Wee Difference

Uncle Jock and me is proper pished. As usual on the walk back he holds court, telling a thousand stories. And as usual we pass beneath Newark Castle. “Laddie,” he says, putting an arm around me. “You know the odds between an American and a Scot?” “Accents?” “Aye, true. But you see there?” He points…

Movie Night

  “A film is a loosely collected series of events which don’t hold up to scrutiny,” he says. “Untruths which are designed to evoke certain emotions in us.” We are watching an obscure work by a Japanese director he admires.  He’s seen it, of course,  but years ago. “My memories of this movie are those…

Beneath Everything

He spoke of tremendous mysteries buried in numbers. “Right under your nose,” he would say. He’d spend an hour on the symbolism etched into the dollar, fill a notepad with calculations of its hidden meanings. He counted everything. Once I found him in the yard counting the needles on a pine tree, convinced the numbers…

Mania

“Another one.” “You didn’t bring it in for me?” “Why bother? There’s more coming.” She purses her lips, knowing that there is indeed another package on its way. At first, it was eBay, justified as a money-making opportunity. Many things arrived, but nothing was ever shipped. When the basement filled, he’d rented a storage container…

Just Another Monday

The newspapers lay where they’d landed, just inside the gate. The sheriff’s car was parked along the road. She rolled down her window and gave the deputy the code. He entered it and the gate swung open. “Wait here,” the other officer said, disappearing behind the house. He returned, shrugging. “Locked tight. Curtains are drawn.…