In retirement, you’re supposed to do those things you’ve always wanted to do.  Whether I like it or not, money, at least for me, is no longer a factor.  Even with money out of the picture, it’s not that easy.  Just yesterday my agent said to me, “I always knew I was destined to accomplish […]

So, they’re all just sitting there. Looking into the camera. She – Lisa – has that smile I know so well. But that’s only because we have history. Not to be too pragmatic, or over-zealous, or somehow say that there was real-life no-shit chemistry, because there wasn’t. To say that wouldn’t be the truth. But […]

The clean-shaven man entered the church after the sermon had already begun. He took a seat next to an elderly woman in pink tweed, clutching her own underlined Bible with one hand while fingering her wooden rosary with the other. She looked over at the man with contempt as he sat down. He gave the […]

Looking back on his life, Michael could see the mistakes that led him to the street, but knowing them did nothing to change his fate. The world was a hard, cold place, nothing but concrete and glass. Living things struggled for space to breathe, to stretch their arms toward each other, to feel that connection […]

“We’re lost.” “What are you talking about?”  It was dangerous to be lost in the sub-arctic wilderness, especially in winter. “You and I aren’t where we should be.” We found the beaver trap.”  Albert tried to keep the panic out of his voice.  “You told me Indians don’t get lost.” Fred smiled.  “Well, maybe sometimes…  […]

He knocked briskly on the door, hoping it conveyed his irritation. That damn leak was making a mess in his condo and he wanted it fixed. He knew he shouldn’t get so upset over a leaking pipe which could be quickly repaired; but the events of the last few years had changed him and he […]

Mark was going out the door with his baseball mitt when she asked, “How’d you like to see The Magic Spot? You know, the place that’s advertised on that big billboard with lots of question marks?” “Sure!” He pounded his fist in his glove. “When?” Jenny looked up from her Nancy Drew activity book and […]

His anger was everywhere, fed by a spring, deep and paradoxically hot. Avvocato Tapinella had been for years somewhat of a joke in the Calabrian town of Nocera Terinese, known as the good-natured lawyer who could be counted on to lose any case entrusted to him. Until . . . His two-year-old son had developed […]

There were almost as many opinions about David Morgan as there were people in Richfield. Not enough to fix some median that would reveal how average he actually was, yet enough to be bounded by extremes. To Earl Blackwood he was “…that string bean kid what couldn’t fight his way out of a wet paper […]

I took a moment to peer out the hotel window, opening it an inch so that we could hear the turbulent rain. There were no people. The area was like an evacuation. They were all firmly inside their dwellings, waiting and watching nature for what it had in store. There was a long line of […]

Vern Harmon’s pipe had been carved from blood-red soapstone by a Missouri River Mandan. To Beth it was a menacing totem. When spring squabbled with winter on the Cumberland Plateau she’d wait for the siren winds. It was then that her husband would take the pipe from its beaded case. He’d just sit quietly and […]

At ten minutes before ten o’clock on a morning absent of fog, a worn-out, wood-sided cottage began rolling down from close to Russian Hill’s top. The uncommon sight of a house moving down the street stopped the tourists who’d just stepped off the cable car. They leaned forward, their rectangular digital cameras raised, though they […]

Felix scanned the room for a response. I knew he wanted me to look up. He was perched on the edge of a table, his legs stretched out in front of him, his body twisted discreetly in my direction. I added trees and two stick figures to my doodle of a house. Felix re-phrased his […]