As she waited in LA’s Union Station for the Sunset Limited train south to Yuma, Pam Postema couldn’t shake the memory of her former GM handing her a baseball card—Eddie Mathews, wasn’t it?—from some baseball game he played in the hospital. He couldn’t remember what draft choices were, for heavens sake! The man used to […]
Of course, that’s precisely where he went. Straight away, pronto, zip-a-dee-doo-dah, go! His creaky wheelchair moaned and groaned its way down the long hallway of the hospital, the squeaky wheels and vibrating bolts, metal against metal, rubber against cement, the whole shaky contraption making so much noise that it drove the voice from the old […]
A season of PEBA flies by in a twinkling, if you’re a patient at the Camarillo State Mental Hospital. Time is as fluid as the tobacco drool dripping from the mouths of the ballplayer’s on the bench, spitting and chewing to fill the endless afternoons. An old man in the hospital sits in his room, wondering […]
She spoke in riddles. When he asked who she was, he thought he heard her say, “I know I have no right to ask for your help.” Which didn’t translate into a name he recognized. So he asked again. “You don’t have to insult me,” she said. Which left him as ignorant as before. […]
“Are you Brad?” the old man asked as the orderly pushed him and the gurney he rode on up the long hallway of the hospital. “What? Me? No no, I could never … I mean, he’s … well, magister minus. I’m sort of like a Not-Brad, you know what I mean?” “No.” “Hmm, well,” […]
“How long have I been here?” “Forever” came the answer. It hadn’t seemed that long to the old man. “Forever?” “Longer than me, man,” the voice added, “so, quid pro quo, it must feel like forever.” Someone handed the old man a clean pair of slippers. If he squinted he could make out a […]
An old man stands in a kitchen. He holds a knife. He doesn’t realize he is holding a knife. He doesn’t see the blood dripping off the knife and onto his slippers. He can’t remember why he is standing in the kitchen. It’s not his kitchen—does he even have a kitchen? He doesn’t remember. […]
In the beginning he saw nothing. He smelled the disinfectant, he heard someone shuffle past, he twitched his fingers against starched sheets. In the beginning he could not move. In and out of a fog he drifted, reluctant to shrug off the cottony comfort of sleep. He let the darkness swallow him. In the beginning, […]
In the beginning he saw nothing. He smelled the disinfectant, he heard someone shuffle past, he twitched his fingers against starched sheets. In the beginning he could not move. In and out of a fog he drifted, reluctant to shrug off the cottony comfort of sleep. He let the darkness swallow him. In the beginning, he […]
10 October 2021: Yuma, AZ — At 6:30 pm Pacific Daylight Savings Time on the 9th of October, a huge collective sigh could be heard coming from the troubled burg of Yuma, Arizona. The sigh rustled the tumbleweeds spinning their way up Main Street and tussled the few leaves remaining on the trees at Gateway […]