A young married couple lived in a sod and clay house on the plains. The house was mostly underground. Wide and deep tiled stairs led to a wooden pocket door that was inset with thick colored glass panels. The roof was steep and covered with clay tiles tha...
In a world so small I’m not sure that it really exists, a butterfly was floating along and a bird swept down and ate it. The body went in first, then the wings and the legs. The bird flew away, not seeing Jewel fluttering in the sky, barely a wing span aw...
Last spring I paddled up Joy Creek. The water was high and I couldn't get far.The cathedral arch of green branches whispered.The noon sun sparkled like stained glass. Last summer I paddled up Joy Creek.The water was lower and I pushed under more of the br...
I sat on a pillow on the floor in the tidy apartment. There was a short table loaded with big seedy grapes and tea. My pastor’s wife was from Korea, her husband was an American. She fascinated me. I could tell she was kind and warm, but her face had an ex...
I worked nights, so when I got a night off, I couldn’t sleep. I’d wander around the Ville, Anjeong-ri . I didn’t drink or party, so it was hard to find things to do, and friends. I’d eat at Dave’s Deaf Rest Stop and hang out with the deaf people until lat...
Fort Hood wasn't much different than Iraq had been. I laid awake listening to the war game's machine gun fire and loud explosions. Army helicopters hovered over my house because I lived next to the airfield. I was tired, my back twitched, my room was mugg...
An ample woman and her tubby hubby were nestled on the couch. He was watching football and her eyes were waltzing over the pages of Romeo and Juliet. “Look babe! There I am!” and he pointed to a number on TV that matched the jersey he was wearing...She p...
Phar Seeker was descended from Pharlap, a great race horse. Rupert, her owner, artificially inseminated her with sperm from Secretariat, and she was in labor. The rich racehorse owner and his friends encircled the mare, watching her have contractions. Elo...
The first time I saw Spotty, there were half a dozen kids on her back, and she was walking slowly around in circles. My friend Chris was crying, actually not crying but oozing. He was allergic to horses. He loved to ride, but it turned his face into a puf...
Aaron and Babe were playing matador beside the barn. Aaron was on his hands and knees, pawing the dirt with a hand and snorting. He launched himself at the younger boy, who was holding a dirty flour sack. "Ole!" said Babe as he jumped out of the way. "Do...
“Betcha,” the old man said. “No way. You always win.” said my mom. “Come on, you get Drummer if you win, and I get Sunny if I win,” Lee said. “OK,” Eloise said. Lee won his daughter’s horse. #### Mom and I drove up to the house and my uncle Jim was roachi...
My mom worked for a saddle maker who made a halter, designed for a bull, out of thick leather and heavy D-rings. Sunny was tied to the back of the F100. Mom sized a shoe against Sunny’s foot. She went back in the shop and beat it to the right shape. I was...
I was a second grader. I had a fuzzy white puppy. It was a snarling fist-sized ball of sharp teeth. Three riders trotted in the driveway. My mom rode Sunny, a big golden palomino, up to me. “Do you want to ride him?” she asked. “Yes.” She boosted me up an...
Three girls were sitting in the gap between the roof and wall of a shed, holding barn cats. Pat, the oldest, mouthed “One, two, three,” and they dropped the cats onto the backs of three of the horses that were standing below. This wasn’t random mischief o...
It was growing light in a tiny valley a few miles from the Demilitarized Zone. This valley was the closest thing I had seen to a cemetery in Korea. Happy mounds encircled me on three sides and there was a misty, sacred feel to the place. It seems odd to c...
