Stories - FD Thornton

  The sky outside can’t make up its mind, rather it wants to be blue or grey. As for my own head, well it feels about the same. Chewing down my gummies there’s a sweet taste lingering in my mouth. While the sky outside grows darker and darker, looks like its headed south. As for me it’s hard to say where I’m headed, my body says to get up, but my head wants to go back to bed. In this semi-urban spawl, if you want to call it that. Small towns sprung up between miles and miles of Georgia Pine. Erasing from your imagination any idea of what this land was like a hundred years ago. With a freshly paved expressway rolling aimlessly to the beach. This place looks nothing like what it did a mere 50 years ago. But apparently the attitude has stayed the same, with the Fat Cats in Atlanta and Washington telling these paranoid want-a-be Lumber Barons how to think. But today there are no lumber barons now, just corporations and big power owning the land your Great-Granddaddy’s sold years ag...

  It’s 10:30 AM and the candles finally lit. I spent the first two hours of my morning driving 65 miles round trip to give a blood sample, which for me takes all of 3 minutes. But when you live in the woods where you have a food desert, a doctor desert, and a hospital desert; what do you do? Don’t worry though, I ain’t complaining too much considering there are those worst off then me. I mean, I do have insurance and a way to go. Other than that it was a pretty uneventful trip, traffic was light. The long construction zone before I got to the labs was fairly smooth, and Dave the lab tech was efficient and quick. So now at 10:45 AM I can sit down with my brain mostly intact and tell you a tale. Other than a headache it’s a bright shiny day outside, not a cloud in the sky. Sitting here with nothing in particular weighing on my brain, other than missing a few friends and wishing I had the time and money to go to the coast. It’s going to be Mother’s Day this weekend and my bride sure...

 Staring in the mirror I don’t take too long to think. Because if I do, I’ll reflect too long on the wrinkles and grey hair that now cover that once youthful smile. Still I laugh at the thought of all the time I spent just being busy and not appreciating the moments as they came. But for the last 30 years, I’ve been forced to think and appreciate such things. But still the mask remains secure, holding in the thoughts of stillness and calm. Only displaying the wit and the showmanship that has been my life. ​So I sit here with the curtains drawn to the afternoon sun. Debating with myself about the words I wish to say. Knowing dreams are but subconscious emotion playing out in my head, wishing for more but getting less. So I leave myself asking this question, which one of me is truly me? The joking, wisecracking, happy-go-lucky fellow you see? Or the reflective man you read about behind these drawn curtains? I dare not answer that question, at least not out loud. For each of us is n...

 That damn blinking cursor is taunting me again, staring at me with its blink-a-d-blink little self. But that’s okay, I just laugh at its power over me. While I continue to type the gibberish that eventually turns into words, that turns into statements of truth. I talk to a few budding writers out there and a lot of them compliment me on my style and the things I write about. It picks me up believe me, especially for a guy with no wealth to speak of. For my writing at the most has bought me a decent dinner or two over the years. But the main thing we writers always come to is the subject and the material. Which is funny to me because my main subject is usually myself. I mean, what easier or lazier thing can you write about other than yourself? But still my limited audience expects that or wants nothing else. So I dilly-dally about writing my little 300+ word salads every day, for the benefit of no one other than myself. And you know what? Maybe that’s the key to good writing, ent...

  Done with all the usual. The vitamin gummy tastes good in my mouth after a job well done. Yesterday morning, I went to my Family NP to get an official blood pressure reading and some bloodwork done to check on my new medication and my lightheadedness. Well, the results came back, confirming her suspicions and diagnosis. So now, it’s just a waiting game and a bit more of being very careful when I move about. I hate sounding a bit paranoid about my health, but I am. However, I do my best not to water those seeds of fear as I used to in years past. By living in the present moment, there is a certain degree of awareness concerning your health and wellness. It’s not that I don’t fear death, but I’m also not ignorant of my quality of life. So, I do my best to keep myself as healthy as I can given my current situation. Life is about awareness and the quality of life you live. None of us want to be uncomfortable, I’m sure, but at what cost do we pursue that level of comfort? Over the...

The Old Sycamore Trees  Maybe it’s a little too soon to start another life post, but for the better part of the morning I’m going to be arguing with two pharmacies over who gets my prescriptions. So while I’m in a hopeful frame of mind I thought I would at least start this story. This morning began like most stories, only this time I slept through the night, and my bride was the one that kept waking up. I told her I hadn’t noticed her getting up, in which she replied with a snarky, “I know!”, and thus began my peaceful morning. The neighborhood cat is hanging outside the neighbors window this morning. Apparently ignoring my mental pleads of “Good Morning”. But I shrugged it off as just another cat picking and choosing their victim for the moment. But isn’t that how most of us deal with who we want to deal with, and who we don’t. For a moment I caught the smell of wild honeysuckles across my nose. As if to remind me of my old yard and the scents I caught on the old park trail. Spe...