In which Moi reads Wodehouse

Sunset. A lake in the north country. Moi sits on a purple blanket at the edge of the water. An open fire warms a pot of coffee. Moi reads a few different PG Wodehouse novels back-to-back for hours on end, pauses, pours a coffee, and speaks an aside. Moi: I was always...

A covid patient reads Plato

Afternoon sunlight shines through a window into a bedroom; a covid patient sits reading in the sunlight on the bed. Patient: Well, I finally have my answer. How many years ago did I write that question on Quora asking about why America’s two party system was creating...
Socrates interviews Ben Shapiro

Socrates interviews Ben Shapiro

Ben Shapiro sits for an interview with Socrates. Socrates: Hey, thanks for joining me today. Ben: Happy to be here. Socrates: I’ve been listening to your social commentary and find it lacking in a good measure of truth. You’ve definitely expressed one of the many...

The swing

A ten-year-old swings from a rope swing hung from an oak tree in rural Idaho; he talks to himself: Ten-year-old: Gosh, I really like to swing; I swing so much some days that I get sick. What is that sickness? A motion sickness? What causes that sickness? Is something...

In which is a study of a master storyteller

In a stone house in the middle of Lisbon there lived a young girl. Not a nasty, dirty, wet stone house, filled with green and black mold, nor yet a dry, bare, modern stone house with nothing in it but glass and rubber light fixtures that jiggle when you touch them: it...

A well-met forest

A woman drives a car up a dirt road into a forest. She parks, walks a ways into the forest, pees, and says: Woman: Ah, well-met, Forest! As she pulls up her trousers, the pines sigh in a gentle breeze. Birds chirp. Two oak leaves flutter down and land on the woman’s...

The irony

A father and daughter sit on a blanket in the park. Daughter: Papa! PAPA! HEY, PAPA! Father: Yes, what? Daughter: I asked you a question. Father: Oh, really? That’s ironic. Daughter: Don’t change the subject: I asked you a question. Father: I didn’t hear you; what was...

In which two Americans meet in the road

Two Americans meet in the street of a Portuguese town. 1. How are you today? 2. I’m exhausted. 1. Oh, really, what do you do? 2. I help American expats find houses here in Portugal, but I came here to get away from all that annoying cultural stuff. 1. I’m an American;...

To be or not to be awkward

Two guys sit at a beach café and discuss the word awkward. 1. The word awkward is difficult to define. 2. No it isn’t; it just means that expectations aren’t met. 1. I disagree; I think it is difficult to define. In English, one’s whole identity could be awkward; one...

The well: the stone door

Teresa and Irene walked up the stairs together and stood in front of a stone door. Hieroglyphics covered the door. Teresa: Where does this stone door lead? Irene: To your house. Teresa: No, it doesn’t. Irene: Yes, it does. Teresa: No, it doesn’t. Irene: Yes, it does....

The well part two

Teresa walked on stage and danced three of the dances; as she reached the far edge of the platform, during one of the more provocative gesticulations, the platform gave way below her and Teresa half fell and half slid off the platform and into the sinkhole that had...

The well

Teresa: I won’t do it! Uncle: It will be a couple minutes. Teresa: Wearing this outfit? In public? For even a second will destroy everything I’ve done over the past lifetime! Uncle: This doesn’t matter; when you are my age, you won’t remember today at all. Teresa: My...