tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57809785331238716422024-02-18T21:04:10.297-07:00Jade BarnabyAuthorUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5780978533123871642.post-32040277369767247802014-03-07T00:30:00.000-07:002014-03-07T00:30:02.408-07:00Spring Fling Blog Hop! :: "How did you get your idea?"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Although I've lived through a few whirlwind romances in my life and I've been a professional writer for years, I never tried my hand at romance writing--never, that is, until my friend and fellow romance author <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DanicaWinters">Danica Winters</a> encouraged me to submit a story for the publishing company's Valentine Romance series.<br />
<br />
With about six weeks to write 15,000 words, I jumped <a href="http://www.amazon.com/While-Hes-Away-Jade-Barnaby-ebook/dp/B00HZ8A8R0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394125834&sr=8-1&keywords=jade+barnaby">right in</a>. (Or, rather, I sat right down at my computer and typed like my fingers were on fire.)<br />
<br />
Of course, before I could start all that typing, I had to figure out what my romance was going to be. Sweet? Sexy? Intergalactic?<br />
<br />
I came up with a list of romantic premises based on my own experiences, fantasies, and stories friends have told me over the years. Many of these are sure to become future publications--two are already in the works for this summer and fall. But the one idea that kept tugging at my imagination actually came to me in a dream.<br />
<br />
<i>I am taking care of a friend's house--someone I haven't seen for a long, long time. Though it's been years and he is far away, I feel connected to him as I live in his space, with his things. I walk though his kitchen and see his shoes by the door. I sit down at his computer and see notes jotted and photos tacked on the wall. I curl up in his twin bed with soft navy blue sheets, and, little by little, find myself falling in love. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
As I thought about writing the dream into a story, the ache of these questions arose:<br />
How can I tell him I love him when I don't know when--or if--he will return?<br />
How can I tell him I love him when we haven't seen each other face-to-face for so long, only communicating over email and phone?<br />
How can I tell him I've fallen in love with the intimate details of his life, when he knows next to nothing about me?<br />
And, finally, what if the person I think I've fallen in love with bears little to no resemblance to the person he actually is?<br />
<br />
These questions were far too enticing to ignore, and the answers became the story line for <a href="http://www.amazon.com/While-Hes-Away-Jade-Barnaby-ebook/dp/B00HZ8A8R0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394125834&sr=8-1&keywords=jade+barnaby">While He's Away</a>. I hope you love the story--and the story behind the story.<br />
<br />
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~~~</div>
<b><br /></b>
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<script src="http://www.simply-linked.com/listwidget.aspx?l=547C62E6-ECC8-4934-993D-31AA1AB54FE7" type="text/javascript"></script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5780978533123871642.post-56262714146643464352014-02-26T21:10:00.000-07:002014-02-26T22:45:44.576-07:00Flash fiction: The Release<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She
left four messages for him that day: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">12:45pm.
“Dad, where are you? You’re supposed to be home. Call me.”</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1:02pm.
“Daddy, pick up your pho-one.”</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1:22pm.
“C’mon, dude. Seriously. This is the last time I’m calling.”</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1:57pm.
“Dad? I’ve left like a million messages for you. <i>What</i> is up?
This SUCKS.”</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
EMTs put his phone in a gallon-sized plastic bag, along with his wallet and
spare change. Twelve missed calls, it read, by the time his sister Deb arrived
at the hospital to identify his body.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 13.5pt;">The
accid</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 13.5pt;">ent hadn’t left a mark on him.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When
Aunt Deb came home from the hospital, she picked Karina up in her arms as
though she were a small child. Karina’s slender, pre-pubescent body stayed
rigid in her aunt’s embrace; she did not cry.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At
midnight, Karina awoke with her face bathed in tears. She was confused, at
first, about why she was crying. She walked halfway down the long hallway to
the lighted bathroom. Her dad’s room—once her parents’ room, and now no one’s
room—was at the other end of the hall. When she looked at the closed door, she
remembered. She breathed in so sharply it hurt.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She
began gasping for air like a beached fish, like the northern pike her dad had
thrown up on the shore. She dropped to the bare wood floor, convulsing in silence,
wishing she were dying, too.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">~~~</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
pike had been one of dozens, even hundreds, they’d caught this summer. Nothing
remarkable about him; just a trash fish that folks around here believed in
beaching. Certain times of the summer, the woods around the lake were so
littered with northerns in various states of decay that the smell sometimes kept people off the beaches.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It
had been Karina’s eleventh birthday, that day the outboard motor had died, and
they’d had to find a way back to the other side of the lake.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
shallow, mucky water was warm enough to wade to shore, where the evidence of
their prolific morning of fishing was in turn gasping, flopping and drying. One
sacrifice had squirmed nearly ten feet—almost back to the lapping edge of the
lake. His tail curled up into the June air and unfurled into the shallow, tepid
water. His journey had left him covered with sand.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When
Karina’s dad stepped ashore he picked up the pike by the tail and chucked him
deeper into the woods.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Why’d
