Category Archives: Doug Bond

Neither of the three of them could remember who first suggested the idea, in fact for a short while they even fought about it, but the point is, after years of discord, their silly feud was finally over, and to … Continue reading →

He was 4. I was 40. The day was bright and we were two gentlemen at home with a day of things to do. And then that sound I thought I heard. One I’d never heard. And the phone ringing. … Continue reading →

When they finally dredge the boy up from the bottom of the pond he lifts high on the winch dangling like a forgotten Christmas ornament tucked alone between bare branches. Swinging in a night with no wind, he is lowered … Continue reading →

When I picked her up Janey couldn’t speak she was shaking so much. Her face was pinking. She looked miserable. I asked her how it was. She said, “Wonderful, Mom!” “Wonderful?” They must have told her to say that. Just … Continue reading →

Herb Bernstein was a tool-head, a sparkplug, wiry and overcharged. On any given weekend you could see him folded under the hood, lubricating this and tightening that. Every now and again his wife Bea, would hear the engine screech, then … Continue reading →

The smiling parents turn their back, both at the same time, for just a second to look at the high school boy who caught the Frisbee at the very last moment and rolled over like a stuntman on the sand. … Continue reading →

Train station’s not far, not even a mile, so we leave the cars off the side of Dad’s drive. The four of us holding longnecks rustled up from the basement fridge, Dad says, “Time of your life. Enjoy!” Gene carries … Continue reading →

At the north edge of open skied spaces, stands a blue eyed woman hard and distant as snow feeling for the warmth, of an unflustered hand. A stranger who enthralls in her short waisted red coat saying it’s absurd that … Continue reading →

The train slows at the place where the river view opens up and the conductor announces, “Westley Station,” always giving the first syllable all the stress. Crossing the old creaky bowstring truss bridge I can see rippled flakes of black … Continue reading →

We hauled everything out, the ice, the twelver of Bradors and got started. Finished my third and was tying off the fly when Sammy picked up a good sized rock and started pounding the stakes, but they wouldn’t grab at … Continue reading →

He couldn’t remember when it was exactly, the date she took off the ring and put it away for good. A couple years for sure, maybe four? He did remember the way she shimmied it off her finger spitting out … Continue reading →

Mom found the place within a week, so I could start with the rest of the kids. We rented it from the builder, a guy named Tazza, who had a very good reputation. The day we moved in, there were … Continue reading →

Earlier that night, hungry and tired, the man split his last $50 between a bucket of chicken and the copay for a new mega-tranquilizer. Lying awake, burping, and more anxious than ever, he begins to think he’s been had. When … Continue reading →

Spinning through the ice patch he straightens out, turns left twice, and takes Bessemer northwest three miles to the broad swale where the engineers had cut the state highways’ intersection into four perfect bulbed ellipses. She knows he’s leaving in … Continue reading →

On the road it all got bent. First lost to State and Tech was a bitch too. Fuckers were a lot tougher than we knew. Their big-dog enforcer, Trennier, I remember him from the MHSAA semis couple years ago. He … Continue reading →

It had been this way for me for some time, their following always hooked about the edges of my shadow. It is Jacobs himself who later at the gallows shows me the white tusk of the boar. In darkness flight … Continue reading →

The first time I saw the tall buildings of Manhattan I was nine years old riding in a car on the Whitestone Bridge. “Look at that zigzag crown,” my father said, pointing to the one he worked in. He spoke … Continue reading →

You were a lover of views never one for things not meant to be seen, like the forgotten back lots inside dark city blocks. So I held the pen awhile, with that thought in my head, and marveled at the … Continue reading →

Downtown you felt netted like a one-eyed fish, big behind double-paned glass. Soprano sax piped from invisible outdoor speakers, stunted shrubs that weren’t shrubs at all, even though that’s what you called them. Women slender in dark skirts taunted by … Continue reading →

My grandson reads me his report on the Farallones Marine Sanctuary. He’s nervous cuz he knows I’ve got my own ideas. Starts reading me all the names: gulls, murres, cormorants, auklets, pelicans, shearwaters, diving Brown Boobies. I laugh at that … Continue reading →

The girl slammed the car door and started down the hill, skittish and full of wire. He had been preoccupied with the ebb and flow of tiny points of light stretched out along the horizon, and his neck was stiff … Continue reading →

