyn found three on the floor. She lifted the little box where the nest hid. It was empty. The mother huddled in a corner. Before the hamsters were born, Carolyn prepared the nest as the book told her.