He was on his way to pick grapes; traveling ‘cross America on a Greyhound; came from Ecuador, Guatemala, some place in Latin America. He couldn’t speak English. Words were broken in two. Used a lot of hand gestures. I could tell he was going North to the vineyards. Tons of em go to the wineries […]
He told the officer he never saw him coming. Said he darted out in front of his car before he slammed on the brakes. He was chasin’ some ball I guess. Just ran out there in the middle of the street. Never saw him, his hands shook as he tried to light his cigarette. Do […]
She was cold; got up to turn the furnace on; went back to bed where her husband was wide awake; couldn’t sleep; bad dreams kept him up. They both pulled and yanked at the covers; naked underneath them; they’d made love before falling asleep. Something they hadn’t done in quite some time. It felt almost […]
Highway 41 was slick; rain, sleet, snow; cold temperature; so much for weather reports. He stopped at a motel in Morocco, Indiana; up in the northwest section of the state; south of Gary in Lake County; dead cornfields; yellowed by the winds and seasons; bedbugs made him itch. The old man couldn’t sleep. A hollow […]
I’ve become that old man. The one that sits in coffee shops talking to himself. Stirring a drink with a silver spoon. Looking at youth. Thinking of younger days. People look as I mumble. I was once skinny too.
He asked her what she wanted? Told her he’d give her anything. She just shook her head and took a sip of coffee. The young lady didn’t say a word. Instead she just sat there. In silence. He felt like he was talking to himself. Saying words out loud. Asked her if she wanted more […]
He followed along the path lined with pines, sycamores, oak, cedars. Off in the distance the smell of cherry wood burning on a campfire. White smoke made it’s way through the forest where birds, crows, hawks, cardinals, flew over the tops of these trees, high in the sky, making their way down South for winter […]
A full moon always scared him. Full and white, shiny, glowing behind clouds that crossed it’s path. He’d look up at it in the early morning hours with his binoculars in the backyard. Just stand there in the wet October dew looking at the moon and thinking, The end of the world is soon. The […]
She’d stay up all night looking at magazines; Vanity Fair, Glamour, Cosmopolitan. The middle aged lady didn’t read any of the articles, she just looked at the pictures; some in color, others in black and white. All of em models and famous people; she liked the ads the most. Took her off to another world. […]
He was approaching Chicago from 30 in Merrillville. Soon the old man would be on 80. Then The Skyway taking him into the heart of the city. Leaving Gary, Blue Island, the Southside behind. Skin and Bones was heading North. Goin’ back to his Lakeview neighborhood of old. Back to the old bars and joints […]
