Acquiesce (and Check, please)
The young couple sits together on the same side of the booth. The boy tries to teach his completely beautiful girlfriend how to play chess–or not how to play, precisely, … Continue reading
Mess Things Up.
After all, there is nothing but failure. If at least we have the will to fail we make progress. If we give up each time before we have started we … Continue reading
To Slow Down, Change Locations
He wanted to slow life up and he quite rightly felt that by traveling he would make time move with less rapidity. You have this noticed yourself, I expect, on … Continue reading
Postcard for Addy #2: Budapest and Vienna
Dear Addy, Greetings, dear niece of mine. I’ll see you soon (just in time for your 6th birthday!), but I wanted to share a few more pictures from my trip. … Continue reading
It Takes One to Waltz
A boy in a hooded sweatshirt tips back his generic energy drink, then pauses under the illuminated sign for a dance studio. In the window, a display of streamers and … Continue reading
Saturday-Ja-Vu: The Bus Boys
Two boys on a bus that you may have missed, or may enjoy re-visiting. Have a nice weekend! A Seat of One’s Own
Macho Maço Man
He struts wide, pacing to both sides of the sidewalk as he walks. He thrusts his arms out, adjusting his button-up shirt on his frame, propelling himself forward with a … Continue reading
I Know This Much Is True
The artist is learning a special language in which to reveal truth. If you write, write from the heart, yet carefully, objectively. Never pose. Write little things which you think … Continue reading
Overhead
Still not moving–thirty minutes after the departure time. Passengers check the clocks on their cell phones, sigh, slap their legs, make utterances in their native tongues. When the bus to … Continue reading
Morning Routine: Vienna
A woman on her balcony turns her back to the street and raises her arms in a wide V overhead. She stretches at her reflection in the balcony windows. She … Continue reading
How Was Your Day?
I have discovered that most people have no one to talk to, no one, that is, who really wants to listen. When it does at last dawn on a man … Continue reading
Good Health. You’re Welcome.
Life can be hard for non-smokers who don’t have the tasks and belongings of smokers to keep their hands busy. Instead must find ways to deal with our hands, to … Continue reading
Dreaming Unfinished Stories (Vienna Edition)
There were so many stories to write about that Miss Willerton never could think of one. That was always the hardest part of writing a story, she always said. She … Continue reading
Uncanny
A full-blooded American, she was…She was routinely kind to other people, assumed they had good intentions; she smiled at strangers; it mattered to her what they thought and felt. She … Continue reading
Take Care
The bus trip from Vienna to Trogir, Croatia takes twelve hours and rolls overnight. As the monster idles–half the passengers taking final drags on cigarettes and patting at their relatives–a … Continue reading
For the (Mean) Professor who told me to be Realistic
On a brilliant November day, my students talked me into teaching outside. So we were at an outdoor amphitheater on the Danube when I broke into the story of the … Continue reading
Mensch!
On the long day before a set of flights home to Colorado, I helped with a Halloween party in a private Austrian school. My favorite child, Phillip, with a perpetual … Continue reading
Not Helpless
I was trudging home from an English lesson with my astounding student, an asylum seeker and former child soldier from Sierra Leone who had the most remarkably shy smile. He … Continue reading
Bitte Schön
Greetings from Overcast Istanbul! I’m here collecting new scraps of stories and taking a little time to reset and reassess. This week I’m reblogging three posts from the early days … Continue reading
Rock With You
The bus is running and the doors hang open, but not a single passenger climbs in. At other gates people impatiently crowd the doors, but at #3, everyone waits on … Continue reading
The Nice Thing About Strangers 