Baby Steps
"I didn't want you to go to any trouble." "Stop being silly." Jerry watched as the younger of his landlords continued to straighten up the living room of the big house, waiting for the auto-set electric kettle to chime its announcement that the...
Slightly Foxed, But Still Desirable
TO: Harrison Burkholder-Barrows 84 Christchurch St Radcliffe-on-Pontisbright, Suffolk ENGLAND April 27, 2015 Dear Mr. Burkholder-Barrows: I am a bibliophile and collector, interested in the occasional rare volume. Your name and address...
Throwaways
The morning light stole in, as it always did, eventually, even after such a long and frightening night as Hallowe'en. For the young female rabbit crouched down behind a dumpster in the filthy back alley, the real terror was just beginning, again, as...
The Stallion's Tale, Part 1
_Eight years ago..._ Gabriel pushed the wheelbarrow carefully across the dusty expanse of dimpled hardpan, having learned the hard way that moving too quickly could cause the entire load of muck to fly just about everywhere at once. Stripped to the...
Drawn Out
Eoin McCracken hadn't done any babysitting in quite a long time. His only younger sibling wasn't so far behind him in the birth order as to need much looking after, once both had passed puberty and gotten a reasonable sense of personal responsibility...
Dispatches II
From the _Northwest Florida Daily News,_ Section C (Sports), below the fold: HARRIS OUTED Niceville High Star Athlete Subject of Controversy Local-boy-made-good star quarterback Bobby Harris figures prominently in a series of photographs put onto...
A Place for the Stranger
"Food?" "Check." "Family?" "Check." "Plates, utensils, napkins?" "Check, check, check." "Appetites?" "HELLS YES!" _"Then dig in!"_ The Lamar family Thanksgiving dinner was underway. Bobby took his cue from the rest of the family...
The Day
Gabriel lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling, trying to let his mind drift. Beside him on the bed, curled up and facing away from him, lay the beautiful cremello mare who had shared with him delights he wasn't even entirely sure he could have...
Housewarming
"Feels like Witness Protection." Mal looked up sharply at Bobby's comment. The handsome lion quarterback stood to the side of the front window of the apartment, peeking through the curtain like a spy in the old thrillers of the sixties, doing all he...
Expiration Date, Part 4
_This day..._ In this modern world, 27 years of marriage is quite the milestone. And believe me when I tell you that it's not an easy one to make. Don't get me wrong: I don't regret a moment of it. It's just not all as gauzy and syrupy sweet as the...
Lunatics
"Why do we still want to howl at the moon?" The two young wolf cubs, their teens not yet half finished, sat on the empty dock, in the comfortable secrecy of the midnight lake. High above, Grandmother Moon smiled down upon them, full and bright and...
Discharge
_ Signum is a binary._ Zachary Parker despised formality, and minimalism was a close second. He had few options but to cooperate if he wanted to get out of here; despite what he'd been promised, he was being held "just a bit longer," and no one had...