Stories

Entrusted by his parents to watch over his twin sister Tessa and her best friend Nikki, Wes Brantley reluctantly agrees to a trip. Scouting colleges in the north east, or really just wanting to see New York. The three hit the road determined to make it to the big city.

What if you were a witness to a crime, but didn't know it? Once the crime is solved, does what you know matter? If you put a period at the end of the sentence, does that give you a final answer?

I tried some of the writing prompts

A Wednesday Brief Holiday Short Story

As Will laments being the only gay guy he knows in farming, he meets a really hot young man who works at his local abattoir. Recent heartbreak and a cute dog conspire to get the pair of them on the same page.

Autobiographical in nature, some chapters told through an attempt at a chiasmus. My thoughts and feelings on life, based upon my own experience.

Reading chapters in order is unnecessary.

One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl and four for a boy.

Five for silver, six for gold, seven for a secret never to be told.

I am sure many of you, like me, learned this children's nursery rhyme about magpies. According to an old superstition, the number of magpies seen predicts whether you will have good or bad luck. Something I came across subsequently, was the existence of many variations on this rhyme, some more sinister than the children’s version.

One of those is incorporated into this short story about boyhood abuse.

Phillip McGinnis has two problems. First of all someone's trying to kill him. His second problem is he can't smell a thing.

When my wife died, I decided to move back to Indiana, to spend more time with my grandson. Noticing that Cliff seemed despondent, I decided that a fall hike in Clifty Falls State Park was just what he needed. Suspecting that he was gay, it turned out he was, but his affect was related to something else entirely. We learned a lot about each other and the path we took turned out to be metaphorical as well.

A short story in five pieces about love, loss and redemption.