Can you believe it, that mountain on the front? I’m there! Hitched down from Munich, totally crazy, 200+, but it’s the autobahn right? and I’m like this is so NOT cool and can’t remember how to say slow or even … Continue reading →

Gladschtul’s text woke me at 3am. We’d done it. Only five of the exotic beasts left on the planet, and only one would now remain in private hands. Mine. I poured a celebratory cognac, Delamain’s exquisite Le Voyage, just right … Continue reading →

Lately, before appointments he’d been asking himself the same questions he’d ask in sessions. “If you were separated, what about your partner would you miss most?” or “What are you feeling inside right now?” Now? Hungry. Ten minutes until his … Continue reading →

. On the short walk from school we scuffed our shoes through dry leaves. I kicked a pumpkin in the gutter down a hill. At the graveyard, Mrs. Denson showed us how to hold the paper against the stones and … Continue reading →

On the way to the Colonoscopy he says, “They’re not going to find anything I can’t outrun before I’m dead of old age anyway.” He has started the counting in earnest: My last car, my last driver’s license photo, my … Continue reading →

She’s found a perfect spot this time. I really can’t find her. Not in any of the places she’s been before, none of the usual suspects. I’m impressed. There’s one spot in the hall where the floorboard is squeaky. It … Continue reading →

Tim leaned hard with one hand on the patio table and poked the index finger of his other into a spreading waste of watermelon juice and vodka. His wife had gone in again for another recon on the stunning details … Continue reading →

The realtor’s office has turned a minor miracle, a quick sale in difficult times, the lot adjoining the Holy Trinity Cemetery and my estranged father dead a week in the upstairs hall. There’s still an hour before the limo leaves … Continue reading →

Bob Stuckey’s rosacea was lit up like a Christmas tree. It went in cycles, these flares. One of the girls poured from the pitcher, slid the glass to him. Empty packs of Marlboro Red Box lay soaked in small pools … Continue reading →

“Although many people think that Albinos change during their life, they actually don’t.” Metzger had been talking to the lady with the pigtailed girls for a long time. After some more back and forth she freaking said yes. Her husband … Continue reading →

His stomach was making noises loud enough for the woman down the counter to look his way. He was eating cheese bread dipped in oil. It made his skin feel greasy. Coffee smell buzzed through his body. Friday, first light, … Continue reading →

It is late, again. And I hear the restless, clopping footsteps in the apartment upstairs. Bathroom water rushing through our shared walls. Their life marching past me in the hall twelve feet above. Expecting soon, clearly, any day now. And … Continue reading →

Heaven’s a blast! It’s like a big summer camp in space. Non-stop games, crafts and activities up here around the clock. Amazing too, how everything we do up here flips a switch down there. Kodachrome sunsets? Rainbows? The Northern Lights?  … Continue reading →

When the buzzer rang I freaked. Ohmygod, he’s really fucking here. It was so hot you were wearing a tank top and jeans, told me you were in your moving clothes. You walked right in and looked at the shit … Continue reading →

Eating 1,400 Slim Jims—can kill you. Duh! (But what a delicious way to die.) Even so, I made sure to stop at 1,399 and feeling the need for a little air, hit the sidewalk for some up-tempo hoofing. Just off … Continue reading →

Tynan never would have seen it, half buried in sand and grey ash but for that exact moment, the moon light pulling out from behind low clouds bringing a sudden glint to the camera’s chrome casing. There was nothing to … Continue reading →

Everyone in town knew about it. They knew my name, said it like they were in church, hushed and quiet. Tommy’s step-brother up in Creelston said he’d help us set it right. Never did like that man. Gave me the … Continue reading →

I’d been counting the time between mile markers when he grabbed it from her. Ma had been folding and refolding the map, trying to answer his question about the Skyway and the Dan Ryan. The car swerved, just a bit, … Continue reading →

Up at my Grandma’s for the holiday break, she asked about my studies, other things, said she wondered what it was I had been busy scrawling away at. “Oh just a letter…to a friend.” “Is that your girl…you still seeing … Continue reading →

The Treasures of ‘Ulu by doug bond She has promised you medicine, her best silk, and the treasures of breadfruit, the one she calls ‘Ulu. All types of tricks and sorceries. It is close, just the other side of your … Continue reading →