Wanting to lick my wounded pride from another employment rejection letter, I grabbed two chocolate chip cookies, my water-filled mason jar and headed out back. Sitting in a chair, next to a low table, under our tree, I looked up and asked, “So, now what God?” Above and behind me, I heard the flitting of…

John and Brady looked at one another as the voice stated, “Him. Not him.” Brady stepped forward, “Not you – him.” Surprised, Brady stepped back and John entered the store. Soon he came to the door way, “Come on in. Everything’s okay.” Still on edge, Brady came to the door way and stood. There he…

The desert slowly gave way to undulating hills and washes that slowed the pairs trek to Bixby. It appeared that there wasn’t an easy trail to the town or that they’d somehow missed it altogether. By noon of their third day traveling together, they came to a rise in the land and found themselves over looking…

To catch up with our story so far, begin here. It felt like a life time since he’d last looked up into the night-time and viewed the dazzle of stars above him. Brady lay on his bed roll, saddle for a pillow, in the cradle of some boulders and rocks as the fire burned down…

In a land that grows the best apples in the world, one has to be more than simply impressive to better the best. Grimhilde de Queen was exactly that person, proving it when she brought home the coveted Pomological Society Award to her hillside burg. The treasure to her prize: the Red Delicious Apple. “So…

Wandering the desert, it’s reddish sands, climbing one hill, stumbling down another. Desolation Wilderness; perfectly named, perfectly hostile. He’s searching for that place, one he knew well in childhood, a dimming memory each day. Sun baking his skin, wind drying his tongue, continuing to call out her name, always that singular thought: her. Finally. Bathed…

In her youth, Lydia went on a tour of Africa, where she found a female lion cub, limping and alone. She coaxed the cub into the Land Rover with food, checked it’s paw, removing a large stick from between its toes pads. A few years later Lydia, visiting a wild game park in California, saw…

“Come out to the desert,” they said. “We’ll play some paintball and do some exploring,” they said. “It’ll be fun,” they said. “My dog and I showed up — and the fuckers ditched us,” I said. Looking down at Rover, he woofs, “Let’s go and make those assholes pay.” He knows that I speak fluent…

While downtown at an annual event playing out along the river, I watched a four-year-old boy terrorizing both animals and other children. He chased after and tossed rocks at birds, purposely stomped on one girl’s toes and had to be warned not to tease a German Shepherd, who remained calm during the ear-pulling and tail-tugging.…

Chet had locked himself out of the house yet again. He thought about calling his wife, but she was in another state visiting her mother for one more day, so he figured he could wait it out in the tool shed. He unrolled the three sleeping bags and laid them one atop the other, cushioning…