Ralph Pullins

When I was five or six, we went swimming in a reservoir near Walla Walla.  We were splashing around as is customary in these situations, maybe building a castle, maybe diving for rocks.  You can visualize it I expect: summertime swimming at the local pond, nothing really serious. And then this guy started screaming.  He was out on one of those air mattresses, a clear one that had the holes just the right size for a can, about the size of a queen bed, just floating around, when a human corpse floated up and hit the bottom. This is really true.  I remember it a little, but not much; I was kindergarten age, remember?  I remember wanting to see it, but being afraid to.  I remember some people on the shore yelling to the guy to tow it in and him refusing to touch it.  I remember being hustled out of the water, and we didn't stick around long after that. And I have this image in my memory of a pale hand and a gold watch, but that may just be my imagination....

When I was five or six, we went swimming in a reservoir near Walla Walla.  We were splashing around as is customary in these situations, maybe building a castle, maybe diving for rocks.  You can visualize it I expect: summertime swimming at the local pond, nothing really serious. And then this guy started screaming.  He was out on one of those air mattresses, a clear one that had the holes just the right size for a can, about the size of a queen bed, just floating around, when a human corpse floated up and hit the bottom. This is really true.  I remember it a little, but not much; I was kindergarten age, remember?  I remember wanting to see it, but being afraid to.  I remember some people on the shore yelling to the guy to tow it in and him refusing to touch it.  I remember being hustled out of the water, and we didn't stick around long after that. And I have this image in my memory of a pale hand and a gold watch, but that may just be my imagina...

This is a short fiction piece that I wrote a couple of months ago in the office when I should probably have been working.  Sometimes I have a very hard time letting go when the words want to fall in the right order as they did for this one.  My publisher does this thing where authors are encouraged to contribute writing to the blog, or for the website or whatever, and they have a monthly prompt, usually just a single word.  This one was for July and the word was "Edge."  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Edges I am nine years old.   I look at my feet on the edge of the roof, the toes of my shoes poking out over the gutter.   Below is my brother, older, and the architect of this plan.   I look behind me at the homemade parachute, cobbled together from an old bed sheet and clothesline, and beyond that the open window that I had climbed out.   I am hop...

This is a short fiction piece that I wrote a couple of months ago in the office when I should probably have been working.  Sometimes I have a very hard time letting go when the words want to fall in the right order as they did for this one.  My publisher does this thing where authors are encouraged to contribute writing to the blog, or for the website or whatever, and they have a monthly prompt, usually just a single word.  This one was for July and the word was "Edge."  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Edges I am nine years old.   I look at my feet on the edge of the roof, the toes of my shoes poking out over the gutter.   Below is my brother, older, and the architect of this plan.   I look behind me at the homemade parachute, cobbled together from an old bed sheet and clothesline, and beyond that the open window that I had climbed out....