My Short Stories
My stories are listed from newest to oldest with new stories added as time permits.
The Grand Divorce
We were born married to her. For better or worse, we were bound together for life. When we were young, we played together, and she gave us so much joy. As we aged, she told us what she needed, but we ignored her. Her needs didn't matter. As she grew more and more discontent, she gave us warning signs but, still, we pursued our own dreams and chased the money we needed. Instead of listening to her,...
I Was The Last To Know
This story is told with permission. I've had more than a few bad dating experiences, the most famous being when The FBI Arrested My Girlfriend. I've not dated since then, not even so much as a thought of dating, so imagine my surprise when I found out I'd been dating someone for over a month! The First Sighting: My local gym (actually the only real choice) is at the community center. It has broken...
What To Say Before You Die
As we get older, we see more and more of our friends and family pass away. The worst are the sudden deaths because there is no chance to say goodbye. But when there is a chance to say goodbye, how do we do that? What words do we use? It turns out, my dad gave us the answer. Poopsy was my dad. Technically, he was my stepdad, but he married my mom in 1963 when I was barely in first grade, and he raised...
When Coyotes Howl
People think owning a bar in a ski resort is glamorous, but, truthfully, it's an insane amount of work. Dillon, Colorado, where my bar was located, serves Keystone and Arapahoe Basin ski resorts, and is 20ish minutes to Breckenridge and 30 minutes to Vail. That's a lot of skiers. We also have Lake Dillon and the reservoir (the water supply for Denver), which brings boaters in from June through September,...
How To Read A Dating Profile
It was a few months after my divorce in 2001 and I’d recently moved into my new "bachelors apartment." Friends were dropping by to check on me and see how I was adapting to single life. Well, since I was miserable in my marriage, I was adapting quite well. I missed my kids terribly but otherwise, life was really good and I was getting back to doing some of the things I had missed for nearly 20 years....
My Happy New Year
While this year has had a few downs, overall, it's been a wonderful year with some amazing milestones. I'll start with the downs and get those out of the way. The Downs: Thankfully, there aren't many, but the few I had I view as significant. The Diagnosis: Tom isn't just one of my best buddies. he's my daughter's stepdad, and we've co-dadded for nearly 30 years. We go camping together, make all manner...
Santa Is Real
Santa is really real! Wait! Let me explain... As a child, we’re all taught about Santa, and we lucky ones would even get to go to a store or shopping mall and sit on Santa’s lap. We’d tell Santa what we wanted for Christmas, and be told by Santa that “he’d see” and that we “needed to be good.” Eventually, my friends stopped believing, but not me! No way! I had proof! You see, every...
The FBI Arrested My Girlfriend
Some Context: Before I get to the meat of the story, I feel like I need to put my dating experience into context, and the best way to do that is to share a conversation between one of my sons and me. I started taking my son to the gym with me when he was in high school. Each morning, we'd wake up at 6 a.m. and hurry out the door so we could work out, do some cardio, grab showers, and I could drop him...
My Suicide Attempt
4 years ago today, I leaned against a tree and stuck a gun in my mouth. I intended to end my life. I usually post something on social media about that day. Today, I'm going to share more... Recently, I had a conversation with a widow whose husband had taken his own life. She didn't understand. "I was an Army officer with a college degree; he was a high school dropout. He never worked because I had...
My Many Names
Recently, a friend and I were out, and as we ran into people I knew, he asked, "Why do so many people call you by so many different names?" I laughed. Phillip is my given name, and for some reason, I've always hated it. I suppose it goes back to when, as a child, my mother would call me Phillip when I was in trouble (quite often). Nowadays, it's usually a clansman's wife who will call me Phillip, and...
I Got Fired
It was Sunday, shortly before noon, when my phone rang. I answered and heard the familiar voice of my teenage son, and after a few pleasantries, he asked, "Dad, can I come live with you?" "Certainly," I replied. "But why do you want to?" "If I stay here, my life will not end well for me," was his response. As I listened to what he was experiencing, his every word ripping open a scar my heart carried...
The Confession
I knew it was getting close to my daughter's two-week summer vacation with me, and I knew there’d be questions about what to pack, where we'd be going, etc., but when I answered this call, I wasn’t expecting to hear a crying and panicked daughter. I asked, "What’s wrong?" "Mom told me to pack all my shit because I wasn’t coming back!" she cried into the phone.Barely able to speak between sobs,...
The Old/Young Game
How The Game Began: My daughter Katie and I have always loved our road trips. We played games, talked, invented stories, and just enjoyed our car time together. On one particular trip, Katie had just finished 8th grade and was about to turn 14, and we were driving from my place in Plantation, FL to our favorite beach in the middle keys for some snorkeling, and she was telling me about this wonderful...
The Watcher
This story begins at the Knoxville Museum of Art, where I volunteered at the front desk on Friday afternoons. It’s a great gig because you get to be the welcoming, smiling face that people need, and sometimes you get to meet some amazingly wonderful people. If you’re facing the front desk, there’s a room off to your left we call the Creative Corner, which, primarily, is a room for kids to create...
