“Hola’,” the aging lawman said, touching the brim of his cowboy hat, as he drove by. He didn’t recognized the Mexican woman, nor should he have as the last time he’d seen her was nearly three-decades before in the dark of night and not in the bright of the day. She slowly turned in her…

My wife dragged me to the art gallery to view a traveling Reuben exhibit. I tried to avoid going, but no luck. “We need some culture in our lives.” However, she didn’t anticipate looking at painting after painting of curvaceous ladies in the buff. She complained, saying it was unfair that all the nude paintings…

Hawkins broke through the sliding glass door at the back of the old Shipley house, jimmying the plastic frame with a flat-bar and poured gasoline throughout all the rooms, including the garage. He lit a match, threw it and watched the flames flash-over in a single hungry gulp and with a thump that violently reverberated…

She found me in the back alley, where I was drowning in affordable rot-gut. She was young, pretty and I tried to ignore her, until she sat down beside me. “I can guess when you’re going to die,” she offered. Too wasted to realize she was serious, I laughed at the thought and wondered what…

“Data suggests that it’s over a million years old and has no functional ability.” “So shattered bits of red carbon-based material is simply floating through the cosmos for no reason?” “It appears so, ma’am.” “But why would you say it’s a religious relic?” “We know sacrifice is a part of the early belief system. The sacrifice…

“So damn close to Crescent City, I can almost smell it,” I whined as I stood in the parking lot of the Collier Tunnel rest area. It had been a long journey to here, especially since I was using the least reliable method of transportation available – hitching. The driver pulled off Highway 199 because…

It was an old wine box that I thought my wife would enjoy, but I was wrong. Too late we learned that it was a Dybbuk; able to haunt and even possess the living. The antique box attacked us endlessly, doing and saying the most vile of things. Finally, last Christmas, without saying a word,…

Writer Sammi Cox issued a weekend writing prompt using the word, ‘shell,’ in exactly 12-words. I took and met the challenge: “I am but a shell of myself. So clam up, would you?” I love some of these little exercises.

Out of the blue, the Spirit introduced me to this new guy. Whenever I talk to Him, He gives me advice — a wisdom, unlike anything I’ve ever known. He’s a fortress, a wall; a shield that protects from all weapons thrown by this cruel life. He has this promise, and I truly know that…

Six-thirty-six. Carole sighed as she turned from the clock, knowing the sun wasn’t up and she’d been robbed of 24-minutes more sleep. It felt as if this had happened before, but she was too exhausted to hold onto the thought. Unwilling to surrender those few precious minutes of sleep, she willed herself to lay still,…