“I can’t believe you agreed to do this, grandpa!”

“I have the time now, sweetheart.”

“You sure you’re up for this?”

“Well, I won’t let you go it alone, kiddo.”

“Who’s first?”

She stepped right up to the door and gave me the thumbs up before she jumped and was out of sight.

The man strapped to my back started pushing me toward the door.

“Now that she’s out, I don’t really have to go, I’m fine,” I said.

“You’re fine? Let’s rock and roll!”

I didn’t jump out of a plane, he did.

I was along for the ride.… Read the rest

We walk up to the paddock and he waves his arm toward his stock.

“They’re all purebreds, straight from Xygoth.”

“They look… disgusting, and they smell… what even is that?”

“That’s their natural musk, it’s fine.”

“Don’t you have anything smaller, and faster?”

“Oh, you don’t want anything but this. The Canonalls are the best to ride across the desert. They don’t need much water at all.”

“Right, but…” I didn’t know what to say. The monster hulked before me with it’s scaly, elephant thick skin with long ropes of droll dropping from it’s dopey face.

“Okay. I’ll take her.”… Read the rest

She called me and I didn’t answer. I didn’t answer the first time, or the third, or the tenth.

I didn’t want to hear from her, ever.

I hadn’t talked to my sister in years and was doing good work forgetting the sound of her voice.

She abandoned our family, thinking she didn’t need us. We weren’t good enough, or rich enough, or interesting enough for her.

I used to say she wouldn’t piss on me if I were on fire, and maybe that’s true, but finally I answer:

“WHAT?!”

“Please, I need you, I’m sorry.”

“Well, that’s too bad.”… Read the rest

What do you enjoy doing most in your leisure time?

Something like this.

I’m always putzing around in my leisure time. I’m on my laptop picking away at something or reading what someone else has written, I’m scribbling in a notebook, I’m reading on my Kindle, listening to an audio book, or holding a paper one in my hands, which is too infrequent these days.

But I enjoy putting words on screens and papers, I enjoy getting them out of my head and my hands and making them into something someone can use, even just me.

I want more than … Read the rest