Always Reforming

We find Oliver (Oly to his friends) travelling down 77 South, nonplussed and road-raging. He was having one of those days.  He had felt exhausted as soon as he had torn himself from his pillow and he had already had a long day before the Eastern Time Zone reached 9:00 A.M. He was annoyed with the sun in his eyes.  He was annoyed with the inane radio show hosts.  He was, above all, annoyed with his fellow motorists crawling down the expressway.  Obscenities and fossil fuels filled the air as impatient drivers fought bumper-to-bumper traffic in a doomed attempt to make it to work by 9. "Just my luck," he thought aloud. Oly dreamt of having a job to which he could be late, and, accordingly, was en route to a job interview at an IT start-up.  It was not the most prestigious job opportunity in the world, but it was significantly more prestigious than the burger-flipping he had been doing for the decade since his high school graduation. As he checked the cl...

Sam slowly opened his eyes.  The world was obscured by his fluttering eyelids and the blood streaming down his face.  Dazed, he tried to find his bearings, shock absorbing the pain he did not yet feel. What is that noise?   He cautiously looked to his left to see the profile of his best friend slumped over on the steering wheel, his weight causing the horn to blare. A crowd began to gather around the macabre scene, human nature finding the intrigue too difficult to resist.  Their hushed gasps harmonized with the blaring horn and the crunch of the glass beneath their feet. "Call 911!" Sam whispered, attempting to scream, but the sirens could already be heard approaching in the distance. "Hold on, Mark," he said, painfully stretching out his bloodied hand to touch the still figure.  Mark offered no response. Sam's heart began to race.  His senses began to return.  Reality swept over him like floodwaters bursting over a levee.  "Maaaaaaaa...

Shane’s First Day     Shane rubbed his tired eyes and peered at the clock on the nightstand—4:15. It’s too early for anyone to be awake , he thought.   He was starting a new job though, and he couldn’t afford to be late.      He pulled his 38-year-old frame out of bed and stumbled to the bathroom.  He flipped the lights on and moved to the shower.  He placed one leg in the shower.  As he raised his other leg, he lost his balance, his full weight crashing down on the unforgiving laminate floor.  He let out a disoriented moan as he reached for the back of his head.  Good—no blood.  What a way to start a day!  He slowly rose and climbed into the shower, this time carefully grabbing hold of the railing.  He felt the steam open his pores and thin his blood.  He felt good about this day.     Shane sat down at the kitchen table.  His wife placed a hot plate of bacon and eggs in front...

                                               A Fighting Chance     Sarah sighed.  “I don’t even know where he is right now,” she said, a tear grazing her cell phone as it found its way down her flushed cheek.      Her sister, Olivia, listened on the other end of the line.  “How can you not know where your husband is?”  She heard nothing but restrained sobs.  “I’m sorry, honey.  I didn’t mean it like that.”     “No, you’re right,” Sarah replied.  “I guess it’s no secret that we haven’t exactly had the best marriage the last couple of years.”     “Everybody hits a rough patch...”     “No, this was different.  We’ve been fighting like crazy for the last six months.  We can’t even stand to be in the same room together without ripping each oth...