Each year in every small town, the school buses fall silent, the playgrounds surrender to weeds and sparrows, and respectable citizens begin minding business that ain’t theirs. It is a dependable law of nature. Remove a man’s daily distractions, and… Continue reading

The first weapon they placed within my grasp was not a thunder-stick forged in the factories of distant nations, but a spear worthy of the forgotten kingdoms hidden beyond the world’s maps. I turned the weapon slowly beneath the blazing… Continue reading

Some stories arrive upon a newspaper columnist’s desk looking as though they have already written themselves. A sensible writer knows to leave them alone, for they are liable to bite. Yet every so often one appears that hangs so low… Continue reading

So few institutions in government are more devoted to efficiency than two counties sharing one inmate. It is a fine arrangement, rather like neighbors borrowing each other’s lawn mower, except this particular piece of borrowed property possessed the inconvenient habit… Continue reading

The alarm wasn’t due to sound until 3:00 a.m., but my body had other plans. About thirty minutes beforehand, I woke up for another trip to the bathroom. Whether it was the third or the fifth time that night, I… Continue reading

The commission was of the humblest order, yet it was bestowed with the solemnity of an antique covenant. An aged husbandman, whose countenance had been sculpted by innumerable seasons into the likeness of weathered oak, indicated a forgotten field where… Continue reading

There are voids within the spirit that no earthly solace may dissolve, nor any mortal enchantment extinguish. Long had I borne within my breast such an invisible abyss that it had ceased to resemble affliction and had become instead a… Continue reading

He had come with empty hands and empty pockets. Everything he owned fit inside a weathered canvas bag slung across one shoulder, and even that seemed lighter than the hope he carried. For months, he had wandered from one hard… Continue reading

When first I set foot upon that vast and ancient continent, the wilderness neither welcomed nor condemned me. It regarded me with the cold indifference of eternity itself. The bush cared nothing for the uniforms I had once worn beneath… Continue reading

I have been wandering the same trail since I was nine years old, armed with a pencil that was forever growing shorter and dreams that were forever growing taller. It was a respectable occupation, though nobody else seemed to know… Continue reading