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TLDR: Can you go home again? After his divorce, Dr. Patrick Dupree leaves New York.
Late in the afternoon on July 3rd, Dr. Patrick Dupree had a final meeting with three people he hoped to never again see. One of them was his lawyer, who Patrick would be firing at the conclusion of the meeting. The conference room was completely silent for five minutes, as Patrick loomed over pen and paper.
The other lawyer in the room said to Patrick, “Of course, we want you to take all the time you need.”
No one moved. The only indication that the room had life in it was the movement of Patrick’s thumbs against his temples while his fingers shielded his eyes. His tongue also moved, or rather rolled inside his mouth, just as his intestines spun and his stomach twirled. Trying to control his emotions took all of his concentration. . . . → Read More: Short Story: The Last Act of Patrick’s Ideal
TLDR: A love triangle, bent out of shape
In Dawville, every summer is someone’s summer of love. The river rises and falls as regularly as the spikes and doldrums of hearts on the rise and hearts on the mend. The cycles of the Mississippi river normalize the town, with the molasses of winter turning to rolling mercury for two days each summer during Longshore Days. And this season the madness belonged to a pair called Jon Dupree and Eddie Hufford, two young men who came from two houses of very unequal dignity.
Only a few hours prior to dawn, Jon and Eddie had butted heads in the parking lot of Wayne’s Dock, a tavern and dance hall owned and operated by Wayne Trempeleau, the owl of Dawville. Fights do not happen for just any reason in Dawville. On the contrary –there is always a stupid reason. For fifteen years, . . . → Read More: Short Story: Unequal Dignity
The roots of “One” came from a 1939 novel by Dalton Trumbo called Johnny Got His Gun. So it was a book, a song, a movie, and now, a blog post.
Listen to the song while you read, for the full multimedia experience: Metallica One on YouTube.
Time Sound Lyrics 00:00 It seeps in. A slow crescendo of weapon fire, M60 and M16 bursts. An urgent voice of a sergeant calls out informal military commands – “Move!” “Go go go!” Then comes the detonations from grenades, mortars, artillery rounds. A deeper rumble, erupting gunpowder and shrapnel buries the undercurrent of rifle fire temporarily. An aftershock then tucks into the beating wings of an approaching helicopter.The drums of war have quieted. All the hurry-up-and-wait military life has ended, when all the morning push-ups and inspections and flag-waving formations have become secondary to holding onto the spark of life, and . . . → Read More: Metallica’s "One" as a Short Story
 TLDR: Emotionally lost, Basil drifts for years until a spark of love interest comes from a business contact. The virtual relationship becomes all too virtual. A tale of unrequited love in the time of intelligent software.
FULL STORY: Four years after losing his child and then his wife, Basil Jackson maintained his sanity by staying busy. An imperfect coping strategy, but his job was a means of moving on that seemed to work for him. He did, however, make it clear to Arrica Pelius that he would no longer travel more than three days in a row, that he disapproved of the Pelius corporate attitude, and that he vowed to run his accounts in a professional and a sustainable manner. In addition, he informed Arrica that he cared little for treating everything as a competition and cared not . . . → Read More: The Third Tragedy of Basil Jackson
 TLDR: Basil Jackson, hard-working middle-manager, rising in a meritocratic company struggles to balance home life with the demands of a consuming business. While his work thrives, his wife struggles, seeking a sense of meaning from her young life.
FULL STORY:
After his interview at Pelius Research, Basil Jackson phoned his wife, Caprice, who was at home in Chicago. The salary offered by Pelius doubled what Henley Pharma was paying him. That night, after his flight home, they celebrated with drinks and dinner.
“This is it, babe! We’ve made it.”
“I’ve always wanted to live in San Francisco,” Caprice said. “Let’s live downtown.”
The job change came at a perfect time for them, because Caprice had just finished her psychology degree at the University of Chicago.
“Tomorrow I’ll put in my two-weeks notice at Henley and then . . . → Read More: The First Tragedy of Basil Jackson
TLDR: U.S. troops in the Congo succumb to a disease that they were supposed to be innoculated against. A story in reverse chronology, of best efforts and good intentions undermined by egos, cut corners, and a charlatan’s sale.
FULL STORY:
Day 75
“Cases continue to emerge among civilians and troops,” said the Reporter, standing in the tent where the soldiers now lay with the civilians, slung in hammocks, plagued with the disease. The camera focused on a man wearing chevrons, a Sergeant, sitting on his bed with both arms dangling plumb at his sides, paralyzed. Tending to him, a Major and a Second Lieutenant, both hobbling to assist, fighting their own advancing disabilities. . . . → Read More: A Counterfeit History
Pavel sat on the stone ledge, overlooking the Limmat river, on the Lindenhof in the dark, with the shimmer of the blue and white trams and the yellow of lit apartments bouncing off the black water toward him. From his left, within five steps, came the rise and fall of laughter of Zurich girls and the lower voices of boys, talking sweet in their Swiss German, as boys and girls alike held half-liters of wheat beer near their mouths. The teenagers met here in the dark in small groups, while the lovers came in pairs. On the bench to Pavel’s right necked a Serb and a Swiss, nuzzling one another in the lingua franca of the day, English.
He decided to wait for another fifteen minutes and already the slow creep of St. Peter’s giant clockface inching toward midnight worried him. The businessman from Senegal was late. Pavel, an . . . → Read More: Lindenhof
TLDR: A young woman attempts to experience the outdoors and rugged nature by escaping to the desert, leaving her comfortable hipster life behind in Phoenix. Suffering an injury during her party preparations, she lays on the floor of her kitchen, wondering why no one has shown up – except for a stream of large ants that wind across the floor toward her and the spilled trays of food that surround her.
FULL STORY:
No one showed for the party. The food began to sweat in the heat as she opened and closed the door repeatedly, looking for cars. An untouched stack of plates sat next to an array of cooling dishes. Pans and pots teemed in the sink. The . . . → Read More: The House Warming Party
TLDR: Business trips keep Basil from home, while his wife Caprice has increasing struggles after the loss of their child. Work overshadows love and simplicity, with grave consequences.
FULL STORY:
After returning from the most important business trip of his career, Basil was in a panic to see Caprice. While on the road, he phoned her often, but her voice became more distant each time he spoke to her. Basil mentioned his concern to Lucas, but did not receive any sympathy.
“It’s only because we’ve finally cut your apron strings, Basil,” said Lucas. “The next time on the road will be easier. It was for me. Growing pains, Basil.”
But Basil wanted to get home, and if the job could have been completed over the phone, he would have gladly ended the trip early.
His plane landed in San . . . → Read More: The Second Tragedy of Basil Jackson
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