Where Lies Adventure!

OF GODS AND MEN Chapter 12: Tom is Inappropriate            There was no sleeping the night of the storm.  Deck hands, oarsmen, the navigator, and even Amelia all worked to get the ship put back together.  Debris was scattered everywhere, and sailors worked feverishly plugging up some holes below deck that leaked onto the ship; but all in all, the Defiance had come through the storm in tact.               T arsus did not allow himself to linger in self-loathing now.  In this situation, it was very easy to determine the useful work that needed doing.  Tarsus noticed a few of the deck hands cleaning debris off of the deck.  There weren’t many of them.  He guessed it was because this was the job that no one wanted to do.  So he rolled up his sleeves, and began to help them.                They collected spared bits of wood, wire, cloth, old food: anything that had been damaged in the storm and had not flown overboard.  Items were separated according to what

COMFORTABLE UNKNOWNS        “I’m afraid, Mr. Reyes, that the tumor in your grandmother’s lung has more than doubled in size over these last four months,” the doctor said.        “What does that mean?”  David asked.  He put his arms around his mother and held her tightly.  He could feel her looking up at him; this 68 year old frail Spanish woman who could only catch every other word of what the doctor was telling her.  After the doctor told him all the details, she’d immediately ask David to recount them in their native tongue.  He’d never hated doing that before, with normal things like buying a washing machine or ordering at a restaurant.  But ever since his grandmother was brought to the hospital it had gotten harder to have the same conversation twice in such rapid succession.  He felt like he had no time to take anything in.  No time to wade into the pool and get used to the temperature of the water.  He heard bad news and had to dive into telling his mother, which meant tha