This is the fifth episode of a short story that's working title is "Getting to Know Darin." In order, from the beginning, the first four segments were "Feeding the Line," "Make Room for Daddy," "The Kids Are Evil," and "Recovery in Various Forms." 5. One to Talk Finally, Ben Fowler was able to outlast Maxeen …
Tag: alcohol
No Time to Travel
She was a tiny woman, skin tightly drawn around her face, remarkably unwrinkled yet somehow looking old, as if she spent a lot of time screaming to stretch it out. The fat man hoped to God she wasn’t sitting on his row. Once he had flown on an almost weekly basis, an average of fifty …
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (Part One)
Claim you’re making / More than you are / Hitch your wagon / To a star / The truth is incidental / To what you gotta say / Those who can’t play ball / Are prone to fade away Riggs Hellams completed his session with the fungo, and now all he had to do …
The Way I Do
When I was young / I went off to college / But I flunked out ‘cause I could not pass no test / My old man barely made it past fifty / And I reckon that I’ll follow his footsteps / But it ain’t gon’ be bad health that’s gonna kill me / It won’t …
The Way I Do, Part One
When I was young / I went off to college / But I flunked out ‘cause I could not pass no test / My old man barely made it past fifty / And I reckon that I’ll follow his footsteps / But it ain’t gon’ be bad health that’s gonna kill me / It won’t …
Named to Lose
Luck evens out for most people. Sometimes, though, one bad break begets another, and it all goes into a death spiral. Such was the case of the Scheltonns of Roebuck, Oklahoma. Names were not Frank Scheltonn’s forte. It took a lot of thinking, but one could make a case that the decline and fall …
What I Ain’t Got
I don’t know where I am / And I don’t know where I’m going / I reckon it don’t matter anyway / What factories are left here are mainly hiring Mexicans / I reckon that they’ll work without much pay. Years ago, it had been the site of a filling station. Then it was …
What I Ain’t Got, Part 4
I don’t give a damn / ‘Cause it don’t make no difference / What happens is gonna happen anyway / I’m a ship without a rudder / Adrift with no sails / And the water’s still choppy on the bay / So I’ll paddle around / Either drown or run aground / So far …
Changes Ten by Ten
Fifty years ago, my father voted for and bet on Barry Goldwater, not to win the election but to carry South Carolina. He won. Goldwater lost. The election, not South Carolina. NASCAR’s greatest hero at the time, “Fireball” Roberts, was horribly burned at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He lived for more than two months, and every …
Scuppernongs and Muscadines
Here's the whole shebang for those of you who haven't been following along. My daddy used to say / You gotta be a man / You gotta pull your weight / You gotta work the land / But every time I tried and failed / He turned away from me / By the time I …
Nightrider's Lament 