Do your part: help slow the spread of it by washing your hands thoroughly. Use hot water, apply soap, and rub hands together vigorously while singing “Happy Birthday.” Rinse hands in hot water. Employees are required to wash hands as prescribed before returning to work. Disinfecting wipes that kill it are provided so that youContinue reading “Do Your Part to Slow the Spread of It”
Category Archives: Life and Death
The Car that Refuses to Get Away
Jeff stands quietly at the bottom of a stairwell. Adrenaline courses his through him, and he breathes deeply trying to remain calm. A dark-haired man in a black collared shirt stands next to him smoking a cigarette. “Any minute now,” the man whispers. “He’ll come right down those stairs. Don’t let his shoes touch bottomContinue reading “The Car that Refuses to Get Away”
Nothing Happened Here
This story is part of a series I’m doing on childhood dreams, nightmares, and distorted perceptions of reality. Some of the stories have autobiographical ties, but they are mostly fiction. And some of the stories reflect fiction I was writing at that age. It might help to consider all of them and how they allContinue reading “Nothing Happened Here”
How to Live and Die as a Southern Gentleman and Soldier
Instructions and orders given to Private Thomas D. Oliver, Lucas’s Battery, Missouri State Guard, before his Confederate service and up through his death at Corinth in June 1862. The selection of your hat depends on what you wear, where you are from, and the occasion for which you are selecting it. To understand, consider theContinue reading “How to Live and Die as a Southern Gentleman and Soldier”
Say Hi, Robert
They were back in Southern territory, and word was that the enemy was on the other side of these woods. It was spring, and the day had started cool but ended warm. Will was coated in sweat in the late afternoon when orders came to halt their march and set up camp for the night.Continue reading “Say Hi, Robert”
The Day of Your Reward
The opening of Saving Private Ryan has a reading of the famous Bixby Letter. The letter was allegedly written by Abraham Lincoln to a Boston mother of five boys who had allegedly died in the service of the Union. It appears that Mrs. Bixby did not lose five boys for the cause, and it alsoContinue reading “The Day of Your Reward”
The Friendship Quilt
This is a deceptively simple fictional rendering of a story in my family history. It’s meant to be coupled with the “The Littlest Nurse,” and then for further perspectives, you can learn far more at my page on Sadie Bushman. You might wish to read the actual primary sources, as well. It’s worthwhile to thinkContinue reading “The Friendship Quilt”
The Littlest Nurse of Gettysburg
This is a deceptively simple fictional rendering of a story in my family history. It’s meant to be coupled with the “The Friendship Quilt,” and then for further perspectives, you can learn far more at my page on Sadie Bushman. You might wish to read the actual primary sources, as well. The Rebels came throughContinue reading “The Littlest Nurse of Gettysburg”
Murder Ward
The man’s son was dressed in his white shirt and tie and sitting at a desk in Paraguay; the man viewed him on screen through Facebook Messenger. His son coughed hard. “You sound sick,” said the man. “I’m not sick, Dad,” said Elder Laws. “I just went shopping, and they took my temperature and IContinue reading “Murder Ward”
The Last Rose of Summer
Dr. Francis Thornton was the seventh lineal male to bear that name, his father, Reverend Francis Thornton, being the sixth. It was assumed, or at least the younger Francis believed it was assumed, that he was to follow in his father’s steps into the presbytery. His father was a towering man—in body, spirit, and intellect.Continue reading “The Last Rose of Summer”
The Living and the Dead, by Gordon Laws 