William Lobb's Blog, page 20

From The Berry Pickers

The old woman pressed the flat palms of both her hands along her lap, trying to straighten the creases in her old, faded blue and white cotton house-dress. Then she looked back up at me and continued. ”Late July was a slow time, life kind of moved like mud up in them hills. A sweaty […]

As A Boy…

As a boy when I’d sit in church I’d feel intimidated and inadequate and scared. In later years I’d realize that was design. Church made me feel isolated and failed. Everybody was in on the secret except me. Everybody knew and loved this man, Jesus, in their hearts. I could not know someone I’d never […]

A Day at the Nursing Home

I’m to a meeting at the nursing home. Care plans and insurance problems and the fact I smuggle Ma whiskey… why not? Seriously why the fuck not? The nurse agrees. Ma hasn’t started any fights. She was always the happy drunk, the fun drunk. She took a real, pure joy from her drink. Something that […]

Hometown

My hometown was a small city in the north and it always felt like mid-October. A place that always was always in-between, like summer just passed and winter not quite yet come. Like twilight. A warm and colorful and dark and foreboding place. Full of life and lifeless. At times quiet and complex and terrifying […]

From The Berry Pickers

Wiping his greasy hand across his craggy and pockmarked face; rubbing two fingers hard and deep in his eye sockets until tears appear. “I spose, I shouldn’t a killed her, that girl. The junkie hooker. It wasn’t my fault, entirely, you got to remember, I went there to preach to her, to heal her. I […]

The Champ

Shavers, Spinks, Holmes, and Berbick… The last fights were as important, as defining, as the early fights. As important as Rome in 1960, as important as Sonny Liston, as Joe Frazier, George Foreman. Ernie Terrell, 1967, learned his name was not Cassius Clay. Ali could never retire. Ali had to be whupped. That’s the thing […]

Driving Whiskey

Pearlman pulled a bottle of Jamison’s Irish Whiskey from a brown bag as we bounced in the Jeep. We were headed up the road to La Malaza. Soon we’d pass the scene of the attack that killed Carmella and Rodrigo. I was driving and following his mysterious orders.  “My Daddy’s favorite driving whiskey,” he said […]

October, 1965

It was October ‘65 and it was cold night with no moon. My father had died the previous April and I was still pretty pissed off about that, and all that went along with fathers dying. I didn’t like people feeling sorry for me, and I started to like fighting a lot. I’d stopped talking […]

Ricky

There is this kid, Ricky, he works for a client of mine. A constant question asked at this place, “Where is Ricky?” Ricky does electrical work, he drives the truck, he mounts tires, he manages the parts room, he mows the lawn. He pulls data cable. He builds walls and hangs and tapes sheetrock. I […]

The Wisdom of Reverend Jimmy B. Tester

On prayin’ I’ll tell you this: As a boy, I lived in fear God would rat me out. I never saw no reason to be bowing my head and confessing anything. I wasn’t much on trusting anybody. Why should this God fella be any different? The day this God and that old woman started talkin’ […]