Category: PART OF A SERIES
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SALT WATER & SINS, CHAPTER 6: What Stays, What Leaves
Galveston in late August tasted like sunburn and something left too long on the stove. The air had thickened, and even the waves crashed with less conviction. Topher knew summer was ending—not just on the calendar, but in every look Valerie wouldn’t return. She moved differently now. Checked the phone before answering. Stared out the…
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SALT WATER & SINS, Chapter 5: The Heat That Found a Fuse
Topher’s ribs ached less by the second week, but something else had started to throb—something less physical and far more dangerous. The painkillers were gone. The bruises turned yellow and brown. The stitches itched and pulled like quiet reminders of how close he’d come to folding in on himself. But Valerie was always there. She…
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SALT WATER & SINS, CHAPTER 4: The Red Light
The day had baked Galveston to a crackling crisp. By the time the sun set, everything smelled like warm tar, salt, and regret. Valerie had stayed longer than she meant to—again. She’d brought leftover shrimp Creole, and they ate it with beers that sweated faster than they could drink them. The oscillating fan in Topher’s…
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SALT WATER & SINS, CHAPTER 3: Jump seats
By the third week, the air itself had softened. Even the shadows seemed slow. Galveston in July didn’t rush anything—not the heat, not the water, not the way your mind wandered. Topher found himself drifting, not in a bad way, but the kind of drift that made you forget where the days went. The beach…
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SALT WATER & SINS, CHAPTER 2: A Shore Thing
The Gulf hit him in the face before he ever saw it. It wasn’t the way it looked—though that would come—it was how it felt. The air turned syrupy as soon as the Dodge crossed the causeway, thick with salt and engine heat and fried shrimp. The sun wasn’t just shining; it was pressing its…
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SALT WATER & SINS, CHAPTER 1: Graduation Drive
Topher Thompson walked out of Jim Bowie High School for the last time with a rolled-up diploma in one hand and his whole damn life in the other. The summer heat hit him like a punishment. The kind that didn’t need to say much—just pressed its fingers to your neck and waited. The ceremony had…
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MERCURY, GOLD, AND IRON, Chapter 7
This is the final installment of the series. (Well, except for the wrap-up tomorrow.) They drove southwest with no fanfare. No sirens. No newsreels. No ticker tape parades. Just four people in a scuffed yellow-and-white Plymouth wagon, windows down, air thick with miles and unasked questions. Kip sat in the backseat, elbows on knees, looking…
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MERCURY, GOLD, AND IRON, Chapter 6
They drove east. The red Dodge moved like an aging stallion—graceful, slow to anger, and impossible to predict. Kip said little. The boy said nothing. Just the two of them, heading toward something unspeakable in a car older than either one of them cared to admit. The world around them had started to shift. You…
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MERCURY, GOLD, AND IRON, Chapter 5
By the time Kip Rudyard reached North English, Iowa, the road had worn through his boots, his pride, and the last of his gas money. He rolled the Mercury into town on fumes and fumes alone, the Gold Dust Metallic sheen now dulled by the smear of five states and a half-dozen bad decisions. The…
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MERCURY, GOLD, AND IRON, Chapter 4
By the time Kip crossed into South Dakota, the Mercury was crusted with five states’ worth of grit and his eyes felt scratchy from a thousand miles of squinting. The map was folded wrong and stained with burger grease. He wasn’t even sure if he’d made a wrong turn or if the road had just…