The bus broke down five miles outside Kelso on the Joshua tree road near where the train tracks hang on the yellow hills. The few tourists unloaded their bags deciding they would rather walk than stand in the heat. Sally smoothed her pettifor and adjusted her wide-brimmed hat. She would wait in the bus. Twenty minutes later a private stuck his head into the bus and offered a ride and Sally joined the bus driver…
As soon as he said it, a huge gust of wind ripped the roof off the clinic like it was a sardine can and the doctor, sheriff, and the deputy were sucked out in a violent cyclone. The wind tossed Dan into a corner and me under the table where I clung to the legs as the wind tried to pull me out. Then the wind stopped and an eerie silence took over.
“Dan?” I shouted. “Dan? Are you okay?”
I rushed to the corner where Dan lay on his side bleeding from a gash in his head.
“I’m not Dan, but I need your help,” he said. “The army wants to kill me because I invented a way to control the weather.”
The truck belched through the stall as the driver pushed into the lowest gear and rolled at a burrow’s pace as a parade of cars followed.
After sixty steps, he decided he made a bad choice to leave the car to photograph Joshua trees in the Nevada desert. He wanted a swallow of the water sitting in the passenger seat now getting hot in the light. The sun burned the bald spot he forgot to cover with a hat. He thought about going back. Then, a quail hawk lifted off its perch of evergreen bayonets and dove to the ground. It…
A small place always needs a guy willing to do the stuff no one else will do, and well, I am that guy. My name is Jake Rutledge and I am a handyman.
She found it! She found the lost Dutchman Mine. The crowd drew around the piano to see what was on the paper. It was a drawing of a map and the words, “Superstition Mountain Treasure.”
In my latest newsletter I muse about writer’s block, review a new TV Western, and give away my latest novella. All in a day’s work! You can join the newsletter here: Other Writings You May Like Drip Drip Drip I Wander Away – A Collection of Short Stories Book Review – The Ultimate Hero’s Journey: 195 Essential Plot Stages Found in the Best Novels & Movies Author Reading: A Diamond in Her Eye
He dug into the rock face deeper with his right hand while he swung his left hand up to meet it. He now hung over the gorge too tired to pull himself up and too centered in self-worth to let go. He swung closer to the edge hoping to find a foothold. He swung back away from an edge too far to offer anything to grab. He felt the tension in his fingers. [bctt tweet=”He…
The middle refrain from Cantata Nº 208 played over a loudspeaker in the barn. The sheep fidgeted in the corner taking turns climbing on each other’s backs. A line of ewes stood apart from the herd staring at Xabier who sat at the workbench pondering the music as he fiddled with bits of wire. Bach intended the piece as a hunting song. Its true meaning rang in Xabier’s ear as he read. Soon he had thought of a way to expose the hunters.
A Conversation “I suppose you’re happy now.” “You do smell better.” “And the flea circus washed away, gone down the drain, to never be seen again.” “A bit dramatic.” “I spent days training them to flip mid-air. Charlie could land on his nose.” “Never saw his performance. The stench overpowered me.” “Now I smell like daffodils.” “With a tinge of honey.” “I don’t like it.” [bctt tweet=”Now I smell like daffodils.”] “You know…” “What?” “No,…