… and One to Go
Tom and Marge are almost there. One kid is halfway through college and the other has just vacated the guest room. “You’re not off duty when your kids turn 18,” says Tom. “Not even when they’re out of college. A good friend warned me long ago that 30 is the new cutoff.” Marge is wearing […]
Optimization
“I don’t have the personality to keep asking questions that someone doesn’t want to answer,” Dustin says. “I’m not imposing enough and I don’t like to make other people uncomfortable.” Coupled with a dawning shrinkage of the newspaper industry, Dustin abandoned plans for a journalism career toward the end of college. “I was too far […]
Rocks in their Pockets
They were like the prologue for a coming of age film, an assuring glimpse at how adulthood will frame their childhood adventures. John, with his salted hair, and Perry, with laugh lines softening his eyes, fell into the couch beside mine talking and laughing with the fluid shorthand of longtime friends and the loosened inhibitions […]
Co-Conspirator
Co-Conspirator I’m on a stakeout. Granted, I’m not disguised as a delivery person or hiding behind a newspaper. There are no binoculars or dark shades involved. No two-way radio tucked into my sleeve. Although the excitement tickling my gut might suggest that I’m crouched behind a dumpster aiming a telephoto lens, I’m actually perched on […]
The Society
There are rules, and there are rules. The first kind, we largely agree to be hard fast: stealing is wrong, kindness is good, unhealthy eating creates an unhealthy body, and cutting off someone in traffic fills your rear view mirror with crude hand gestures. The second kind of rules, even italicized in our minds, are […]
Prizes
It’s like a Couples Wonderland in here tonight. Practically every chair in Blu is filled with someone’s better half or, perhaps, better halves to be. Beyond the south wall of floor-to-ceiling windows, a starlit and indigo sky stretches across the view, mirroring the dim hues and flickering candles inside. I take a slow lap around […]
