On July 4, 2020, US troops entered zone 4 on the east coast. Burial of bodies was impossible due to volume, so pits were constructed and mass burnings began.When the Great Wave of 2020 crashed, residents were told to leave any messages in sealed bags attached to the mailboxes of homes. These documents were sent... Continue Reading →
Pickles
Rosylnn considered the jar sitting on her cluttered kitchen counter.“Mrs. Koldmeyer’s Specialty Dills,” the label read. The box and its packing materials lay scattered about on floor and counter and on Roslynn’s lap. Her hand shook as she opened the gift card. “Dear Ros, just wanted to reach out on our ‘anniversary’—ha ha! Family is... Continue Reading →
Bloodbath
Don’t go down there......the dream came again on the night before laundry day. Over and over and over again....Don’t go down there. Phillip quietly got out of bed trying not to disturb Solomon, who had worked the closing shift at Perry’s Bar and Grill the night before. He paused to look at the forehead of... Continue Reading →
THE WICKER BASKET
3:11 p.m.
She looked up towards the window from her seated position on the floor to see the branches from the live oak tap tapping in a frenzied dance against the panes.
3:11 p.m.
The house was silent now. On the first floor of the now almost empty cottage, all the possessions she had collected throughout her life lay in neatly sealed cardboard boxes.
3:12 p.m.
She began to breathe again as she watched the clock turn from 11 to 12. The wind whispered and ticked and at times screamed beyond the window.
She reached for the small, squat glass on the floor beside her: vodka and water, carefully measured so that she could drink all day long. This had become necessary after her father’s illness.
She shuddered at the memory of the room downstairs, the room where she had brought him to die. It had seemed like such a…
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THE WICKER BASKET
3:11 p.m. She looked up towards the window from her seated position on the floor to see the branches from the live oak tap tapping in a frenzied dance against the panes. 3:11 p.m. The house was silent now. On the first floor of the now almost empty cottage, all the possessions she had collected... Continue Reading →
On the River of Time….
Early in the morning, I got into my car after a workout and saw that I had forgotten to move my passenger side seat back to its original position. My grandson had visited, and I had shifted it as far possible forward in order to accommodate the car seat in the back. Grandson. As I... Continue Reading →
Route 66, Mariska Hargitay, and Joe Kenda: Reflections on the Death of the Great American Road Trip
Driving across the USA is an exhilarating adventure. There is no better way to rekindle the love of this country than to experience it via epic road trip. The best parts of the adventure, are of course, in the offbeat places you come to stay. Many of those-Tucumcari,NM, Holbrook, AZ, Amarillo, TX--reference Route 66, the... Continue Reading →
Requiem for an Intellectual
The last time I traveled this path, I was just out of grad school. My husband and I decided to go out to Arizona to see his best friend before he took a full time teaching position at a private school. We piled into our white chevy van with his signed teaching contract in the... Continue Reading →
Everything Old is New Again: Jamie Lee Curtis, Halloween, and the Death of Hope
With great enthusiasm, I grabbed guests and headed for a showing of "Halloween." Since learning that Jamie Lee Curtis would star in a new iteration of the franchise had me excited. The supreme court debacle and bizarre permutation of the "Me Too" movement had left me weary and ready to see a woman of age... Continue Reading →
Consider Job: Hurricane Florence and Losing My Religion
"In the land of Uz, there lived a man named Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared G-d and shunned evil." Job 1:1 In Emerald Isle, NC on this Monday, September 24, folks are picking up the pieces of their lives. Emerald Isle is a beach town, but it is also a community... Continue Reading →