Amy brushed her hair while looking in the mirror above the dresser. “You sure you’re up for this tomorrow?” she asked.
“Of course,” Stewart said while lying on their bed. “A big old family Christmas is what Christmas is all about.” His words came out but he sounded congested.
She looked at him. “You sound horrible.”
Continue readingAmy stood at the kitchen sink washing dishes. She watched the gentle snow fall outside. In a few short hours, the house would be filled with family gathering for Christmas Eve dinner and there was plenty that still needed to be done. But she couldn’t bring herself to work on the meal. Somehow, she had managed to get the turkey in the oven but that was all her energy level allowed. It was all she could do to hold back tears as she thought of her conversation with her husband last night.
Continue readingAmy stood at the kitchen sink washing dishes. Although it was taking her longer than usual because her thoughts kept drifting as she looked out the window. A gentle snow had been falling most of the day but that wasn’t what she was thinking about. There was still so much to be done and she needed to take advantage of the quiet time while the baby was sleeping and the kids were downstairs watching Christmas movies but she couldn’t focus. Her parents and in-laws would be coming for Christmas dinner in a few hours, yet she couldn’t stay on track with finishing the preparations. Sure, the turkey was in the oven slowly cooking its way to perfection or at the very least, something edible, but all the side dishes needed to be fixed. Yet, here she stood, staring out the window, her hands slowly wiping the dirty dishes and numbly placing them one by one in the drain. No matter how many times she shook her head to regain focus, her thoughts always drifted off to one particular thing: her marriage.
Continue readingIt all started when I found a phone in the gutter. I wondered what the story could be. So, I put something together. As always happens to me, my eyes were bigger than my stomach or in this case, my writing aptitude. I thought I could easily make this a 10-chapter story. Turns out though, I just needed some better editing. But it was too late. I already committed to writing a 10-chapter story not just a normal 5-chapter story. So, I set about stretching it for two months. The story started in July and finished in September with a break in August.
Tony was watching every single movement. It was now day eight, one day past the deadline, and he knew enough to know he should expect something. At least, that was all part of the plan. He was about to give a press conference. Even though he couldn’t see her, he knew Cheyenne was at her post keeping vigilant watch. Any movement caught his eye. Hopefully, this new plan would keep all of Cheyenne’s family members alive.
Continue readingCheyenne took a deep breath and then started her story.
“My great-grandparents immigrated to Wyoming from Czechoslovakia during the coal mine population boom in 1920. At that time, the town was a bit of a melting pot with different ethnicities coming in to work the mines. No one thought any other name was that strange. But my grandpa had other ideas. As a businessman, he shortened the name to Kaye to make it easier to pronounce. ‘If they can’t say the name, they won’t remember the name. If they don’t remember the name, they won’t buy the product’ he would say. So, our family became the Kayes.
Continue readingTony was still upset when he reached the door to the hotel room. He had a bona fide situation on his hands. First of all, his target slipped through his hands which never happens. It had been a long time since he tasted failure and he did not like it one bit. But now he had to do some scrambling. He was going to have to postpone his trip a little longer so that he could finish the job. In order to finish the job, he was going to have to ditch Cheyenne which meant more lying. He shook his head because he really didn’t like that part.
After he did all that, he was going to have to track down the target again knowing the mayor had hired his own gun. Which means the mayor must have known someone was coming for him. Not as small town as Tony thought. That showed a little sophistication Tony had not anticipated.
Continue readingIt was after 8:00 PM by the time they returned to the hotel. Tony waited patiently for Cheyenne to climb into bed. Part of her residual army training made her an early bird and Tony was counting on her going to bed early. Tonight though, she did not. Much to his surprise she was still wide awake at 10:00 PM.
Even his tolerance and patience were being exceeded while he waited for her to doze off. Instead of being able to locate the target’s house during the day he had to spend the time retrieving data from the broken phone. Which meant he was going to have to find it for the first time in the dark of the night. Doable but sloppy work. But it had to be done that night. Cheyenne was expecting for the two to get up and get an early start to the Park.
Continue readingTony looked at his watch. It was only 4 minutes since the last time he snuck a glance. In between time checks he would glare at his brother-in-law. Thanks to Jackson, he spent the afternoon attempting to salvage his work phone. He managed to turn it on and retrieve most of the files he needed. But he had to buy another phone to transfer all the data to which created a data trail. Any type of trail is sloppy work.
Plus, he had the added pressure to do all this while keeping Cheyenne in the dark about how important the phone was for his assignment. She didn’t know anything about the job he was contracted to do. There was no way he could tell her now. How would that go? “Oh, by the way, honey, you know how you think I work on wall street? I don’t. I have killed a stock broker before but you don’t need to know about that. The important thing to remember is I love you and I am changing my whole life because of you. Isn’t that great news?”
Continue readingJuly was a 5-Saturday month. Which means in June, I was scrambling for a story. I had a few ideas but which one to pursue? One day while on a break from work, I took my daily walk down the sidewalk. There in the gutter was a phone. It was cracked and had definitely seen better days. Instead of picking it up, I left it there thinking someone may come looking for it. Of course, I took a picture of it. Then I forgot about it. It was gone by my next walk the following morning.
ck's days 