Jnana HODSON
Having just been exposed to a Build-a-Bear Workshop, the consequence of a rare trip to the mall with his younger stepdaughter, Jnana's wondering about the surreal parallels with today's publishing climate. He's a daily newspaper editor by trade, back working the night shift again after seventeen years where he had a double-shift on Saturdays. Recent literary acceptances include works in Iodine Poetry Journal, Plungelit, Poetry Motel, Prose Toad, Real Eight View, Riverbabble, Roman Candles, and Somewhat.org.
ALL THE ILLUMINATED SOULS
Never mind how he denied his own dream of maintaining her in high style, he was still moved by her appearance in feather earrings or her tawny jacket with long fringes, or the way she carried a deerskin purse. No wonder her mother relished buying clothing for Jen. He should have remembered what Murshid had said: Jen was coming into a period in which she would be unstoppable. Kyle should have also remembered something else his guru had said, that Kyle was entering his own difficult stretch.He read commentary that made him believe the West Coast is beyond all understanding, save a lunatic’s. Wondered if he and Jen would ever make it Far West, as he had promised. They had dreamed of the Northwest. Maybe that would be different, understandable in a way Hollywood or San Francisco might never be.
Awaiting approval of a new budget, his job was extremely tense. The document went all the way to Washington. Finally, after months of fearful anticipation, everyone could relax: the project was in the clear for the next four years. At last, Kyle knew Jen could finish her degree in this place.
She celebrated with a feast. As their friends arrived, they moved the kitchen table outdoors, covering it with an antique lace tablecloth. The sunny spring day was perfect an after-dinner trek across the far meadow, as well as games of Frisbee and volleyball. Wine flowed, and Jen was a princess.
The next night, while he was at a committee meeting, her parents phoned. "They wanted to know if we could go to Florida with them. I said you have too much work at the institute these days. So they wondered if you might let me go with them."
Sure, why not? Her parents were good to them. A little sun and surf wouldn’t hurt her, either. When Jack came to pick her up, he even brought his tiller along and saved Kyle the spading.
While Jen was vacationing, Kyle’s boss called him into her office. As a friend said that evening, "They always do it so gently." Canning you. The institute’s operational budget had been sliced in half. Just like that. There was no other choice but to let him go, along with the rest of the support staff. They gave it to him when Jen was off with her parents, out of town. Suddenly, he felt abandoned, completely alone - something he hadn’t felt that way since meeting her. Sometimes, in wilderness comes clarity. Action itself refines. He went out into the field for his wild onions ghost dance.
Murshid had predicted this would be the time of Kyle’s final cleaning out, his last great purification. It was rough. But from here on out, it should be smooth sailing. Kyle mailed out resumes. As Murshid had warned, Kyle should not have changed jobs when he moved to Indiana. But there, too, he had no other real choice; at least, he got out of Prairie Depot before the floor collapsed beneath his coworkers there. The others had not been so lucky.