“Nicole, where are you?” Tara called out as I heard her come through the front door. I didn’t move as I watched Supernatural on the outside TV on the back porch. Cass was kicking some butts when Tara said behind me, “What is that smell?” “Maybe the bowl of cereal from last night,” I said as Cass killed a demon. “What are you here for?” I asked as I reached for some chocolate covered raisins. “I came to check on you, when...
It wasn’t exactly a festive Saturday evening for Ben and Ellen Garner. He needed to pick up medicine for his wife, who was suffering from a nasty cough, fever, and runny nose. Ben wasn’t feeling so hot either. The couple, originally from sticky, humid South Florida, recently moved to the cool, rural confines of Wakefield, North Carolina, an hour’s drive east of Asheville. Apparently all that fresh mountain air wasn’t agre...
I moved in the house I am renting on March 1 of this year. My furniture was all in storage, from when I lost my house two years ago, so I bought an air mattress and a sleeping bag to use until I could get my stuff moved in. This weekend being the end of August, I decided it was finally time to get my mattress. The air mattress was beginning to feel a little too impermanent, and besides, it has developed a leak, which I ca...
The sadness in her eyes,Tell a thousand stories,Of a million lies.The hurt that she felt,That woman so weary,Doesn't show however hard you look.As she washes her hands the water runs clean,Though after all the deceit that she has befallen,It amazes.She only buys singles in stations,Because she never wants to go back,Back to where she's been.The station woman stands,Her headscarf and dark, dark clothes,Allow her and her be...
Maybe I’m more sensitive about cockroaches than most other people because I was eighteen, in the army, before I ever saw one. I was working in the mess hall and I went to the broom closet to get a mop when the little monster chased me out. In Montana, only Deer Lodge Penitentiary has roaches, and there’s this guard that collects them and shellackes them to boards in posed courtroom scenes, fishing and hunting scenes, etc....
When she'd first arrived, the Valley was beautiful. It was Summer and everywhere glowed and baked and sung. The leaves on the trees blanced to white and yellow, the grapevines sagged to the soil, heavy with juice. Surfers rolled in from the coast with the tastes of salt and hot chips and Coca-Cola, and couples flowed through for wine tastings and kangaroo dinners, the shops closed at four, children rode their bikes throug...
