The third to last thought after Daniel snagged his foot on the hidden rope and tumbled over the edge of the mezzanine floor of the barn was that he hoped the landing would be hard enough to kill him immediately. Years ago, he’d seen a school-friend suffer the effects of long agonising months of paralysis after an injury and if it was all right with the universe, he'd much rather skip all that and head straight to the pearly gates.
The second to last thought was fleeting confusion as to . . .
It nears midnight and I kneel on filthy white tile with my face inside a toilet bowl. The bleak fluorescent light shows smears and stains I would rather not see. My body lurches then rids itself of the ginger ale I forced down an hour ago. I sit back on my heels, try to breathe through the next heave. But my spit is thick and the air is sour. I heave again.
Grimy metal walls with peeling red paint separate me from the other women in this rest area bathroom. A baby is babbling while he g. . .
Journey is a short story that leads the reader to the serialized novel SecretAgentMan™
Journey, a ShortStory by Mykl Walsh
In the year of Our Lord, 10,001
The United States of Earth has been in power for over sixthousand years. The Federal government, working in close association with theprivate sector has long since found cures for nearly all of the world’sproblems. People coexist peacefully in near Utopian societies. They thrive forthree to four hundred year. . .
CRAWL SPACE WORK
My hips are so sore I can't sleep on my sides and my elbows look like a baboon's butt.
It’s the result of one day of crawl space work.
To the average able-bodied red-blooded American, the single most repellent thing about working in the trades, I would guess, would be crawl space work. You’re crawling and working and this unsavory combination takes place in a cramped, dark, dirty, dusty, and spider-infested space. It’s ugly work. . .
The Race at Jesuit
SQUALLS of rain hammered against the windshield of my truck as I raced southeast down I-5 by the small town of Kalama along the Columbia River. The weather didn’t bode well. But off to the south, across the river toward where I imagined Beaverton to be positioned there was a large clear opening in the storm and what even looked like a sun break.
I was hurrying to Jesuit High School to see a large regional invitational track meet that promised to host some o. . .
Which lead us to our next subject, Life.
Our life’s end does not have to be the end of us, but it is the end of our turn. So, when and if we have to die, make the end of your turn become the completion of an extraordinary life story.
Yet, if you can, why not just keep on living?
—
If you can successfully avoid getting hit by a runaway helicopter, or having an old satellite fall the sky and land on you or any other unluckiness which today might other. . .
Chapter
It's Legal
Throw out every preconceived notion of everything you ever learned or been told about the legal system. Take all of your favorite television crime show watching knowledge and squash it like an annoying gnat on your arm. Every single molecule . . .
The first thing you need to know is that I wasn’t supposed to be there.
My initial tour of duty was in 2003. I led a fire team on the invasion of Iraq, which contributed to the 101st Airborne Division’s success of liberating three key cities and establishing a free and democratic Iraq. I earned several awards and commendations for exemplary service during Operation Iraqi Freedom. But I came back to the states without some of my buddies. That’s war.
By the fall of. . .
“There is no conception the meaning of which is more controversial than that of sovereignty. From the moment it was introduced into political science, it never had a meaning which was universally agreed upon. ” ~ Lassa Oppenheim
The twenty five hundred Haida people residing on Haida Gwaii are among 370 million self-described “indigenous peoples” alive today on the planet. Generally defined as people whose community pre-existed the larger nation sta. . .
