Stories tagged “son”
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Jesus is coming, look busy....
“He’s coming,” said the voice. “Who?” I asked. “Jesus is coming,” said the voice. I chuckled. I should look busy, then? I laughed. That bumper sticker is awesome. “He can’t come back until your father lets him,” said the voice. “Y...
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Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice
I stopped at the top of the stairs uniform on, bags packed. The left wall was covered with pictures of a boy, young and innocent and how he grew to be who he is now. I marched down the stairs but paused at the bottom step to peek my head around the cor...
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Like Father, Not Like Son
“Hey Dan! We have a problem!” Dan looked up from his computer screen, which was constantly flipping through the millions of headgear webcams. “Another one of the regulars? Just do the usual! Five times stronger pain, they black out, w...
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A Shadow Can't be Un-cast
He had gone in tough, knowing he wasn’t. That’s what it took, father had said, not skill as much as size. And not size as much as toughness. Father hadn’t been happy. He had never wanted his son to go like he did. But Danny thought he...
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Quiet Noise, Uncomfortable Unsilence
I used to try convincing him to stay, throwing out signs for friend, swing, play, dirt, and whatever else I thought might or should interest a nine year old. It’s no use though. There’s really no talking to him when he gets like this. The c...
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His Protector
“He went out with her again, she bragged on facebook. She was not careful on purpose, she wrote, when they ‘did it.’” “I saw her come out of the school after her cheerleading practice and waited for her to cross the street...
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Anticipation
Jim and I staggered back to the farmhouse, laughing and brushing dirt and grass off our clothes. The morning had turned to afternoon when we weren’t looking, and the house now held an ominous feeling that had not existed before. Jim didn’t ...
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Hurt and Confusion
“No, Jim, I mean… not no, but that’s not what I meant. I mean, I’m scared, Jim.” I couldn’t find the right words to explain the depth of this confusion, this feeling. “I’m scared, too, Shawna, but I’...
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Missed Beer
He strolled in with a twelve-pack of Heineken under his left arm. He isn’t a big drinker; this seems odd. He sets down the case in the kitchen and gives me a funny look. I can have a beer with my meal. My father stands at 5’5” with his boots on. ...
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Disconnect
Twelve years later, while trying to offer my mom some comfort during the funeral, I think back on that day. Things didn’t go so great between dad and me after I started college, especially when I visited between semesters. I see now what an arrog...
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Forever in a Day
Even as I paid the Ferris wheel operator for the $1 ride, and tugged my petrified 6-year-old son to a seat, I knew my frail body was running out of time. “Will it end soon, Mommy?” The ride lurched and fear flitted across his face, a fear s...
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Sweet Sorrow
Joe stood over his son’s bed. Only the nightlight next to the small bookshelf illuminated the room. “I’m sorry it has to be this way, buddy,” Joe whispered. “I hope that you grow up to be the man I was never able to be....
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All Kinds of Problems at Eight A.M.
If there is one thing that I learned from having kids- it’s always have a backup plan, particularly when it comes to the refrigerator. It doesn’t matter how old they are, everything in there is assumed to be free game. You can put notes on ...
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Realization's Dawn
Every day, a father and his son went onto a nearby hill to watch the sun rise. The child could not understand why he was pulled from under his safe, warm, and comfortable blankets so early in the morning, just to see the light he took for granted appea...
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Room 203
The woman burst into the room, doors swinging violently but silently on their practical and well oiled hinges. Her eyes bled mascara in small traceable rivers of black down her porcelein face. Her eyes were puffy as she searched frantically around the ...
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I love you, unborn son.
Sometimes when I’m in bed, and the only sound is the snoring in my ear, I think too much. I start out with something small, like; Oh my God, I’m having a baby. Okay, that’s not small, but that’s as small as it gets these days. U...
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Trade In
“Mommy, mommy!” Seven kids rushed into the room led by my daughter. Breathless she ran, tiny shoes tapping against the hard wood floor, and threw her arms around me, trembling. “What’s wrong, Nadya?” “I didn’t ...
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Signs and Impossibilities
Roger jumped back. He didn’t think it was possible for someone to sneak up on him in a school hallway. The echoes should have made it all but impossible. Yet someone had snuck up on him. He turned and found himself facing a man who gave an apolog...
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Promise Between Knight and Lady
“Then let it be. I will continue to wonder.” “No. Although I do have to leave. For you, my knight, who does love me so much as to wish to marry: I will leave my son here for you. If you love me, you will take care of him for me as I w...
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World Serpent
I Sleep. Waiting. Under the ocean. Old and scarred and bitter, coiled in the deep and sunless dark. axe-age, sword-age, shields are cleft asunder, wind-age, wolf-age, before the world plunges headlong; no man will spare another Until the day the sky tu...
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Prodigal Son
There are the monsters Called consequence, troubles and pain Sinking their mighty teeth Into your delicious tiny brain Venom numbing your senses Swirling through your veins Your eyes are tunneling black holes Dipping into the grumbling insane I’m t...
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The Bodhi Son
He was found against the Bodhi Tree’s trunk, nestled between roots that radiated outwards like the arms of an organic throne. A beard of many months’ growth curled in his lap. His eyes, piercing blue, were open. The first person to place a ...
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Polished
“I’m bleeding” he said. “I know you are. You owe me another knife.” “It’s in a safe place between my third and forth ribs. You’re the Wishbone Bandit, aren’t you?” “Yes pops, where’...
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Dead Inside
I know why you do it. I know you must hurt inside. I know you feel you can’t stop. I know you feel dead inside. I know you’re an asshole. I know it makes it worse. I know how you hate yourself. I know how you’re dead inside. I know yo...