Stories

In the wake of losing one of their dearest friends, three men, Bishop, Knight, and Rook, struggle to find their way through the grief. But just when hope feels distant, they encounter their friend's estranged son, sparking a journey that unexpectedly intertwines their lives. This tale explores the depths of love, the sting of loss, and the unyielding strength of the human spirit.

Despite Nicholas Bowman's seemingly peaceful life, he is deeply unhappy. However, everything changes when, during a family vacation, he meets Marcus, an enigmatic young waiter who forever alters his life.

This is book two in the series, 'The Life and Times of Avery Noonan.' It will focus on Avery Junior, although the rest of the family will make appearances.

To refresh your memories, Avery Junior was born in Philadelphia, PA in December of 2030, shortly thereafter acquiring a blue aura. That indicated to his father he would die of a disease of some sort. That fact would play a key role in Junior's life.

Avery Noonan is a man with a unique ability. He sees people’s auras. He not only sees them, but he sees them in different colors. As he ages, he discovers the colors each take on their own meaning. He continues to learn more and more about this ability as his life progresses.

Joshua is living the American Dream, but he knows that his perfect life in the Land of Lincoln is a lie. Things are about to take a major turn, and all it will take is some click bait, a dead president, and an empty bottle of Scotch. A coming out story, and a reflection on mankind's inalienable rights. (Read time: ~ 1 hour)

This story is a prequel and sequel to my previous story, ‘The Boy on the Porch.’ While that was mostly Brendan’s point of view, this will be from the members of the Taft family's perspectives. It will cover things that happened before Nick was kicked out of his house, hit the necessary high points of what was covered in the first story, then continue on with their later lives, expanding on their pieces of the epilogue contained therein. I initially envisioned it to be Nick's story, but quickly determined it would be fairly short, so they all get some attention.

Prentiss was a small-time comedian. This was probably pre-ordained since maybe second grade. His name guaranteed he would need to become a master of quick comebacks. Prentiss Plummer left itself wide open for all manner of pee-pee and plumber jokes. But something happened and he was no longer small-time. Then, after a few weeks of Las Vegas shows, he couldn’t give tickets away. And then, things got weird.

Former policeman Dan and art critic Vaughan’s relationship has an unfortunate start, but second time around they find that life has something different in store for them. Amidst interfering family members and lively friends, their relationship develops. But then Dan’s employer, Francis Heyward starts to take an interest. Heyward is seemingly stupendously rich, a giver of notorious parties and the possessor of an enviable art collection. There’s a question of whether a line should be crossed, and whether Heyward can even be trusted at all.

Prompt #385 –

Brendan Nelson had a tough week at work. He is a Project Manager at a small software company. Nothing went well on his current project. The last delivery to QA (Quality Assurance) was a total failure, the techs couldn't even install it. Add to that, a serious problem in the development of a new feature arose. Finally, on top of that, the customer was screaming about a bug that hadn't been fixed for months, and now it apparently crashed the system. As if things weren't bad at work, he had to come home to a surprise.

A recent college graduate has a painful coming out to his family but gets a surprising response from his father.