You’re sitting at your desk, grading test you should have passed out today in class like you had promised your students, but you’d decided to watch hockey the night before and leave the work for later. Now it’s later and here you are, still awake at almost midnight, and trying to get these grades... Continue Reading →
I was at a party talking with some people I didn’t know, and in this group was a woman that I was very attracted to. I kept looking at her, but when our eyes met she’d frown, and I could almost hear her saying, “Don’t even think of hitting on me!” Even so, I tried to make... Continue Reading →
When I met Dorothy in the dayroom, I did my best to hide my astonishment. To put it mildly, she’d changed. Her cheeks were jowly now. The skin on her face was made up of rosy patches surrounded by doughy blanched patches. Red spindly veins stitched these patches together. Her mouth was reduced to a... Continue Reading →
The smell of pizza battles the odor of nail polish remover for the room. It's what has become our regular Friday night with a half-eaten box of delivery pizza sitting on the coffee table next to watered-down cola's and my wife's feet. She has twisted and woven Kleenex tissue between her toes. What looks like... Continue Reading →
Church Choir Willie was a master of the profane. His vocabulary was limited and thus the words that he used were few but they were, nonetheless, expressive. Quite expressive. He could singe the bark off a lodge pole pine and be into the wood grain before he finished the sentence. Only Nellie the Pig could... Continue Reading →
It’s 3 a.m. Another day of guilt. Another night of restlessness. I’m lying in bed while your story keeps me awake. It started when I heard you had the virus, and that you might not recover. I felt sorry that your life would be passing any moment, tragically, much sooner than we all expected. Tossing... Continue Reading →
Tim Troval watched through his living room window as the St. Patrick's Day parade marched down his block. After grinding his teeth at a pile of returned to sender letters to the Mayor's office, Tim shut the curtains. Even though the booze was outside, he could smell it in the deepest parts of his nostrils. ... Continue Reading →
Steam shot out of the radiator as Julian loosened the cap. He stepped back from the car and wiped sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. The hot wind battered him with dirt and pieces of prairie grass. He licked his parched lips and kicked at the rust-colored dirt road with the... Continue Reading →
'I love that you’re concerned for me, Daddy, but I'm a big girl now,and all grown up, so you can stop fussing.' She is standing resolute and determined, although still protecting herknee. It’s times such as these that all the father in me sees is thechild of old. From a time before the pain. She’s... Continue Reading →
“JERRY!” Marsha screamed out of the front kitchen window. She thought it would be best for dramatics given the sharp angling of the shutters. She realized smugly that her choice was correct, thank you very much, when her husband of forty years turned from his tractor seat to flip her the bird. “Marsha, for crying... Continue Reading →
