Regular Life

(Note: If you’re just now tuning in, see the short Part One first. I will move this tale to my story blog after this chapter.)
Doug wolfed down a couple ham and cheese HotPockets and showered for work. His company’s willingness to let him set his own work shift had saved him a lot [...]

It all started out as a simple trip to donate leftover garage sale items to Goodwill. It wasn’t dark, but it was getting stormy.
Alex noticed that the SUV parked in the neighbors’ driveway was empty, but its headlights shone on the garage door. They had SUV’s of the same make and model but [...]

She woke to the sun shining through her room window. “Well, Bernie,” she muttered to herself, “you lived to see another day.”
She sat up and straightened her arms above her head to stretch. Her shoulders popped. Her eyes still fuzzy, she could just make out her water bottle, a plastic [...]

I have been fairly easy to entertain all my life.
These days, however, it isn’t so simple. Books still do a pretty good job of earning my thumbs-up, but movies aren’t faring as well. Television, while it has the potential to take the viewer far deeper than a movie can, isn’t doing as well [...]

“This is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.” Her eyes welled as she pulled a tissue from a pastel pink box.
Keith winced at the stock phrase, but was glad he had elicited that reaction. Shelley was pretty and treated him like a person. He was saddened by the thought that her life [...]

(For today, you may preview and/or download “Noel Sing We” from my Free Christmas Song Each Day page)
Wednesday morning, we were out of milk, and with the holiday eating season already in full swing, my resistance was low. I stopped at McDonald’s on the way into work.
I happened to be testing my recorder’s ability to [...]

(After a brief hiatus, I’ve added two short but sweet songs to my Free Christmas Song Each Day page. They are “Joyfully Now Let Praises Ring,” and “Recipe.”)
Speaking of recipes, here’s one for that dip I mentioned in my last post.
Smak
Ingredients:
1 can of corn
2 packages of cream cheese (8 oz.)
1 green bell pepper
1 can chopped [...]

Trena was about a head shorter than Ronnie, a challenge he hadn’t faced before — their jeans weren’t touching where the “V” met. Lying there, struggling to keep everything lined up and to put enough weight on his elbows that he didn’t crush her, Ronnie tried to figure out how he had ended up there, [...]

I’m Bill, but since the day I tried to fly, I’ve gone by Falcon. I’m not married and I have no kids. For a job, I take people back in time.
I started out an honest businessman, and that worked for a while. Then, I got greedy and started deceiving customers. That didn’t work long at [...]

Stivins never set out to implicate someone else in a murder he committed. On that count, however he was two for three. Another man very nearly was convicted for Denise’s death, but investigators never found her body. With neither that nor an eyewitness to foul play, prosecutors had to let the man go free.
He had [...]