Afternoon Saturday, October 12th, 2024 Garin and Joseph drove two hours into Pennsylvania to attend a gun and knife show. Joseph was much more talkative and normal this time and came alive in the gun show to get his hands on so many spectacular firearms. Garin thought about it, but not long, how Joseph hadn’t told him a thing about what he’d done with Lyrou in his bedroom. In his mind, he spoke to him: It’s OK, Joseph, bu...

Afternoon Sunday, June 16th, 2024 Alone at home while Lyrou ran errands with Penny, and Alan was out skateboarding and bike stunting with friends, Garin found a gift box delivered on his front porch, tucked behind a plant pot to prevent porch pirates, with yellow ribbon and black and gold polka dot wrapping. He picked it up and read the tag: ‘To Garin’. Walking it back to the kitchen counter, he began pulling off the wrap...

Afternoon Friday, August 4th, 2023 Garin and Joseph met at the outdoor range biannually. Garin brought the same bolt-action Springfield he’d ever had, which was an old gift from Joey himself. Joseph was there to try out his new precision chassis. Under the least drizzle and a fickle breeze, Joseph loaded his box magazine, “There is the standard cost of living to income per capita, and if the gap between them isn’t wide en...

"So you're bailing on me for Chad?" I roll my eyes, cradling the phone between ear and shoulder while flipping a paper-thin slice of ribeye. "What happened to 'girls' night, lesbians forever'?" "It's not a Chad," Mia laughs through the speaker. "His name's Elliot, and he's a philosophy professor." "Oh, so a Chad with a PhD." I drizzle olive oil into the cast iron, adding shaved garlic that sizzles instantly. "Traitor." "Y...

I let out a sigh of relief as I closed the last of the POs the fools at the warehouse had messed up. “Can’t have one fucking day off,” I muttered for about the third time that morning. I signed out of the terminal and opened my email. Even though I’d thoroughly explained and shown the process to every single person I added to the To address bar, they obviously needed me to draw them a picture. I seriously considered print...

Finally, July was upon us and I was sitting in the living room of our house waiting for Nicola to finish her preparations for the afternoon and evening at Diane and James' house. While she did her ablutions and I waited, my eyes fell on the picture gallery on the wall. I looked at a picture of Nicola and Olivia, she was growing into the spitting image of her mother, only at fifteen, she was already a couple of inches tall...

In one of the hotels that I worked in during my early years working for Armstrong Hotels, I met a woman who studied yoga and meditation. It was after a particularly busy shift she offered to lead a meditation for anyone that was interested. I joined her and never looked back. Over the few months that I was there, she taught me several basics which I have built on since. Whether my workload is heavy or light, I had got int...

All the focus, it seemed, at home and work, was on summer celebrations, with all of the talk and questions from Jake and now the reminder from Nicola about her plans. I did enjoy them, maybe I was a stick in the mud though, because I felt they and the Christmas events could take the focus off of work that still needed to be done. The rest of my journey to work I was thinking about what I had to get done both that day and...

After breakfast was cleared away, Liv was the first to leave. A kiss on the cheek for each of us and she was out of the door and on her way to the bus stop. Just before I left Nicola reminded me that Diane and James were holding their summer barbecue at their house on the first week of July. Their barbecues were fun, although the same word could be used for my work events, it was a different type of fun. The ones for my f...

Before the film had finished, Nicola had fallen asleep with her head in my lap and after laughing to myself, I fell asleep stroking her hair. The only thing that was stiff when I woke up was my neck. The following morning over breakfast I told Nicola about the new employee. “Yes, he must be six-four, six-five and not skinny with it,” I told her. Nicola put on a mock swoon and said, “Sigh, if only my husband had managed an...

When Olivia walked in and dropped onto the sofa next to me, we started the film. The distributors’ logos had not finished rolling when she reached into the bowl of popcorn for a second handful. I already had my arm around Nicola and then Olivia pulled my other arm around her and rested her head on my shoulder. “What am I a bleeding leaning post?” “Hush old man!” Nicola said and fed me some popcorn. Olivia chuckled at that...

When I got in that evening, I knew something was wrong, Olivia gave me a look of concern and Nicola seemed on edge. Dinner was well into preparation which suggested Nicola had been home longer than I would normally have expected. Then when we were done and everything was cleared away, Olivia, gave us both a hug and excused herself to do her homework. As a family we were affectionate and not afraid to hug and kiss, this on...