He and Jimmy drove along without talking pulled by a rig filled with ten tons of black top. His mind drifted, like it always did when he had nothing else to think […]
Short Story: David and Gertrude
Short Story: The Pineapple Kid
Chapter One “Nick!” Tony whispered. Nick moaned. “Wake up. And keep quiet. We gotta go now if we’re gonna go,” said Tony. “Get lost.” Tony was Nick’s older brother. His real name […]
Short Story: Closing Time
There are Demma ghosts all over that place, you know, especially in the basement. I hated going down there, except for cleaning out the shoot at the end of the night. The […]
Short Story: David’s Ride Home
It wasn’t until the drive home that David realized what was happening. Was she really gone? Thirty-seven years ago they made a vow that was fulfilled last week, and he couldn’t imagine […]
A Tribute
Her eyes blinked open and she saw the brilliant white light bursting from behind the white curtains. She smiled every morning when she awoke, but today she smiled brighter. She didn’t remember […]
How I Ended Up In Connecticut: Part 2
I spent my first few weeks as manager of the River City Grille at the Hartford/Windsor Marriott in a fog. I was pretending to be a manager based on what I had […]
How I Ended Up in Connecticut: Part 1
When I was 21, with just a few days left in college, I drove to Connecticut to interview with the Hartford/Windsor Marriott. Some recruiter found my resume and matched me with an […]
Our Italian Migration Story Part 2: The Cachemire
Five years after his mother’s death, my great grandfather Leonardo Demma was becoming a man. He was just five feet three inches tall, with broad shoulders and a lean muscular build. His […]
Our Italian Migration Story Part 1: The Promise
Modern Italy was not a unified country until the mid-nineteenth century, and unification was hard-fought. In 1860, a charismatic leader named Giuseppe Garibaldi led a rag-tag militia and finally removed the French Bourbon […]