grab and go
Pulling in the driveway, I'm relieved to find Walter's Buick in its place. I shouldn't be. I have the key, but something about seeing the old car sitting there when I get home, where I parked it two years ago, it gives me hope. Control. Then I see that the door is wide open, along... Continue Reading →
Writing came easy. Before the deal. When it was just me nothing had to be perfect. Now it haunts me to the letter. I write handcuffed, knowing a deadline lurks. Editors loom. My family persists. So I’m left with nothing. I close my laptop. This isn’t working. My little office. My old town. What was I thinking? That... Continue Reading →
It was hard to believe I was actually making a move and not letting life trample over me. That instead of retreating farther into my couch with a pile of romance novels and sappy movies I was hopping on a cruise ship to meander through the Caribbean. Gary was Gary and he wasn’t going to change.... Continue Reading →
Ren and Chuck weren’t Mormons. Not as they walked along the sidewalk in short-sleeved button downs and black slacks in the thick of summer. Not with their trimmed haircuts, or Ren with his black Buddy Holly glasses and shoulder strap bag. Not as they carried stolen bibles Ren had lifted from a hotel room. Not... Continue Reading →
Cliff checked his phone, saw nothing of interest, then tossed it to the seat. He wiped his forehead and got on his way, only vaguely aware of the warbled Christmas carols blasting from the single horn fastened to the top of the van. The music—holiday tunes because his boss got a deal on the music box—took some... Continue Reading →
I’m bad about returning stuff. Sure, the borrowing? Not a problem. But once it enters my apartment, well, it's good as gone. Such was the case with Humble Rhodes, a 789 page thumper of a biography about the first ever transsexual, double amputee, head transplant recipient to receive the Rhodes Scholarship. Don’t ask, if it’s on the New... Continue Reading →
I never would have called, but I was desperate. And I never would have come out and said those things to Pike’s girl on the phone, but her voice in my hand, so close to my head. I pictured her full lips brushing against my ear. I remembered how she smiled at me that time I'd... Continue Reading →
Anniversary with the missus in Rome. The sights, the sounds, the food. The escape from all the crazies taking over our small town in Georgia. We boarded and took our seats. I'd just lit a smoke to calm my nerves when these kids hopped on--most of them colored, ducking their heads as they came aboard, louder... Continue Reading →
I wake up alone on Maintenance Day. Blinking like crazy at that thin blue slash in the corner of my eye. It’s spooky quiet out and the prompt just sits there—so I just sit there, lost in the haunt of my living space. It's kind of driving me crazy. I sit up and wipe my... Continue Reading →
After I got things situated, I stood and worked to wrestle open the bay door to the garage. I hardly ever opened except on super-hot days. Mostly I just used the little door to the side. Hmm. Maybe six feet wide. Ten feet deep. Plenty of space for what I’d found. But I’d have to... Continue Reading →
Lunch Break Fiction 