you do that?” she asked.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He
looked at her and shook his head.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It
isn’t fair, Karina thought, curling her upper lip.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She’d
felt guilty about killing the fish, but she’d trusted her dad and hadn’t
argued. Plus, they were often with one or more of his fishing buddies, who were
already skeptical of her presence: First, she was a kid, and second, she was a
girl. She’d had a lot of practice at being both useful and invisible, to
compensate. She unhooked her own fish, tied her own knots, and handed out beers
from the cooler. She didn’t even act squeamish when threading worms, minnows or
leaches onto a hook, though she knew she was sending them to their deaths.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At
that moment, standing on the gritty lip of the dirty little lake, peering out
across the lake, surrounded by a dozen or more dead and dying northerns, her
father looked different, almost unrecognizable. He looked like Marvin or Butch
or Harry, one of the guys they fished with, or like Cliff, the unshaven guy at
the Cottonwood Lake Bait Shop who sold them the Styrofoam container of worms,
the Dr. Pepper and potato chips. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Well,
damnit,” he grunted, dialing his cell phone. She assumed he was calling Butch
or Harry, both of whom had boats, to see if one of them could come retrieve
them. But he wasn’t one to explain, and she’d learned not to ask. When he was
like this, sometimes he lost track of what had pissed him off. It was best not
to give him an object for his frustration.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She
remembered the little digital camera in her dry bag, a birthday present from
her mother, who she’d see in a week or so, when she left to stay with her for the
summer. She tucked the camera into her pocket and picked her way up the shore
into the cottonwoods.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
fish her dad had thrown was easy to find. He had hit a tree and fallen at its
feet. He was still coated with sand, though not as much. Despite her practiced
stoicism, she couldn’t bring herself to touch the fish.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He
was still, and beautiful, Karina thought. He looked like a cement sculpture of
a fish, scaly and gritty and brown. When the wind blew she noticed strange
patterns migrating across his body, thrown by dappled sunlight. She took his
picture.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
fish suddenly slapped his tail, startling Karina. She pulled away so quickly
she hit herself in the face with her camera and fell backwards into a scratchy bush. How long had it been since he was pulled from the lake? she
wondered. How long had he been suffocating in the open air?</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He
twitched again. She shot up as though she’d been bitten, and turned to return
to her father. Halfway there she could hear his voice carried through the
trees. “Nothing going on today,” he was telling their potential rescuer.
“Fishin’s slow.”</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Except
for these “trash” fish, who didn't even merit a mention. They’d caught at least six
apiece that morning, though nothing else was biting. She changed her mind and
went back to the fish in the woods.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Again
he wasn’t moving. She didn’t reach down to pick him up; somehow it felt different
than unhooking a live fish or touching a dead “keeper” in the cooler. She
rolled him over with her toe, pushing him towards the water. He didn’t respond.
She rolled him again and again. He collected twigs and leaves to himself as he
went, as though building a cocoon from forest floor litter. She wanted to stop
to take his picture again; he looked like a mythical creature, a land-water
hybrid that could grant wishes or exercise magic. But she knew she had already
wasted too much time.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Once
she reached the lip of the woods, she scooted the fish quickly down the sandy
beach, trying not to draw her father’s attention. The fish finally rolled into
the shallowest water, releasing a cloud of dirt and debris wherever the water
touched him. The lake lapped him, a mother cat tonguing her nursling.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Karina
willed the fish to breathe, to make a final gasp and in so doing discover that
he could breathe again. She nudged him out into deeper water. She splashed him
to wash him clean. He rolled under as though weighted, turning his pale yellow
belly to the sun. She finally touched him and found that he was no longer
slimy, as a fish should be, but instead smooth and plastic, like the underside
of their crippled boat. She submerged him, holding him underwater; drowning him
to resurrect him.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When
she let go, he turned belly-up and floated back to the surface.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“What’re
you doing, Karina?”</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She’d
forgotten about her father. She was caught red-handed, trying to save a fish
that he’d deliberately sentenced to die. He looked from her to the fish and
back again. He raised his eyebrows. “Huh,” was all he said, as he pulled their
little Sea Nymph to shore.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
fish floated out farther. He wasn’t even trying to swim.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She
followed her father to land. The pike were drying out all around them; not one
fin flipped, not one gill bellowed. She looked closely.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Butch’ll
be here in a minnit,” her dad told her.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She
stepped back into the water, and took a picture of him with a dozen dead fish
at his feet.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">~~~</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">After
the funeral, she spent two days in bed. Her mother temporarily returned with
her to the house they had all once shared, so Karina could pack her things, but she has a hard time doing so. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Her mother's new baby, Karina's half-sister, needed a lot of attention, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 13.5pt;">so there was no one to force her to
