Joyce > Recent Status Updates

I hated when students rolled their eyes. Though I probably deserved at least one of those.

Cosi's kitchen was functional to its core. Beige countertops. Hickory cabinets. White appliances. Taupe linoleum floors. Its lack of character was the character. Sturdy. Reliable. Manly.

He would have given me a bear hug - a honey bear hug, those tight all-encompassing embraces he saved only for me.

Her dry humorless laugh sounded a lot like the one Mom gave at times. The times right before she burst into tears.

If I had to guess, I'd say, deep down, she and Dad were very different people. And when you put love on one side of the scale and their differences on the other, no matter what, they were never going to balance.

That's the harsh reality of life, isn't it? That love alone isn't enough.

I hope you're wrong about that. I hope that when love is real, it's always enough.

You're thirty? So you had Spencer when you were sixteen?

How long have you lived in Dalton?

Twenty years. Mom and I moved here when I was ten. After my dad's accident.

A broken promise was a wound. I'd suffered enough of those from my own father - I wasn't going to inflict that pain on others.

it was only by chance that my light caught a string of red dots. I bent, touching my finger to one of the dots before lifting it to my nose. Dyed diesel. As far as I knew, Ike didn't have any equipment that would need dyed diesel. His boat's motor was gas.

A different smell hit my nostrils. Not gas, but diesel. Fresh. Pungent. It mingled with the smoke.

A metal can was tipped on its side, the lid nowhere to be seen. The sides were intact, so there must not have been much fuel inside. Otherwise, it would have exploded.

Mom and Dad might have been divorced, but a decree didn't make the feelings stop. She was mourning his loss too.

You know I gave him that nickname.

I remember.

That man loved bluebirds. He said they meant good fortune. The first time I called him that it was only a joke, but he liked it, so I kept using it.

"How's he doing?"

"He's fourteen. So he's pissed at me at least half the time." Every day was a gamble. I'd go home to a son itching to pick a fight or a kid who wanted to talk to me for hours about basketball practice.

"When was the last time you were in Dalton?"

"Ten years ago. I was sixteen."

as I see it, Cosi, I'm in just as much danger at my own home as I am here, so I might as well live my life.

he was the only one who'd been nineteen at the time and of legal age to drink.

(MT's drinking age is 18? AI search on the web reveals: "narrow exception allows a parent or guardian to provide a small amount of alcohol to their child, but only if the quantity stays below a defined threshold")

Shouting wasn't really my style and it usually only made things worse.

pair of deer antlers hung above jukebox. On every prong was a discarded bra.

Paul is a f#ckhead. You might be the only person in Dalton praying for that kid besides his mother.

The only liquor @ Dad's was a bottle of Wild Turkey, and I'd never liked cheap bourbon. Or any bourbon.

vodka collins

(AI on the web found: "The Vodka Collins is a refreshing highball cocktail made with vodka, fresh lemon juice, simple syrup, and soda water, typically garnished with a lemon wheel and maraschino cherry.")

faint smile crossed her mouth. A full version probably would have stopped my heart.

"Are you questioning my ability to do my job?"

"Did you not march into my classroom last week and do the same?"

"Because."

I frowned. "My mother does that. Why do women think 'because' is full-fledged explanation?"

"I need to do this on my own."

"Why?"

"Because it's more than me cleaning out boxes and sorting through Dad's belongings. This is my chance to know him. My last chance."

Nice. I will hope for the best & assume that Constant eventually gets her man.

Jason was good-looking & knew there were plenty of lonely hearts w/checkbooks in this world. Those were the scams he'd run for his parents. Younger man, older woman. "Knife through butter," his father had once said.

Missouri - state w/, it turns out, more caves than any other, seven thousand or so. He was inspired to go there because of a book he'd just read & reread for school, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.

The kid had three interests in life. Reading, first. Video gaming, second. And, third, visiting women who did not want to be visited.

It dated to years before. You might say to a time when they were innocent, but given their parents? That's not a word that ever applied to the children, not since they were out of Pampers.