WHEN ONE GIANTS FAN CHANGED THE WORLD
KTLA Evening News: A San Francisco Giants fan was attacked last night at Chavez Ravine by two men in LA Dodger gear. The victim, 40 year old father Bryan Stow from Santa Cruz, is in critical condition with brain damage. Witnesses saw the men escape in a white sedan driven by an Hispanic woman around twenty with a young boy. The report crackles above the chaos of an E.R. waiting room at LA County Medical, while drifting like white noise through a small house in the eastside barrio. In the former, the wife of the victim holds her children awaiting…
EXECUTION DAY
Everything is metal on metal at the Ramsey Unit. Doors don’t close, they slam. Prison guards don’t speak, they buzz from behind bullet proof glass. Steady strain. It’s worse on execution day. The atmosphere is electric, even though in Texas designer drugs have replaced ol’ sparky as the angel of death. In the 6 by 9 holding cell Sarge awaits his maker. Two chairs, a table, and a clock, gray government issue. One hour left. Nothing prepares a man for this. Not a military career, or even a shooting war. The door opens and a woman of color slips in….
ECHOES FROM THE ALAMO
Skyscrapers dwarf the tiny mission in downtown San Antonio. Not the legend, however. Guests whisper as the doors of the Alamo swing open. This is hallowed ground. A dozen tourists roam the compound. Here a hand full of Texas settlers defended the Alamo against 6000 Mexican regulars. No defenders survived. Among the dead was Colonial William Travis. Young and brash, he inherited full command when Jim Bowie fell ill. There was no love lost between them. Davy Crocket, amid fiddling and spinning yarns about his days as a Tennessee Congressman, mediated. While their methods differed, their goals didn’t – Texas…
TRAIL TAILS
The first time I saw her she was walking alone at dusk in the forest where only trail runners go. As I trotted passed she gave me a shy nod. I pretended not to notice her tears. The next day I saw her again. Thirty-something with hair pushed under a cap, this time she was running the trail ahead of me. She smiled as I pulled along side her, so I gambled that she wouldn’t mind the company of a “mature” runner. She seemed happier, and I wondered about yesterday’s tears. After some pleasantries, we ran 6 miles over sylvan…