A.G.E's Joint

It was hot for early spring. Kathy mopped the sweat off her face with a paper towel as she pushed the broom toward the edge of the carport. Stopping, she rolled her wedding band around her finger to air it out. Why didn't she get a fan out before she started this? The thought irritated her as much as when she found out Jimmy had forgotten the trash again. How could one person be so absentminded? You should be able to remember every week. At least she got it to the street before the truck came. She kept the line of dirt moving. Friday was her normal cleaning day. But it was also his birthday and her Mom was coming. she wanted the house to look extra nice for it. Emily got out of school early and sort of helping, picking up trash in a way only a kid would. Each piece was a new gift. She would turn it from side to side, seeing what it was, then threw it in the can. It was a slow process and there were a couple of times Kathy had to count to herself to keep from yelling. Charlie ...

Since it appears FB has permanently disabled notes for me (I got moved to NEW FB about a month ago) and I've got an uncooperative scrap of a story going. I think I will just do a writer's dump for this week. My mother claimed she kissed the Blarney stone when she was a young child. She was always about wild stories and truth embroidering, so that claim would be plausible. Except nobody traveled to Ireland from Depression-era Savannah. Nobody had the means to. But it many ways, I inherited the ability to spin a tale, to pick situations from the game of life and give the wheel a spin. Sometimes I land on Bankruptcy, but more often I come out with the spouse and kids. These days, I'd say I traveled to Nova Scotia to see the Northern Lights, but I wouldn't have anything on my sisters who actually saw them when they lived in Upstate New York before I was born. Have you meditated on the telephone poles lining a highway? They are dead trees for the living and the dead. They...

In the 13th Floor executive conference room in Arlington VA, Richard Nixon and the top operations directors of Devil’s Quill Communications are having their weekly status meeting. It’s been a busy week. Nixon: Hello, Everybody. We got a bunch of stuff to cover today, so settle down. Let’s start with Sandy Wrath. How are the various conflicts going? Wrath: Not bad, really. We have a baker's dozen things going. We’ve been working on that crazy Kim guy hoping he’ll light up that part of the world. He tries, but people keep ignoring him. We did manage to trip off a good battle with the Cow Folks this week. It had been a while since we got that pot boiling. Simple misunderstandings are always the best method in my experience. Marty, were you able to use any of their tramplings? Marty Mammon: A few. The problem with that group is they are mostly Esau’s Children and they can’t agree on anything, including demonic authority. Wrath: “It’s why they can never get their act together to take ...

As the flowered bus rattled down the road, Kari made a vain attempt to tame her curls. The witch image stared back from the mirror. Accurate, not that she advertised it. She rarely went to the Coven or associated with most of them. To the outside world, she was an old hippie selling jewelry at craft shows. Nonetheless, she had spiritual power, the gift of transition and healing. Something she did not take lightly, especially this one. It wasn’t often she serviced herself. ***** She couldn’t remember how old she was when Billy McCormack moved across the street, thirteen or fourteen tops. It had begun innocently enough. He would tease her about her wild hair, calling her Witchy or Hag. She would get mad and tickle him until he begged for mercy. Something about him drew her like a fly to a light. They became inseparable as spring rolled into summer. Holding hands, they walked to the playground to climb the ladders or to the woods to explore. It was a dream. The nightmare came the week b...

Riding down the yellow brick road, you will find this testament to American life. These dreams of a Korean family manifesting itself in a building with more history than most of its kind. It started life as a Treasure Island store when J C Penney thought they could take on K-Mart. When it failed, a couple of crazy guys named Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank turned it into one of the original Home Depots. When the space couldn't hold lumber and hardware anymore, it became the marketplace of the world. It may not be the cheapest place in Atlanta to shop, but it is by far the most fun. Where else can you get Tres Leches, Halvah, Stroopwaffels and Kim Chee in the same trip? In baseball, its called a home run. Topic- Michael Wayne Engeseth Pic Rebecca S. Revels Pic Guesses: Gekko, Anole, lizard, hiding, hanging around, Insurance commercial. 17 Christine Wichman, Martien Ecrits and 15 others 20 Comments 1 Sha...

The red convertible’s big V-8 roared down the Turnpike. The needle was inching near 100 with the joyous sounds of Beethoven blasting into the darkness. Trashcoast Parkway was fading into the rearview on this starry, starry night. The El Dorado was a congratulation present for me, a land yacht befitting a successful guy. And the polar opposite of the black Benz I’d been riding in. That was important. No more Mickey, the lifelong dream to stick it to the man had borne fruit. I had perfected a scam, selling vulnerable women the latest super anti-aging cream. The website was a fake, though. A perfect clone of the product original where I gathered more information than their Experian account. The individual accounts were useless to my scam. Sure, there were several million dollars over the thousands of accounts that could have easily converted with no trace. That was chump change, though. I stacked a backtrace virus inside the orders. During another scam, I had found a way to skim frac...

Rrrring Willkomen, Bienvenue and Welcome . This is Devil’s Quill Communications, the finest in Human Quality Control. My name is M.C. How may I help you? Oh, you like the Caberet reference, Mr. Bowles? I’m so glad. Yes, I have your records on my screen now. It says your wife is named Sally and she left you for a writer. We have our sources, Sir. Did we make disease and can we transfer it to Sally? I’m afraid not, Sir. This is intake and we don’t handle those types of requests. If you like, I can transfer you to our Get Even division when we finish. Maybe they could make her a Stripper or something. Cross checking her records, she would make a good show. You want to join our organization as a Convincer? We don’t get direct requests like this often. How did you hear about us? Oh, yes. Jim Baaker IS one of our best sponsors. I’m so glad for the feedback. Yes, it was sad about Tammy Faye, but she got the promotion she was looking for. Back to your original request, may I as...