Free-Floating Stories+

It’s very difficult to recall a past event accurately. It’s even harder with someone who was with us in that time and place. For one thing, there is selective amnesia. As in the case of the ninety-year old man who leaned over and gave his wife a kiss. She looked up and said, “What was … Continue reading Stuck in Our Own Memories

One immigrant’s version of the American Dream that saw this country as a means to make enough money to return to the ‘real world’ of his motherland while pushing one of his sons into upward mobility.   1914, Tyrol Hunkered under the artillery barrage bracketing no-man’s land, Vito didn’t hear the shell before it hit. … Continue reading Vito’s Tale

Some writers write from the seat of their pants, others are plotters. This guy is a ‘pantser’ My buddy said I could stay in his landlocked cabin to work on my story. I needed to do something. I was stalled. Uninspired. And I had heard that great writers, like hermits of old, would have private, … Continue reading Landlocked Cabin

Can you see a longer story coming from any of these? Hilton Head Invite  “I think when you’re kids, you’re less…defined? Then you get older and you start deciding what kind of person you want to be, and it doesn’t always match up with what your friends are turning into.” Tana French I was sipping … Continue reading Three Short Sketches

I spotted Kirsten, finally, in the cafeteria line. She was between two nurses wearing the neonatal uniform of blue scrubs, face masks under their chins, stethoscopes draping their necks. As an aide in the department, Kirsten wore street clothes and a lab coat. I watched her smile and chat for a second with her mother, … Continue reading Moose in the Road

(ROOP-uh-zha) Lithuanian for ‘frog’ and what you might call a person you didn’t like very much…including yourself). Once there was a handsome young man who lived high in the mountains next to a sky-blue lake. Every single day, starting with the first day the ice melted in the Spring until the last leaf fell in … Continue reading Rupuze…a fairy tale

can a husband and wife over-share? Marjorie noticed the white running shoes on a four-year old boy following a man, likely his father, out of the restaurant. In the parking lot, she spotted the same man handing over a car seat from his shiny black Tundra along with the boy to a woman who hugged … Continue reading Novels Are Safer

What if you experienced a medical miracle? I’m sitting on a bench and I feel a tingle on my legs. I rub. It feels good. White stuff like big chunks of dandruff fall around my shoes. Now my back itches—sort of. I rub it against the bench-back. That feels so good. Now my neck. My … Continue reading Nobody Asked Lazarus

an Amish woman creates a stir at Sarasota Beach Clete I heerd they was Amish ‘round Sarasota. Jis’ never thought to see any down on the beach. Like that woman in the purple dress an her curly headed boy—him playin’ with  a football by the water and her jumping up ever couple minutes to drag … Continue reading Ankle Length Rorschach

a sketch about pitching life-markers Jacob watched as her mouth crinkled into a full-lipped pout. He had always liked her lips. They must have given major delight to the men in her life. Maxine. He was never one of the men. Not one of the lip-sharing men, anyhow. He and Max were ‘buds’. Work buddies. … Continue reading Lip Reading