Stories

            Five forty-five, I’m up to take the dogs for a walk. Two very large, lovable, and constantly licking chocolate labs named Clark and Mable. Both from the same litter, which is a mistake, but the puppies were so attached, I couldn’t break the brother and sister apart. I put their shock collars on—never use…

There were no steel bars. It was minimum security. It was like summer camp for grown-up reprobates. There were no heavily armed guards walking around with clubs or spying on us perched from towers. This would be home for a few months. I would leave “rehabilitated” but without my medical license. With what I did,…

INTO THE WHITE by Olaf Kroneman              Pediatricians called them FLKS, funny-looking kids. Not a very sensitive term but professionals knew what it meant. There was something wrong with the infant but they couldn’t quite make a diagnosis.             At birth, he was labeled an FLK. His forehead was very prominent, his eyes were large…

Your heroes can compromise you. Muhammad Ali put me at risk. The first time I encountered Ali, then Cassius Clay, was on television. I was ten years old and saw this young black guy dressed in a tuxedo and top hat, brandishing a walking stick and reciting poetry. He was scheduled to fight Henry Cooper in England.…

He humiliated me over and over. But I took it. I made mental, emotional excuses. I loved him. The abused will do that. Don’t ask me why. He insisted we take pictures. I did not want to take the shameful, salacious videos, but you know how when you can sense the end of a relationship…