Prism | Wenatchee, WA | 2014
The vacant second floor offered quiet relief from the office’s downstairs hubbub. I liked to arrive just before sunrise. The day’s first rays entered through ceiling-high windows, bounced off panes of interior glass, and often ricocheted again from a couple of hanging mirrors. The effect was prismatic — the magic of (more…)
Perspective | Withrow, WA | 2014
Shifts in perspective bring new understanding. A boss bans dogs from the office because (we later learn) she was attacked as a child by a Doberman. Farmers realize too late that grasshoppers (more…)
Horse before the Storm | East Wenatchee, WA | 2014
The fist flies in an arc only to stop a quarter-inch from the kung fu master’s face. He never flinches, for there’s nothing to fear. He lives in the moment, and in that moment the punch did not connect. The horse Stella stands (more…)
Screen | Wenatchee, WA | 2013
Our south-facing office window had a permanent screen that blotted out bright sun. At quitting time, we’d sit at our desks staring at a blurred cityscape. One night, in a nearby apartment window, we saw a man repeatedly punch a woman. The scene was blurred, of course, but it was clear the man (more…)
The Light | East Wenatchee, WA | 2013
My heart stopped for several minutes following a heart attack in 2004. People have often asked me if I moved toward the light or felt the Divine or was welcomed to heaven by smiling ancestors. But no, none of that. It was more of a comforting darkness that moved through me, a sensory veil descending across my vision, then throughout my muscles, and lastly around my hearing. People talking with extreme urgency was the last thing I remembered before being enfolded in dark. When I woke up the next day (stents installed), my overriding impression was (more…)
Explorers | Chelan , WA | 2013
They were there when I arrived at the library and, an hour later, had hardly moved. In rugged coats and beat-up boots, they sat in winter light sifting through what looked like books and maps — two stationary explorers (I imagined) prepping for an upcoming adventure. A reasonable escape from the cold would be Hawaii or Key West, but these two dressed as if familiar with challenging trails and harsh conditions. Destination: Alaska? Norway? Antarctica? I moved in closer, feigning to browse while eyeing their research materials. Darn it … not geography books and maps. He was studying a two-page diagram about replacing fittings on an RV septic system. She thumbed through a copy of “Resorts and Campgrounds.” So was that their 45-foot luxury motorhome I spotted in the parking lot? Still explorers, I figured. But comfortable explorers.
Face the Future | Seabrook, WA | 2013
Some Seattle families spend summers in Seabrook, an almost too-perfect community of vacation homes on the Washington coast. Years ago, the development’s managers installed artful plywood “cutouts” to amuse the kids. Tykes and teens put their faces in the holes and had photos snapped of their fantasy personas. One day, we discovered that (more…)
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