Several minutes went by before the pain and pleasure abated and I focused. On all fours, naked, wet, reeking of the polluted mud and creek, I looked into their eyes. I saw hardness and hate, grief, anger, and exhaustion—and four years of struggle from a war no one wanted. Some did. I wasn’t one of them, but we did what we had to to do in order to survive; to be free. I rose to my feet, standing upright, hands […]

Categories: Writing • Tags: Coming of Age, Dystopia, Recalibrate, Speculative Fiction, The Mirror Series, Writing

Duran Duran’s New Moon on Monday played from the black boom box creekside. The beat echoed around the short banks of the large swimming hole. Heads back, fingers skipped over the water like gulls’ feet, we floated on used tire tubes in silence listening to the tunes. The brief occasional exchanges between us went silent when the surroundings began to change. Isolated above us, the sun disappeared into an ashen ink blot in the sky. Like a volcanic mud pool, […]

Categories: Writing • Tags: Coming of Age, Dystopia, Recalibrate, Speculative Fiction, The Mirror Series, Writing