Dreams I’ve had; unedited but (for better or worse) not always fully remembered.
You’ve been sent on an assignment to ascertain the perfect cocktail pairing for a Rice Krispie Treat. You’ve been to too many of these places already but what’s one more? You repeat your now banal-seeming request: “I’ll have the house Rice Krispie Treat and whatever cocktail pairing you usually recommend.” This particular bartender opens with […]
We are driving to the grocery store. Dark (night?) and fog. Are the headlights on? No. She reaches to turn them on, twist the knob. And ahead maybe 50 yards are a bunch of horses. Hit the brakes, but they’re already started and galloping toward us. Most go around. One goes over, and we hear […]
You’re standing in the kitchen of the home you once owned in Barre. It’s a stunningly banal scene: you and A. unpacking bags of groceries, chatting about meal plans and minor home improvement projects with your parents who have just arrived after a five hour drive. One of these improvements would be to the kitchen, […]
For the past two weeks, you have been at a creative writing retreat at your alma mater, St. Mary’s College of Maryland. The time spent was very productive. New stories written. Old ones revised. New friends made. Old connections reunited. But the time has come to depart. As you close your first suitcase and return […]
A friend (J.P.) and his son (O.) are pulling a bread dough out of a machine and shaping it. Periodically, one of them will duck over to an enormous, wood-fired, brick oven and stoke it. When you inquire about what they were doing, J.P. explains that he spent the last year on a sabbatical, learning […]
You and Her have just moved into a new home. A townhouse or a condo; fairly narrow, but enough room for your belongings and looks to be fairly comfortable. Having just moved in, there are still boxes everywhere, most of them half-open. You imagine it will be a couple days before you’d even pretend to […]
You’ve moved into a new house. You hate moving. (Does anyone enjoy it?) All the packing and unpacking. Rearranging furniture, and knowing it will be rearranged again in another month. Discovering the million little flaws that you hadn’t when you first toured the place, or had it inspected. But here you are, having again moved […]
You wander into the a gym. It’s sparsely populated, but not empty. No one is looking specifically at you, but some of them look up, sidelong. From a distance each piece of equipment looks familiar. Weightlifting machines and treadmills. But as you get closer, they take on bizarre shapes. Not impossible shapes, but peculiar, unconventional. […]
You’re sitting at a table in a semi-crowded gym. You’re catching up with a friend (A.M.) during a kind of reunion or party hosted there. A tall figure approaches and looms over you, standing behind your friend. In one arm is a baby girl, and in the other is an open box of Scrabble. He […]
You’ve lured them (that Prince, his army) to the edge of the forest. Until now you’ve hurled only insults, taunts. You duck into the woods. They linger on the edge, the soldiers wary. The incensed Prince urges them onward, enraged, outraged. Another jibe escapes your lips, stinging that Prince beyond his capacity for tolerance. Livid, […]