« Holiday Hiatus | Main | Ted: Return »

January 3, 2006

New Year Issue: January 3, 2005

And we're back! Hope everyone enjoyed their holidays.

We'll start with an obvious sort of theme:

You have just returned from a trip.

Bookmark: del.icio.us • Digg • reddit

Comments

I’m finally headed for home after fifteen long months in Iraq.

I’m no hero, just another soldier doing the job he volunteered to do. I felt good about going and feel good about what I did there. Nobody owes me nothing. I just want to get back to Beth, the prettiest girl in Mansfield.

I step off the bus and there she is, more beautiful than ever. We dash toward each other as I reach into my pocket for the ring with the biggest rock I could afford.

That’s when I spot the newborn in her arms.

Welcome home, soldier.

Posted by: Owl Creek Observer at January 3, 2006 4:14 PM · Permalink

Memories are tricky bastards. Seeing the old town did nothing, but when I stepped outside and tasted those old tastes on the air it was almost like I was a teenager again. Thoughts and images I'd hoped never to think about again passed before me, one after another.

Laura, on the porch swing. Later that night in the back seat. Her brother's evil smirk. Her dad and his deputies, in the alley. Phil putting boot to groin and kidneys, sending the others away. The gun. The river.

I'd have sold the house for two bucks and a six-pack right then.

Posted by: Jeff R. at January 3, 2006 4:48 PM · Permalink

So many places merged into one: a market in Bangladesh, the Sydney Opera House, the ruins of a Mayan temple.

Then Shane was on a white sand beach looking out on the gentle, green swells of a tropical bay. A fog was rolling in.

Through the haze came a voice.

“Dude! Are you all right?”

Shane shook his head to clear away the frenetic kaleidoscope of images. “What?” he mumbled.

“You fell flat on your face. Are you okay?”

Shane sat on the cold city sidewalk, gingerly touching the lump on his forehead. “Yeah,” he sighed. “Anyway, I’m back now.”

Posted by: Jim Parkinson at January 3, 2006 10:41 PM · Permalink