talk. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 13.5pt;">It was as though the house were haunted by two spirits unaware of one
another, but both mindful of the house’s only legitimate
occupant—the man who had shoveled the now blown-over front sidewalk, whose
shoes were in the front closet, whose leftover chili was going bad in the
refrigerator.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On her last day in her father's house, Karina crawled into her father’s bed, and she dreamed of him.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She
stands on a pile of rocks in the middle of a big river, facing upstream. The
faster, boiling currents of the river rush by on the right. A slow, calm pocket
of water swirls on the left.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Her
father stands in the calm pocket, fishing. It's deep; he's in water up to his
chest. As she watches him, she sees a huge, vibrant fish coming towards his
lure. She searches frantically for her camera, panicked that she will miss the
picture.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">After
a few flustered moments, she realizes she’s already holding the camera. She has
the dreamers' frustration of moving too slow, too slow.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
fish is big and wriggly and barely caught. Her father holds it high, but
just as she is about to snap the picture, the fish leaps into the air. The shutter closes in time to capture only the empty space the fish has left behind.</span></i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5780978533123871642.post-41500674078141706352014-02-21T15:02:00.002-07:002014-02-21T15:12:42.509-07:00Microfiction: Things left behind<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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<b style="text-align: center;"><br /></b>
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<b>Things Left Behind</b></div>
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Among other misfiled sundries, the box of Legos held a
three-legged rhinoceros and a malfunctioning battery-powered choo-choo train. The
box also stored—surprise!—a dozen or so actual Legos; a solitary argyle sock,
toddler-sized, smelling faintly of peanut butter and pee; and the mama’s
wedding ring, missing for 17 days. (She was still counting the days.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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On the night the ring had gone missing, she had fretted about
whether or not to wear it. She didn’t want to deceive anyone, exactly, but… an
empty ring finger would certainly make things less complicated. It kept options
open.<o:p></o:p></div>
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She'd pictured her husband in a hotel room in Ohio or
Illinois or Michigan, removing his ring, leaving it in a sock in his suitcase. He
traveled so much for work she had agreed, almost a year ago, to this arrangement:
open. No need to ask questions or share lustful details, they agreed. And no
falling in love. <o:p></o:p></div>
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She assumed he was pleased with the agreement – he was home
less often—and that he took full advantage of it. She, home with the
two-year-old, had not. <o:p></o:p></div>
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With slight hesitation, she dropped the ring into her oversized
mommy purse on the dining room table. It clinked down amidst baby wipes, toy
cars, and an assortment of Crayolas. Then she crammed lipstick, cell phone and cards
into her glittery handbag, which wouldn’t hold even a pack of gum more, and bid
the babysitter goodnight.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The child, bathed and clad in monkey pajamas and mismatched
socks, mumbled goodbye, eyeing the peanut butter and honey sandwiches the
babysitter held. “Brush teeth, two books, then bedtime,” mommy said on her way
out the door.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The babysitter read herself to sleep, one arm and one leg
hanging from the toddler’s bed. The boy, undrowsy, clambered over the foot rail
and into a toy box. Among the stuffed animals, puzzle pieces and alphabet
books, he found a sippy cup half-full of fermenting juice and gulped until he
was satisfied. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The only light in the house was the kitchen’s, so there he went.
Climbing from chair to table was a routine matter, and he perched on the
formica, monkey in a treetop, to root around in mama’s purse. Keys, lipstick,
lighters, mints—a bottomless well of fascination and reprimand. He sifted past
things meant for children to seize the more-interesting pens, insurance cards
and fingernail clippers. The only sound was the rev and retreat of a nearby
car. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Squatting on the tabletop, he held up a treasure: a gold
ring. He put it on each finger, his tongue and his nose—briefly—before it slid
off and clanged to the floor. He froze, expecting a parental reaction. The
house, the dog and the babysitter were quiet.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But then the sliding door sighed an air pressure sigh, and the
boy looked up.<o:p></o:p></div>
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“Daddy!” he said. “You came back!”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The dad’s mouth made a smile but his eyes did not. He put a
finger to his lips. “Shhh, buddy. Let’s not wake mommy.” He reached into his
pocket and jangled out a keyring. He unthreaded two keys from it and laid them
next to her purse.<o:p></o:p></div>
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He swept an arm around the boy and buried his nose in his hair.
A hard kiss on his head. “I love you, buddy. Daddy’s gotta go.” Then he was
gone.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The child, accustomed to his daddy’s departure, climbed down
off the table to retrieve the ring, which he stuck in his sock. Then he walked
down the hall to his parents’ room, and put himself to bed. <o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5780978533123871642.post-68328285319877588292014-01-27T13:10:00.000-07:002014-01-27T13:10:03.661-07:00New release -- While He's AwayI'm pleased to announce that my first release, the short story <a href="http://www.amazon.com/While-Hes-Away-Jade-Barnaby-ebook/dp/B00HZ8A8R0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1390853345&sr=8-2&keywords=while+he%27s+away"><i>While He's Away</i></a>, is now available for purchase as an e-book!<br />
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