Tag Archives: relationships

A Western-Style Ending

Created with a found photograph, a Brother Charger 11 and my imagination.

This and many other prints can be purchased at my ETSY now! Come check it out!

A Million Clams

They walked over to the algae-covered jetty as a wave splashed off the rocks and into her face. He laughed.

“Shut up,” she said, wiping the salt water from her eyes. “Wise ass.”

As he went to step over the rocks, he stopped and leaned down to look between them.

“Wow, look at this!”

Between the rocks the ocean had somehow sifted millions of baby clams out of the sand and into deep puddles of shellfish.

“What is it?” she said approaching him.

“It’s clams, millions of clams.”

“The tiny ones we kept seeing along the beach?”

“Yup. Ew, look at them all trying to dig at once.”

She leaned in to see the piles moving almost in unison, little tonguelike appendages sneaking out from between the shells and reaching around searching for sand in which to dig.

“They’re moving together, that’s weird!” she said. He agreed.

They sat on the rocks, mesmerized by the eerie motion of the millions of clams as if one giant body.

That’s when he saw it coming and stood up. She wasn’t as quick. The wave came smashing between the rocks and sprayed her again right in the face.

He laughed.

“Thanks” she said, wiping the water from her face once more.

“Any time,” he said with a sly smile.

The Hipsters Are Gonna Be Pissed

“Did you notice everyone is trying to seem sort of kitsch, retro and hipster these days?” he asked her.

She looked up from her computer. “Kind of. What do you mean?”

“I was looking through Vogue the other day-“

“What were you doing looking at Vogue?”

He blushed a bit. “Huh?”

“Vogue?” she pushed. She just had to know what would possess her boyfriend to pick up the magazine clearly for women.

“Oh, yeah. Marion Cotillard was on the cover.”

“Who?”

“French actress? A Very Long Engagement? Big Fish? Love Me if You Dare? You know her.”

“Oh right…her. Okay so? Hipsters in popular magazines, I believe you were saying?”

“Um…yeah. Sorry, got me off track. The photos of her all look vintage, like the photos you take.”

“Really?”

“Yup.  They’re all taken in antique-looking places. Very similar to what Urban does in their catalog. Clothing looks vintage.”

“I doubt it is.”

“I know, but still. And there’s even one with her holding an old Polaroid camera, like the ones you display in your workroom.”

“Really? I have to see this.”

“Yeah. And she’s standing in front of a bookshelf of really old books.”

“Interesting.”

“So I started picking up more mainstream mags, just looking through at the photos, and they’re the same.”

“Interesting.”

He paused to look up at her.

“You don’t find this a bit odd?”

“Not really. Mainstream always copies the obscure, the new, the hip. They don’t call them hipsters for no reason! It’s just that now mainstream has finally caught on.”

“Well, the hipsters are gonna be pissed.”

“Yes, yes they are.”

A Triumphant Yard-saled Gift

“I found something just for you,” he said, entering the door from a long morning of yard saling.

The smile on his face alone got her really excited.

“What is it?” she replied, trying to feign calmness.

He put down a large bag. “First I have to finish unloading all the stuff I got!”

She jumped up to help. “I hate working Saturday mornings. I miss all the good yard sales.”

They unloaded the car.

A box of old books.

An antique record cabinet.

Yet another Brownie.

A brown bag of children’s books from the 1960s.

An old chair.

Three more bags of random objects. Cookie cutters. Teapot. Stack of records.

“Is it a record?”

“Close!” he said as he rummaged through bag after bag, letting objects fall to the floor as he dug.

“Would you just tell me!”

“NO! It’ll be better to see the look on your face when I just hand them to you.”

“Them?” she said, wondering what it could be. “Does it have to do with The Beatles?” It was her favorite subject.

“Maybe,” he said with a sly smile.

She started hopping up and down a little bit.

“The records are over here,” she pointed, trying to be helpful.

“It’s not a record…”

What could it be? She was so excited.

Finally, he said, “Aha!”

She ran right next to him as he pulled out a stack of cards and handed them to her.

“BEATLES TRADING CARDS!”

She quickly dropped to the floor and started lining them up on the hardwood like a kid opening his first pack of baseball cards.

She was in awe as he walked up and stood next to her. She exclaimed, “I’ve never even seen these in real life before.”