I Have No Fear of Satan
I have no fear of Satan. He cannot do me more than has been done. There is no pain he can give that will be greater than what God has given and I have endured. There will be no burden heavier than I have carried. What will you do Satan, strip away the love in my family? My own mother never once cared. Hell, the woman made me a German Chocolate cake for my 15th birthday knowing full well I hate coconut! Satan,...
What I Should Have Learned From My Son’s Death
It’s funny how some people can learn lessons early and quickly while others spend a lifetime of making the same mistake over and over again. It’s not until we get much older and look back that we can see the pattern, examine the choices we’ve made and dig into why we made them. It’s taken me nearly 46 years to figure out this piece. A Warning Sign Ignored: I met MB when I was stationed in Germany....
Losing My Religion
My First Church Brantwood Baptist Church in Dayton, Ohio was just down the road from our house on Wanetta Ave. In my mind, I can still walk there and I can clearly remember the steps leading up the vestibule, the parking lot, the Sunday School classes in the basement, and the baptismal pool behind the pulpit and how cold that water was. I remember we were there EVERY Sunday morning for Sunday School...
Slinging Mud
They were just leaving their 5th wedding together. At the other weddings, they had merely been guests but at this one, she had been a bridesmaid and he had been a groomsman. They were both quite close to the newly married couple and stood glowing as they watched their friends drive away from the church dragging their "just married" cans behind the limo. At the reception they faced lots of joking, "You...
Down On Love
My brother Harry and I had just returned from three months in Colorado. What a blast we had (and I already knew I was going back). There were hiking adventures, bar fights, girls, and payphones (which led to more girls). It's amazing the trouble two boys can get into! We arrived back in Atlanta around noon on Friday. His old girlfriend Brenda had agreed to let us couch-surf at her place for a few days......
I Cheated and I Have No Regrets
Katie is my daughter. She is one of many wonderful results of my affair with her mom, Amanda. While neither I, her mom, or other family members had ever kept the affair a secret, we had limited the conversation to age-appropriate answers. I was uninvited from a daughter's wedding (for trying to set a boundary) so I called Amanda and told her what happened and we cried together. She then asked me what...
Poopsy: The Man
If you haven’t read my story about Lady, you may want to as it adds a little more to this story. The Name Poopsy: How did this man become known as Poopsy? Well, this man married my mother and moved us into his house in Fairborn, OH. He, my mom, and a few of my older brothers were painting the front of the house and we kids were running around the yard playing. Mom and Gerry (his real name) were pestering...
LY85B - The Number Greater Than Infinity
At some point, every parent plays the game… you look at your child and say "I love you" only to be met with "I Love you more" and you respond with "No, I love you more!" and the game is on! Every parent who’s played this game also knows there’s a time when their child will break out the "infinity card" and say "Well, I love you times infinity!" and they’re so certain of their victory that you...
Dancing Through A Rainbow
Some naming history: When my daughter Katie was about 8, she struggled with what to call her stepdad Tom and I. If she called us both Dad as she had been doing, it got confusing. Ultimately, she decided to call Tom, her stepdad, Dad because she was with him every day and I was called Daddy. 33 years later, that's what she still calls us. Katie's mother, Amanda, passed in December 2023. The Story: Nothing...
Lady
Mom and Dad divorced in 1962 as I was just finishing kindergarten. Not long after Mom moved us into public housing. I don’t remember much about that summer other than I was in the hospital for almost a month with a ruptured appendix. What I remember most from that time is Mom meeting Gerry, them getting married and him becoming my stepdad. He was a really nice man who brought peace, happiness and...
When Your Daddy Holds Your Hand
This story needs a little context. Today is Thanksgiving Day, 2023. It was just a few minutes past noon when I called Daddy. I knew he'd answer and I knew he knew my weekend was busy. I'd traveled to Charleston with my hubby, mom and stepdad to visit my in-laws. Mom has been diagnosed with a terminal disease and isn't expected to live past April 2024. Daddy knows this and Daddy could have come with...
My Purpose
From the moment I sprouted I knew I was destined to grow and become something special but no one told me what that would be. Like any generation, there were many like me and, from a distance, we all looked the same but to each of us within that generation, we could easily tell one another apart. Somehow, I knew about seasons and I knew each would present its own challenges but I had no idea what to...
The Lamp
“Daddy, why is this lamp so important to you?” I chuckled as I finished dusting and adjusting the shade. One glance at my daughter, Katie, told me she was dead serious so I took a seat beside her on the couch. Looking in her eyes, I saw the same soft brown eyes reflecting the same inquisitiveness that drove her mother. I smiled. “So?” she prodded. I asked, “When you look at that lamp, what...
Did He Deserve an Explanation?
It was Christmas morning 1962 in Dayton, Ohio. Despite the foot or two of snow visible through the picture window, inside was warm and comfortable. More importantly, the tree was packed with presents as Santa had come the night before (he really did, I saw him with my own eyes!). Like any 5-year-old who, the night before, had been hiding behind the couch and literally saw Santa stuff presents under...
The Guff
In early translations of the bible the word for “hell” had one meaning, “out of God’s sight” or, as the Talmud teaches, to “cease to exist.” In later versions of the bible (KJV) hell has been understood to mean a life of torment and I wonder how this mistranslation came to be. I ponder this as I stand in line in the Guff, or Hall of Souls, for what seems like the 5th time while waiting...