“Hey, Joey.”
“Hey, Tommy.”
“What’cha doin’?”
“Runnin’ away.”
Tommy took in the picture for a minute. There was simply no evidence to support Joey’s statement.
“How are you runnin’ away by diggin’ a hole in your back yard?”
“I’m goin’ to China.”
“Oh.” That made better sense.
blacksnake
measures too much
of the tree trunk
The cell door swung out, and Sherdon saw a beautiful young woman standing in the opening.
“Philip? I’m Jana, and I’ll be with you this morning. If you’ll stand up, please?”
She had a pretty smile, but she was not overdoing it. As the jailer handcuffed him behind his back, Sherdon noted that Jana’s dress was both low cut and short, but only pleasantly so, not enough to be titillating. The jailer led Sherdon out of the cell and Jana took over, putting her arm around him.
“It’s sunny and warm out in the yard. That’ll be nice after the cold cell and this hallway.” Continue reading “Fiction: Going Gently”
shrouded moon
illuminates
summer night’s fog
Mayor Harvey Pendleton banged his gavel a dozen more times. “Order! Order! I said, ‘Order!'”
The sanctuary, the largest available room in town other than the saloon, came to something like a hush.
“Now I know everyone’s upset, and I know most of you have never been to a town meetin’ in your lives, but there are rules about how this works. First and foremost is you speak when you’re spoken to and not otherwise. If you want to talk, you raise your hand and wait until I call on you, just like back in school. That’s the only way this can work.”
He cleared his throat and lowered his voice just a little. “Now,” he said, and he paused, thinking of what to say next. “Now. I know that everyone’s still atwitter about what happened last Tuesday. It was a dark day when the Fu Shi Gang came to our town and burned the hotel and shot all those folks. Why, I’d known some of them for years myself.” He cleared his throat again. “It’s hard. Hard losin’ ’em to that rotten rabble of Chinese.”
morning sunlight
small pillow
protects my sleep
“Welcome back. For those of you just joining us, today on NewsTalk 102 we have Sheriff Ralph Tarbridge. I want to turn now to a sensitive topic: this weekend’s Tri-County Rodeo. Sheriff, as our listeners know, the rodeo used to be the biggest event in the tri-county region. In recent years it’s developed a reputation for being the deadliest place to be on Independence Day weekend.”
“That is, unfortunately, true, Keith. There’s been a murder committed at the rodeo each of the past three years. So far, despite the assistance of the FBI, the murders are unsolved.”
Continue reading “Fiction: The Rodeo”
fireworks rise
waxing crescent moon sets
independently
Leaning toward the cat side of Catsignal today, I want to remind everyone to take special care of their pets on this holiday.
The ASPCA has a list of things to keep in mind to protect your companion animals as you celebrate. Make it a happy Independence Day for you and your four-footed friends.
And maybe, just maybe, give a little thought to what the Declaration of Independence says about tyranny and the reasons why we formed our own country.
Did you ever have one of those days where you’ve got a 15-story drop in front of you and a guy with a gun behind you? That’s the kind of day I’m having.
I am not speaking metaphorically. This is where I am and what’s happening to me and I’m relating this to you because, well, I need someone to talk to just now. I’d talk to God … but we have sort of a history. It’s looking more and more likely that we’ll be seeing each other pretty soon and it may not go well. So I’m leaving Him alone for the moment. And you seem nice, so here we are.