You said ‘God is cruel’ the way a person who’s lived his whole life in Tahiti might say ‘Snow is cold’. You knew, but you didn’t understand.” Stephen King, Desperation Days such as this exact pressure on a writer. There is pressure to write something poignant and profound, something […]
“Blue heron,” was the first thing he said, and he pointed to a patch of sky to my left. This he had to say twice, as his first attempt was cancelled out by the ear buds I wear whenever I attend this path –– this valiant […]
2:33 am, Saturday morning, and I couldn’t sleep. This happens to me sometimes for mysterious reasons, but tonight was no mystery. I was in pain. It started out as a nuisance pain in my stomach–bad enough to keep me awake, but not severe enough to worry me. […]
It is Christmas Eve! This Christmas is a bit of a benchmark for our family. By the looks of it, this will be the last Christmas your little brother believes in Santa. I say he still believes, but he’s already considering the strong possibility that his parents […]
It’s ten past lunchtime, and I decide to stop for fish & chips. I tell myself it’s healthier than the average fast food fare, even if it is still fried, and I happen to be near a place that is about a nine out of ten on the […]
Suppose you suffered from a pain so long you learned to forget it was there, like a thin needle – too small to see, but too bothersome to ignore – was inserted into your flesh while you were preoccupied, and it remained festering for years. What would it […]
“Dad?” little Isaac says. A pair of ducks float lazily on the surface of the urban lake behind him. He embraces a half gallon jug of murky water, much of which has splashed onto his chest, soaking the front of his shirt, as he’s wrangled it for half […]
Today is my fortieth birthday. Apparently, this is something of a benchmark. I’m fortunate to have a couple undisturbed hours to craft a fortieth birthday gift for myself. This is a small slice of life that’s rattled in the back of my head for awhile now. Like the narrator, […]
You turn ten today. I vividly recall last year when you turned nine, I suffered several days with anxiety over the fact that you were merely a year from hitting double digits. I have a visceral aversion to calendars and dates – systems that serve […]
My first “published” story was written during the second grade. The story was titled The Brick Monster, and my teacher thought it worthy of submission to the state young authors competition. Weeks later, I found myself in a stark room – a classroom for grown […]
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