The Puppy

September 21, 2023 1:27 pmSeptember 22, 2023 3:43 pm / wvfurandroot / Leave a comment

I stared at my beautiful, evil wife and realized the horror had only just begun.

Sabrina was gorgeous, like her name, in that mid 1960s way — full-bodied, statuesque, thick glossy black hair and impossible blue eyes. She was what the old folks called Black Irish — that mating of the Spaniards with the Irish during the Spanish Armada.

I had been woefully unprepared for life with her, having married a scant two weeks after meeting. I was besotted. Another old-fashioned word, but it is the only one that will do.

Asleep, I had felt that uncomfortable sensation of being examined. I rolled over and she was glaring at me – knife in hand.

Sabrina! What the hell! What are you doing?

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Unclaimed Property

August 5, 2023 4:08 amSeptember 22, 2023 3:46 pm / wvfurandroot / Leave a comment

Perhaps you can imagine my surprise. There I am sitting in the doctor’s office waiting to be called back for my annual exam. There’s a newspaper on the coffee table and I’m flipping through it. I haven’t held a newspaper in my hands in years. They’re such dinosaurs now. And I can see why. There is nothing but wire stories that are thinly veiled advertisements for something I don’t want or need.

I flip the page and there’s a whole page of tiny print. Legal ad of some sort. I flip the page but quickly turn it back. Was that my name? My old name?

Sure enough. Maureen D. Jackson and my address from ten years ago.

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Beartown State Park

July 11, 2023 11:37 amSeptember 22, 2023 3:52 pm / wvfurandroot / Leave a comment

Walter didn’t walk. He ambled. Today, though, he had a destination.

Walter wasn’t much of a planner, preferring to be spontaneous or, as he put it, just going with the flow. But the flow today, required some preparation. He had packed a lunch: cheese sandwich, apple, Hostess pink Sno Balls and a bottle of Gatorade. Green.

He had seen the photo in a magazine. Beartown. He was even intrigued by the name. A Vietnam memorial to a lost son deep in the heart of the West Virginia high mountains. A series of boardwalks and large rocks, verdant and mysterious. A sanctuary, sacred and oozing peace. The perfect place to soothe a soul or lift a spirit.

Somewhere he could amble, but he had to get there first.

Not yet dawn and the day was drizzly. He threw a poncho in the backpack with his lunch and DSLR. Yup, he’d pulled out the big guns for Beartown. It looked like a photographer’s dream location – moody yet tranquil. He wondered if there were really bear up there on that part of Droop Mountain. Droop Mountain, for sure, but in this state park? He didn’t know.

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