James Pyles's Blog, page 149
May 23, 2018
The Old People’s Plant
“You’ve got to be kidding.” He was smart enough not to say that out loud because his wife had just put the planter on their kitchen table. “So what do you think?” She’d asked a question almost as bad as “Do these pants make me look fat?” He decided to take a risk. “I like […]
May 22, 2018
Forlorn Rendezvous
“A child’s eyes light up when they see their Grandpa.” –Catherine Pulsifer “Where is she? Are she and Leah well? Don’t just sit there man!” Isaiah was as frantic as Keisha had ever seen him during the short time they’d known each other. At the first mention of his Mom’s name, Josiah rushed over to […]
What’s So Scary About Dexter Brock?
“Oh, there it is.” Robin looked up from her seat on the bench to see a familiar face, but didn’t have a name to attach to it. “What?” “My glove. Thought I’d lost it.” He could have been as old as her Grandpa, but he was just the guy who took care of the grounds […]
May 21, 2018
The Last Exploit of the Escapist
The Escapist initiated the landing sequence as the ship began its rapid descent into the stratosphere, his neurochemical link to the spacecraft’s control systems making this nearly reflexive. “Welcome to my world, Jack. Glad you could join the party.” The voice of the Beast crackled in his audio receptors sounding as if he were a game-show host […]
May 20, 2018
What Are You Trying to Tell Me?
I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand, and this is a distinguishing mark in every letter; this is the way I write. He closed his Bible at the end of 2 Thessalonians 3:17 and pondered. Did Paul know that his letters, those that survived to be canonized anyway, would become binding instructions for all […]
The Battle for the Holy Grail Moose Milk
Stop! Don’t read this unless you’ve first read The Runaway Stuffed Rabbit! Alfred the Rainbow Rabbit sitting on the back of Merlyn the Dragon shot up into the air over Ana’s backyard like a bullet. The nine-year-old girl’s Mom witnessing the astonishing sight nearly fainted, and the Buddy the Ambrosial Dragon followed the pair a […]
The Tunnel Dwellers
Thousands of people had taken the tour of Seattle’s underground, what was left of the original city after the devastating 1889 fire. The city was rebuilt on its ruins one to two stories above, leaving these tunnels as a monument to history. However, only a few realized that just a portion of the original underground was […]
May 19, 2018
Saving the Prophet
The ceiling for his craft was infinity, and its floor was an age. It provided a buffer, so that the passing of a season or a millennium was all the same. In this way, he could not only travel up and down the corridors of his own history, but diverge into many others. Once at […]
The Sins of Our Fathers
The vintage Beechcraft AT-11 landed eight souls on a little dirt airstrip near San Ignacio de Velasco in Bolivia. Intelligence said he’d be making a stopover in this tiny hamlet to visit an old friend, another German expat. He’d just founded Transmaritima, Bolivia’s first ocean shipping company and was anxious to brag about it, especially to […]
May 18, 2018
Walking to the End of My World
And when you walk around the world, babe, You said you’d try to look for the end of the road, You might find out later that the road’ll end in Detroit, Honey, the road’ll even end in Kathmandu. You can go all around the world Trying to find something to do with your life, baby, […]