“Me neither,” he said with a triumphant look on his face.

“How much were they?”

“I got them in a whole bag of stuff for five bucks.”

She looked up and smiled. “Thank you.”

“What can I say? I love the girl.”

She smiled, hugged his nearby legs, and returned to displaying the cards out on the floor.

Inseparable

I created this with filmstrips I got at a yard sale, I’m guessing from somewhere in the mid to late sixties and early seventies. I came up with the story and edited it into the filmstrip. I did not edit the film from its original shots in any way. It may take a moment to load, or if it doesn’t work for you, click HERE.

Reading “A Coney Island of the Mind”

Created with an old 1958 copy of A Coney Island of the Mind, my own mind and my typewriter.

In Public

“This hill is nice.”

“Told you,” he said, taking a sip of his iced tea.

“You were right. Is that what you wanted to hear?”

“Mhmm.”

“I’d say it’s perfect, considering what we came here to do.”

“Yes. Secluded.”

“Naturey.”

“Romantic.”

“We don’t need it to be romantic for this.”

“We don’t need it to be- naturey, did you say?”

“Mhmm,” she said with a smile.
“Okay, then, should we do it?”

She smiled with a certain curtness that only she could muster.

He handed her purse over, and she began rummaging through it.

“I can’t find them.”

“I put them in there, I know I did.”

“You sure?”

“Would I ever, ever forget something like that?”

“You’re right…probably not.”

“Look harder. Hurry!”

She flipped it and dumped everything out, and they both rummaged through the contents.

“Here they are!” he said with a certain amount of triumph in his voice.

She took one and opened it, and he did the same.

“I love playing with bubbles,” she said with a smile and a wink.

A Birthday Apart

He set his alarm for 11:59 P.M. and when it went off dialed her number.

“Hello?” a sleepy voice answered.

“Happy birthday,” he whispered. He could hear the smile in her voice as she answered.

“Thank you! Wow, what is it, exactly midnight?”

“Yup. Since I couldn’t be with you on your birthday, I figured I’d call right away.”

“I’m surprised you don’t have some big secret plan for me, being the big romantic that you are.”

He smiled into the phone as if she could hear or see it.

“Look on page 157 of the book I lent you. I love you. Good night.”

“Good night,” she said as she reached for the book.

The Final Sunset

The government, scientists, specialists, news programs, everyone agreed the time had come. The end was here.

Many people prepared, stocking everything they could get in their basements: batteries, flash lights, canned goods, generators, but a select few knew it was only a matter of time. Without the sun, plants would stop growing, and slowly all life would discontinue.

Those few decided to honor their light giver, the life essence of their world, one last time. In this small town, a collection of people, rather than uselessly bunkering down in a basement, wanted to say goodbye to someone they never thought would abandon them, someone they took for granted, the one who gave them life every day up until this point without ever asking anything in return. Many forgot all about the importance of it, or simply complained when the weather was too hot or they forgot their sunglasses. So few really relished in how much it did for every living being on the planet.

And now it would abandon them.

Today the sun would set for the last time on their world.

And so they gathered to worship their long-time friend, or say goodbye, or mourn its death. They met at the old soccer field and sat in the bleachers as if watching a match, but this time nobody would cheer. The sun slowly reached the horizon, and the colors were more beautiful than any spectator had ever witnessed. A cloud cluster came in from the East, but it would not ruin the absolute perfection of the very last sunset in the history of man.

The sun touched the horizon, and crawled beyond their sight, a few oo’s and ah’s rang up from the crowd as if they were witnessing fireworks. People hugged, they held hands or comforted each other in their own way. The last orange sliver peeked for one more moment, and then was gone forever.

Photograph by the amazingly talented Manon De Sutter. Click here for more of her work.

A Rainy Reunion

The two friends sat on his stoop watching rain fall a few feet ahead of them but not yet breaking through the leaves above. It hadn’t been raining when she arrived, but just started once they’d sat.

“It’s raining.”

“Yup,” he responded.

She looked up at the tree and smiled.

“This is nice, sitting in the rain without getting wet.”

He nodded and continued to enjoy the patter.

“I missed you.”

“Me too,” he said with a smile.

“So what do you want to do today?”

“We’re doing it,” he said.