*a story fragment* Grey clouds lowered the sky in the early noon hour. The sun had made a brief appearance when the boat first touched water. Its presence for most of the six hour paddle had been mostly an idea, a notion of something ethereal which kept the darkness at bay. The clouds steadily lowered, Continue reading

*a story fragment* In the first millisecond after the blade penetrated, the body of John Woodworm began to respond. Myriad electrical impulses raced along diverse axons, crossed ganglia, converged at the spinal nerves, and carried the stimulus upward. Faster than conscious thought, impulses reached his brain. Something was terribly wrong, they said. His abdomen was Continue reading

*a story fragment* One rainy evening everything changed. In an instant, a blink of an eye, nothing was the same. Not unexpected, I admit. After all, living is quite different from not living. Nothing, though, can truly prepare you for the actuality of not living. You cannot know the vast difference between being alive and Continue reading

*a story fragment* In the heat of mid-summer, the heart of the sunny season, Sandy became pregnant. Sam was involved, in the usual way. Sandy and Sam didn’t plan it; they didn’t prevent it. And at the time, they didn’t regret it. Regret came later. Regret eventually arrived, huffing and steaming, belching forth smoke and Continue reading

*a story fragment* FitzHugh RedAlpha knew he would create a negative ion space when he crossed the border; his ionic structure wasn’t registered. The Structure didn’t like ionic anonymity, but he and his fellow Hughs accepted the risks. Fitz took pains to keep his identity, his mere existence, unknown to the Structure despite the restrictions Continue reading