The Fool Stepping off the gravel path onto the grass, I stop to let my eyes take in the trees draped in vines all around me. Pedro, my youngest grandchild, takes my hand and helps me hobble over to a small stone bench, almost hidden under...
My name is Darren Johnson. I’m thirty-four years old. I have wavy black hair, blue eyes, a shaven face, and no distinct details that would separate me from the crowd. I work the night shift at a large office building doing housekeeping. The small paychecks...
“… It is hope, not despair, that undoes us all…” -- Jennifer Donnely *** BZZZZZ Try having that sound wake you up. The way the metal screeches as it spins. Try having THAT wake you up, and then realize you’re bare-ass naked and restrained to a chair. What would you...
The sun hangs low in the western sky, painting the jungle in shades of pink and lavender. A cacophony of howls rise lending a primeval aura to the trees. The sounds speak to me. Some deep ache mixing with a fervent longing whispers at the...
Early morning mist wraps the Texas highway like a burial shroud. A red BMW emerges from the fog behind us. I hold my breath and squint to see the license plate in the vanity mirror. It’s from Colorado. I breathe out and lean back in my seat. “So...
“Have you come to relieve your burden unto the Lord?” asked the elder priest from behind the blind of the confession booth. Silence hung to answer the offer. Rather than immediately persist, the elder priest decided to let him take his time. For in the...
The gates of hell are open night and day. Smooth the descent, and easy is the way. But to return, and view the cheerful skies, In this the task and mighty labour lies— — Virgil, 70-19 BC Never did I feel more cast down this dark period of my life. Why...
You’ll be told it was an accident. A freak storm that ravaged the Dominican Republic before slamming into us. You might even get to see pictures. Doctored ones showing a menagerie of stragglers being rescued off the coast of the Caymans. That’s if they decide to share anything...
Promise Valley was nestled in the valley below, tucked in quietly at the edge of the Rocky Mountains. As I eased my horse down the rough trail leading to the settlement, the place looked as serene as could be. It made the missive from my...
I had never seen this particular island before. As far as I knew it hadn’t even been inked on any map. I hadn’t been gone too long, nor had I ventured too far; the mainland was still visible in the west. Even a half-blind invalid...
“No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.” John 3:13 CHAPTER 1 Devon, England. October 1991 The Duke’s Head pub had been derelict for two years now; boarded up, condemned; but no one missed it. It had never been a...
Chapter 1: A Chill In The Air Everyone has a moment in life where they claim to have frozen with fear, but unless you have stood in the presence of death, clawing your way out of the grave, the true gravity of that statement alludes you....
Twenty-five years ago, I became the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. Brash, arrogant, cocky and brilliant, I could do no wrong. I prosecuted organized crime figures, brought down corrupt Chicago politicians and started the first anti-terrorist department in the central United...
PART ONE During the second half of the twentieth century, an observation, some called Moore’s Law, spurred the computer industry to double the number of transistors on a computer processing chip every two years. This pace continued unabated during the first third of the twenty-first century....
PART ONE I guess I’ll start with an introduction? My name is Brendon Spirit. Ac...
Our story begins, as so many do, with the approach of an oncoming storm. In the port city of Trondheim, Norway, a city regarded as the nation’s capital of knowledge, a young married couple are sitting in their living room, watching television. Their love and...
It was about this time last year when the first skin washed up on the shores of Lake Bidai. Death on the water was nothing new to Cliff Marten, who oversaw maintenance on the Lake Bidai Dam. It was a reservoir lake, formed back in the...
John began working in my office in late October. He started on a Thursday. He sat at the desk opposite mine, which had been empty since Julia had gone on maternity leave. He turned on the computer and slid his satchel, which had the name ‘John...
Entry 1 I don’t know if any of this is going to get through to anyone. If it does, it’s probably because they wanted it to, in which case, I’m really sorry. Maybe they just don’t even care; maybe it doesn’t matter because there’s nothing we...
“Rain fell on the roofs of the just and the unjust, the saints and the sinners, those who knew peace and those in torment, and tomorrow began at a dark hour.” – Robert R McCammon, “Mine” August 6th, 1982 was a day in Duxbury that no one...
