Poodie James

excerpt

He studied the chief’s face. “You’re not joking.”
“He came right next door to ordering me to arrest Poodie and
this guy called Engine Fred on suspicion of vandalism or sabotage
or something, anything to get them in jail.”
“Oh,” Williams said, “oh, of course. I mean, I figured it was just
a piece of Torgerson craziness, that business about rounding up all
the hobos and running them out of town. Does this have something
to do with that?”
“Looks that way to me.”
They watched two old men arrive at a table three trees away and
set up their checker game.
“The law,” Spanger said.” is that a police officer can make an
arrest without a warrant if he has probable cause to believe that
someone has committed a felony. I’m no lawyer, but I don’t think
the mayor telling me ‘do it’ is probable cause.”
“I don’t think so either, Darwin. Unless there is hard evidence,
this arrest wouldn’t stand up. I’m certainly not going to file an
information without evidence, and it doesn’t look to me like grand
jury material. But maybe Torgerson’s onto something, knows
something you don’t. Maybe he has the goods on these crooks.”
“Now who’s joking? I don’t think it matters to him whether the
charges stick. He wants to harass the hobos and Poodie, and he
probably thinks that if an arrest makes it into the newspaper and
onto the radio, folks will wonder if maybe there isn’t something to
this hobo threat after all.”
They looked at the checker players. One of the old men was
cackling in glee as the other kinged him.
“Pretty early in the game for that,” Williams said. “He’s not up
for reelection for a year. It doesn’t look to me like an issue, but it
may be a mistake to underestimate peoples’ willingness to be scared
by what they don’t understand. Back to the train wreck. Is there
anything to suggest that it wasn’t an accident?”
“The Great Northern guys are down there now. They brought
an inspector over from Spokane. I’m going to see them at three
o’clock. Torgerson wants an arrest today.”

https://draft2digital.com/book/3562868

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08W7SHCMV

The Circle

excerpt

looks newly decorated and is furbished with pale-colored carpets, and there is
plenty of artwork on the walls. Emily noticesmany religious pictures andwritings,
and other things foreign to her.
Rassan is there, not far from the entrance, calling them while he runs to help
with their suitcases.
Talal hugs Rassan.
“How are you, my man? How is the old Ibrahim?”
“I’m just great, and the old man is doing not badly considering his illness;
he’s anxious to see you. How are you, Mrs. Roberts?”
“I’m fine, Rassan. It’s good to see you again, this time in your own country.”
“Howdo you likemy country, Mrs. Roberts, from what you have seen so far?”
“I’m quite impressed, really; I expected to see a lot of destruction.”
“Well, there’s still plenty of destruction in other places, but of course, not
here; this is the airport and it had to be repaired first. You’ll see destruction in
different parts of the city. Anyway, come, we cannot keep Ibrahim waiting any
longer.”
He opens the door of the limo and they get in. Emily is smiling and
overwhelmed by the feeling of being in a totally different world. She’s treated like a
dignitary by Rassan and senses that her holiday in Iraq is going to be quite
comfortable and, at the same time, memorable. There’s a bottle of champagne in
the limo and Talal opens it. They toast the health of Ibrahim and enjoy their ride.
Talal and Emily are looking around excitedly while Rassan drives them along
the river. He explains like a tour guide as they go.
“Baghdad is a big city dating back to the eighth century. In one of the Arabic
dialects, the name means ‘God-Given’ and in another dialect, “Given-
Garden”. It sits along the two mighty rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, and
for the abundance of water it is called a garden. The “Garden of Eden”, referred
to in the Bible, is believed to have been in this area. Baghdad has been a very
important trading center for centuries and this is another aspect of its
importance and its history in this part of the world. It has been said that the
building of Baghdad started under the auspices of the zodiac sign of Leo
symbolizing strength, productivity, pride, and expansion. The original city was
designed in the shape of a circle, with a smaller circle inside the outer one, and a
mosque right in the center.”
As they drive along, Emily and Talal notice quite a lot of reconstruction has
taken place, as they hardly see the damage from the war anywhere. Emily is tired
from the long flight, yet her eyes are in amazement of all the sights; some strangely
shaped buildings, different from what she’s familiar with back home, and the
streets with boulevards bordered by different kinds of flowers and shrubs.

https://draft2digital.com/book/3562817

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0978186524

Ken Kirkby – Warrior Painter

excerpt

Together with his adopted family they celebrated the end of a long and
involuntary fast when Ken and the hunters brought home a fat walrus killed
on the ice flows; in the spring he joined in the hunt for the dangerous polar
bear, the only meat he found he did not care for. He observed the wonder of
childbirth and the tragic suicide of a young man who, taken from his family
as a child, returned a stranger unable to fit in and unwilling to return to the
white man’s world. He visited a camp where people were dying of a fever
so high they rolled in the snow to cool their suffering bodies until the lining
of their brain swelled and killed them. And walked away from them feeling
bitterly angry and utterly helpless.
Ken developed a deep and abiding passion for these cheerful, resilient
survivors, who had little, yet unconditionally accepted the fact that even
that small amount could be lost in an instant. There seemed no need for the
Inuit to apportion blame if and when such a disaster occurred. It was the
way it was.
During the long transition between winter and summer, when the ice
grew too soft to be trusted and the people could not travel, there was a
period of patient waiting. Women sewed garments and told stories; men
shaped tools or made tiny, exquisite carvings to please the spirits.
Ken observed and absorbed their manners, their skills, their songs and
dances. He was told “teaching” stories, many as bleak and unforgiving as the
winter landscape surrounding them—stories of the unhappy consequence
of jealousy and greed and other undesirable traits. When the storyteller
finished, silence wrapped around them all like a fur blanket and time lost
all relevance. It was during one of these times when he had a magical
experience.
The Story of Nunavut began with a drum chant. In the crowded igloo
filled with the scent of bodies and warmed by the glow of kudliks (seal-oil
lamps), his pulse echoed the beat of the drum.
It was their creation story, which was later retold many times by the
Grandmother. It recounted the history of the land and, in the Inuit way, the
meaning of the land was explained as “all that it encompasses including the
stories from the beginning.” The story told of good and evil, of beneficial
things brought by the Kablunat such as tools and rifles, and of bad things
such as disease. One of the most significant amongst the tragedies was the
removal of children from their homes by the government.

https://draft2digital.com/book/3562902

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CB8W4CG

Entropy

Maternity Hospital

Great souls are born in the maternity hospital of utopia
in the depths of possibility
tyrannized, they exist beyond life
in the clumsiness of passing time
there isn’t only one death
they choose the one
during which they’ll die.
Do we exist?
Do we pass time or
time leaves us behind.
We don’t all follow our destiny
eons are a springboard into the abyss
and they die in eternity
I have no time to learn
the alpha-beta of existence
gate into the arcanum each passing moment
retribution of fate
in the void
Do I exist?
At the edge of the road
time is but a reflection

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DPCRLJC6