Stories

Youth passes by alarmingly, and for most people, the simple days of childlike wonder are a flood of nostalgia. At a certain age, we all reflect back on our growing up experiences and wish for some of the good old times... this is some of mine, but many can relate as the desire to be young again, sometimes, is one and it's own.

This is a collection of stories I wrote based on various prompts.

Back in the spotlight at last, Jasper and Ryan's lives are about to turn into the most exciting chaos imaginable. As if life wasn't complicated enough with tours and media, they are about to hit the next stage, marriage and parenthood! For most people, this is a challenge without the added pressure of constant public scrutiny and travelling around the globe. What's in store for our favourite ship in the new adventure?

Kendall, at 25, puts all his cards on the table and walks away from his best friend, Michael. Being a cop hasn't prepared Michael for the hit he takes. Is there a way back for these two?

Miles Standifer is due to graduate in less than 24 hours. He stops by the campus library shortly before closing to return a book he borrowed months ago. While there he sees the professor he's been crushing on since sophomore year. He works up the nerve to finally approach him, but when he goes to open his mouth, he cannot speak. Neither can the professor. No one inside the library can speak. When Miles goes to leave, he finds all of the doors locked. Oh, and there's a dead body in one of the study rooms. And the promise of more death before the end of the night.

“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.

In the perilous journey toward adulthood, Valentín Gómez hasn't quite found his north. He's not much of a cartographer, but he and his boyfriend are still going to try their luck at map-making. Growing up is hard, isn't it?

~~~~

The North Down South is a series of vignettes serving as a sequel to Southward.

The future needs yesterday's fallen.

A Hammerhead Universe Story

Thiago Zeca Baravento, the son of an American woman and a first generation Brazilian father, rises above the expectations of many for a black man born and raised in the predominantly minority Washington, D.C. neighborhood of Anacostia. After graduating from Howard University with a doctorate in pharmacology, and looking to provide his son Fabricio with a good life, Thiago leaves the District of Columbia, promising to one day return to his hometown.