My Aunt Mel was one of the strongest women I ever knew. She stepped in to raise my little brother Keith and me after we lost our mother to ovarian cancer. Not many other people would have done the same, especially having to step in...
You know those people who you tell the time of events to fifteen minutes earlier than they start because you know they’ll be late? The people who would be late to their own funerals, as the saying goes. Well...
I worked for over twenty years as a police officer for the Lindley County Sheriff’s Office before retiring at the beginning of last year. I’ve often been asked a lot of questions about my time in law enforcement, the main one of course being, ‘What...
Like most teenage boys, I believed that I was a wolf, not a sheep. And, like most teenage boys I was wrong. I was very much a follower. Specifically, a follower of Daniel Lawman. Daniel Lawman was the coolest boy in school. Handsome, charming and effortlessly intelligent....
My neighbor Dr. Gregovich suffered both of life’s greatest calamities. The first was falling in love. This is a rebellious and generally discouraged affliction to which he accidentally exposed himself when he was just five years old. Elaine, age four at the time, had given...
I hate my job. I hate selling days of my life while barely earning enough to sustain it. I hate my boss, who tells me I’m lucky to find stable work in such an uncertain world. I hate my friends who treat dreams like an unfortunate...
I gently lowered the canoe into the calm water. Matt stood behind me, clutching the two oars, anxious to start fishing. Ripples rose to life and expanded out into the vast lake, quiet trumpets that announced our entry into the cool blue realm. The sun crept...
In my youth, I had a wild streak. I was a teenager during the years when heavy metal began to get old. The group I ran with was fine with the classics, but they wanted something a little more extreme. We wanted something wild, raw...
I don’t know exactly how this story started. It was already in motion well before I became aware of it. My involvement in it began with Christian and Philip: Christian, who was always late, and Philip, who was always early. Those two were part of our...
It started out like any other work day. I had houses to sell and people who wanted to buy them. Honestly, I’ve always found being a realtor embarrassingly easy. People seek you out and ask you to sell them incredibly high-ticket items. I’ve done other...
From the diary of Jake Sato: Dated: May 11th, 2019 I’ve always tried to rationally think through how we got here. What happened to lead us down this path? Why did life turn out like this? When I do, my mind always comes back to that summer’s...
I try to live my life without too many regrets. I’ve had highs and lows like everyone else, sure, but I do what I can not to worry too much about what could have happened if I’d made a different choice, if I maybe hadn’t...
A curious case emerged in the fall of two thousand four. A man, aged nineteen, was found dead of an exhaustion-induced heart attack. The man, believed to be a casual user of methamphetamine, described his gradual descent into mental instability due to chronic insomnia, suffered...
I’m an EMT in my childhood hometown of Hillhaven, Montana. There’s only one hospital worth the name in the whole county, Hillhaven General, so when I moved back into town after ten years living in Helena, that was the only real choice for a freshly-licensed...
People in my hometown don’t talk about what happened during the summer of 1969. Urban legends, unsolved mysteries and tragedies can be found in the history of any small town in the world and mine is no different, yet those who remember the checkered clown...
Jonah Harvester was the golden-haired, angel-faced picture of innocence that every parent envisions their little boy as. He had a cherub’s wry smile and a natural charisma to him that was impossible to deny. You just couldn't say no to that face, and no one...
You know when I was a kid, I used to love indoor playgrounds. I’m sure I’m not the only one. You go to some unsuspecting building in the middle of some strip mall and inside is no mere store or restaurant. It’s a kingdom that’s only...
I’m sorry. I’m sorry for all the hurt I caused. I’m sorry I lied to you Barbara about who I was. I’m sorry, Jack and Mary. Your dear old dad let you down. I know you thought your daddy was perfect and could do no...
My father only hit me one time. Open palm across my jaw when I was 7. Once in my life. Been 40 years, but I can still feel it. The sound of the slap, the sting and the shock. I’m sitting now right where it happened. At the...
That which is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil. —Friedrich Nietzsche These weren’t like the old days, Jerfastilhak mused. No. In this black age nothing like that peace could be found. They had pain-birds now, killing-birds. Great screaming, swooping demons that raked the...
