Pawns

Opening Moves

Fucking whores. It could all be boiled down to the fucking whores. Everything. Air pollution. NAFTA. Parking tickets. Kids with cancer. His downstairs neighbor’s annoying yap-yap keeping him awake at night. In one way or another, they were all connected to ‘women of  loose virtue’ as his mother had called them.

It had taken him quite a while to figure it out. He had no illusions about being a smart man, but he wasn’t dumb either. His whole life things just hadn’t gone his way. Other guys had jobs, girls, friends, nice cars.

Charlie Schmitz never had any of those. He’d been bullied as a kid till he started lifting weights. Things had seemed on the upswing, despite being kicked out of high school, till he was caught with the ‘roids. While in the pen he’d been punked out and gotten on meth. He came out with a bunch of scars, of all kinds, unable to find a job.

He’d never known his dad, and his mom was all he had. If not for her, he would have been homeless a long time ago.

Not just homeless, dead. He would have died, no doubt.
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The old woman seemed ancient and ominous to Marco. Her hard, bloodshot eyes stared at him unblinking beneath her hand wove, grayish head scarf. A small, single yellow candle burned on the table they were seated at inside the crumbling, dilapidated structure she called ‘home’. The candle emitted a slight fragrance of corn; sweet and starchy to Marco’s nostrils. Occasionally it would spark briefly as the flame reached a part of the wick more heavily oiled than previously, beating back the cool shadows enveloping the occupants and make-shift furniture, if only for a second. The woman was beyond noticing these intermittent fireworks, intent on her business with Marco. As for Marco, the entire damn town smelled of corn, so the candle was nothing new.
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Hey all! Gonna take a moment to pimp a buddy of mine’s comic. It’s in the competition at Zuda.com and follows the hypothesis of ‘what if the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde were real?

Awesome art and intriguing premise! If you don’t mind, a quick register and a vote for HydeBound would be greatly appreciated by your’s truly! Thanks and enjoy the comic by following the link below:

Once the beatings stopped Saul Steadholder put the fingers of his free hand into his mouth and checked the damage. One tooth, a back one, was broken. He fished the shrapnel out of his inner cheek and looked at it, uncaring. His left arm hurting like hell, he carefully put the crown into his pants’ pocket. Perhaps a dentist could do something with it. His jaw felt broken. He tried to whisper a word.

“Julia.” He said quietly.
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Jim Chow’s ancient station wagon lumbered down the road just as it had done innumerable times before. The windows were down. Jim enjoyed the breeze created as he drove along. Little scraps of paper and debris were caught in miniature, invisible eddies inside the vehicle, dancing. While the air was not cool, even at this near dawn hour, it was not stifling either. Soon it would be. The heat no longer sneaked up, gradually appearing like the smile of the Cheshire cat. These days it advanced loudly, an approaching army. Most motorists simply left their windows up all the time, slaves to the air conditioning.
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Well, I’m at home for the week due to some possible (but not likely) cardiac issues. As I operate Heavy Machinery, my doctors are a bit overly cautious when I begin to get dizzy and have chest pain. I explained to them that I had been feeling fine till the cocaine/hooker/donkey bender in Tijuana last weekend, but still they want me to take a stress test on Friday. So here I am and there you are reading the outpourings of my bored (but probably not broken), lonely heart.

In no particular order, some thoughts running through my mind like Haitian looters at a Sam’s Club:
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I’m writing this for a few people. One is a man at work named Joe whom I respect very much and enjoy religious conversations with. We often get cut off mid conversation, so rarely do I get to elaborate on one point or another.

I’m also writing this for my children. Were something to happen to me before I could have this discussion with them, I would want some sort of document stating my beliefs and convictions so that they could better understand how I viewed the world and God.

Lastly, I’m writing this for anyone who finds the subject matter of others personal beliefs interesting. Sadly, I don’t think theres much of a market for discussing God, at least not God as I see Him. Sure, there are plenty of books, both fiction and non, that profess to offer insight. Many of these works have merit. Most don’t.

So, read on if you want to know my beliefs. If you want to pass, I fully understand.
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Since someone asked, a little note all about wonderful, fascinating me, my family, and our State of Affairs.

People joke about how early I go to bed. Usually around six in the evening. I am the ‘early to bed, early to rise’ archetype; still waiting on the wise part to kick in.

I leave the house around 5 am. It’s still dark most of the year. I bundle up in the winter because my Dodge Dakota doesn’t have heat. It does, however, have nearly 200K miles, and it shows. The ‘good’ car, a ’97 Lumina, went to my wife since I’d rather be cold/hot than my kids.

Some days at work I drive a truck. Those are the good days. Other days I work a shovel. Those are most days, at least lately. I work for The County, I am here to help.

Depending on the boss and location, most times we don’t start working till 6:30, and if the weather is real bad we try and wait it out. Sometimes we work in the pouring rain or blistering heat, though, because things simply need to get done.

The roads will not build themselves. The Gods will not save us.
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The Manifesto of Mike McLarty (If I Was Emperor)

There seems to be a lot of confusion as to my political stances and various viewpoints. In order to clarify my positions, I present you with this document which, hopefully, states in plain language what I would do were I to become Emperor for Life of the United Sates.
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Share with me
All the details of your life
How you used to love your wife
Just how fucked up you got
If your co-worker is hot
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