RichEisbrouch - Stories

The Waldron Police -- Owen, Ike, Elena, Don, Jae, and Rob -- are back, this time following a knife fight that started in a nursing home.

This is a collection of my short non-fiction pieces.

It's mostly lightweight stuff, just written to make you smile or laugh.

This collection parallels that of my short fiction on this site -- Circumstances. Also, pretty lightweight.

Enjoy.

The Waldron police -- Chief Owen Neland, Lt. Ike Omari, Detectives Elena Petrakis and Don Burris, and Sgts. Jae Ryu and Rob Perez -- are on another case. But this time, it's their own

In a small Western Massachusetts former mill town, now part of a larger college circuit, a Chinese-American high school student is suspected of selling drugs simply because he's recently moved from New York City.

The students know about it. The principal knows. The teachers and staff members have heard about it, too.

When one of the school's security guards learns too much, she calls the Waldron police, and Detective Elena Petrakis leads the investigation.

Backing her -- as in Recycle -- are Chief Owen Neland, Senior Detective Don Burris, Lt. Ike Omari, and Sgts. Jae Ryu and Rob Perez, who offer advice and support.

Bodark Creek is a small, former mill town, north of Dallas and close to the Oklahoma border. Starting in 1908, Addy Bronner Braden spends most of her very long life there, surrounded by her large, close family. She loves them, leads them, and depends on them.

There is one gay person in this book – my husband. That makes sense, since the book is based on one half of his family tree. But he only turns up at the very end and as a visitor. And that about defines the relationship between gay people and this part of his family.

Writers make mistakes, especially when writing quickly. Students make mistakes, even when writing slowly. Students writing quickly often make lots of mistakes, and they get unintentionally funny. Here are some of them.

In Germany, it appears there's a whole cult that collects these. In America, we largely have the popular British book Eats Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss. This collection follows both of those.

A friendly caution: A little of these goes a long way, so don't try to read them all at once. They get less funny. Very less funny. Far less funny. Oh so less funny. You were warned.

In a small Western Massachusetts former mill town, now part of a larger college circuit, people -- largely students -- keep getting approached.

They don't bring it on themselves -- or do they?

Police detective Elena Petrakis leads the investigation, while her standbys, Chief Owen Neland, Senior Detective Don Burris, Lt. Ike Omari, and Sgts. Jae Ryu and Rob Perez offer support.

ROGER

It was something of a mystery. One minute, Roger was there, busy as always, and the next, he wasn't.

“The Rashomon Effect” describes an event given contradictory descriptions by each person involved. It describes the unreliability of eyewitnesses. Every element of the story is largely identical, but the dishonest retelling of the events shows each person’s ideal self by lying.

Gay lawyer Ben Carleson – from In The Plan – is back, this time in 1985, near the beginning of his career and soon after he finished law school and passed the California bar exam. But he and Gene De Wijk met over a different kind of bar.

Billy wants a relationship. Badly. And that's just what he gets.

This is a darkly funny Roadrunner cartoon. No matter where it starts, the coyote gets it in the end.

Be careful when you rub part of your body thinking it's a genie lamp.

This was written for a friend of mine, who contributed the first three chapters.