Author Archives: goddesswest

Grace paused, sensing I’d stopped. She turned to look over her shoulder at me, followed my gaze to the shelf, and then laughed.“Yep, she’s a bright one!” she said to Al, who’d come out of the office the last ten feet to “help”, taking the boxes from her. He grinned.“Hey, Laurel, git in here andContinue reading “Pizzatime [16]”

“GOIN’ FER ZAH!!” she hollered towards the back, as we headed for the door, “BACK IN A FEW.” The top of Al’s head poked out the door, backwards, as he leaned his chair back just enough to casually wave two fingers at her before tilting upwards and disappearing back into the office. She flapped aContinue reading “Lunch [15]”

We’d hopped onto 81, heading north, then hopped off again on Kiowa road, heading into Minneapolis at its southern end.Al pushed the eject button and put the Louis Armstrong cd away properly in its case, endearing me to him a little bit more. He put the box back on the floor between his long legsContinue reading “Minneapolis [14]”

I looked up eventually to see Albert trudging back towards camp with an armload of leafy branches. I rose to my feet and asked Grace, “What’s that all about?”“Oak keeps the canoti off. So we use it to mask our old campsites, keeps them off our trail. Al’s just “freshening up” the masking so’s theyContinue reading “Breaking Camp [13]”

After a few seconds of awkwardness, there was the normal reset of attention. Grace politely asked me about my life, my story.It was comfortable small talk, really. I didn’t need to try to impress anybody. What could I possibly say to impress them, anyway? So I just kept it simple.“I’m retired. Divorced. Don’t do aContinue reading “Trancing [12]”

Something about me that is a small superpower: I am keenly observant and intuitive when I want to be. When I’m not shutting it down and trying to hide from it. It gets very weird sometimes, which is why I tend to close down my field of awareness and operate in “tunnel vision” a lot.WhatContinue reading “Tuning In [11]”

The laughter helped. A lot.They were Al [Albert] and Grace. Married. I refrained from commenting on their old-fashioned names and instead complimented them on their knowledge of old-school woodcrafty/tactical kinds of things.“I learned mine from some old trapper friends forty years ago, when I was just a kid. I’m surprised anybody your age knows thisContinue reading “Al & Grace [10]”

A slight figure stepped to the edge of the lake from behind some bushes and straightened up to face me. A young woman, probably in her 20s.As she did so, I heard a tiny crunch of leaves behind me. I took a deep breath and extended my arms straight out to the sides, remaining still.Continue reading “Meeting [9]”

I got off the interstate on North Ohio street, because it would deliver me closest to the place I wanted to look with the least amount of human habitation in between stops.I passed the empty truck stop and dealership with a bit of trepidation, then sailed past the empty fields with more confidence.I kept myContinue reading “To the Park [8]”

As I wended my way to Jeep Road via the always-empty backroads, I was deciding to go west. East meant more large towns and more people. West meant fewer people and smaller towns. Fewer people meant less chance of encountering “pigeoned” people, I figured.I would take the risk and go to a sporting goods placeContinue reading “On and Off Ramps [7]”