Short Stories

Goodbye Old Friend

The funeral parlor is in Seaport, a small town on the Jersey Shore. As Art kneels by Steve's coffin, he begins to recall memories of their friendship that began those many years ago in high school, when they were popular athletes. Back then the world seemed so full of bright promise, and youth gave them the sense of being immortal.

“Then Art bowed his head, closed his eyes and whispered a prayer, ‘Dear God, Sweet Jesus, please look after Steve. He was a good man, not perfect; none of us are, but a good man, nonetheless. Take him to one of those rooms you promised you would reserve for all of those who are not condemned to hell. Bring him through those pearly gates and reunite him with his beloved Miriam.‘”

This story is bound to tug on your heart and leave you with thoughts about your own mortality. Perhaps it may lead you to repair strained relationships before it is too late.

Hello My Love

“Looking into those deep, soft brown eyes, Jack felt as if he was being drawn into a warm, cozy, safe place. It was like he was on a gentle downhill slide into a world he had never known before—a land of enchanted forests, sunset mountains and the whisper of a gurgling brook off in the distance. In his mind he had a fleeting image of standing with his arm around Beth, on the edge of that forest with both of them enjoying the scene as the sun set over the rim of the mountains. He knew then that this creature had mesmerized him—that she held for him a haven that made him feel weak in the knees and all warm and peaceful inside.”

After fumbling a bit he manages to ask her for a date. Their first date is to the beach at Spring Lake. It leads to many more dates and then marriage.

Years later Jack and Beth become grandparents and dwell in Woodstock, IL, but every summer they vacation in Spring Lake—the beach and ocean will always be a part of them.

Darkness Yields to the Light

“No, what was different about this afternoon, beyond the fact that Trey was even there, was the fact that he was getting a bit inebriated. He couldn't remember the last time he had had so many beers. He was indeed in a funk that seemed to deepen with each emptied bottle of Miller Lite. His mind was in the process of remembering how his morning had begun...

...Whatever, this mood, this dark, blue feeling, had taken hold of him—he could not escape it. He was unable to fend it off and do anything other than let it overwhelm him. He was constrained to let it boil up to the surface, engulf his emotions and flood through his thoughts like a raging wall of water—a tsunami of emotion. It carried him in its grasp until it eventually ran out of territory and dissipated...Until he met Wendy...

The Man Who Has No Roots

Mickey Colichio had once thought he had life by the tail, until everything about the house of cards that he had convinced himself was the perfect underpinning, upon which he had come to believe would always be there, gradually evaporated. Everything about which he had congratulated himself as his deserved rewards for his hard work and dedication had been eradicated through life’s unexpected setbacks. Now at the age of 60, with the lure of retirement tugging at his innermost thoughts, he finds himself seemingly adrift with little, if any, attachment to any person or place – in effect rootless. Can he ever find what he has been missing, a person, and a place where he can lay down roots?...