tandex's New Writeups

I could lie like this forever (fiction)

2004-09-07T20:25:28Z

previous: Describing Love in Dirty Pictures

Nine: I could lie like this forever

Union Station Video Cafe was at the bottom of the stairs of Olin's apartment complex on High Street. Jacob hadn't lived so close to a bar in his life.
The concept of having a popular, social area so close to his front door was unnerving. While it was mostly calm during day – masquerading as a sedate restaurant, serving decent food – at night it transformed. Some nights they would play a non-stop stream of bad 80's videos, techno-dance and silly, live game shows. Other nights, crowds would gather to watch episodes of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy", "Queer as Folk" or "the L word".
Ryan would've lived there, constantly checking out guys, drinking to a stupor, complaining incessantly about

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Describing love in dirty pictures (fiction)

2004-08-24T21:18:12Z

previous: He needed to repeat some well-used mantra of love just one more time

Eight: Describing Love in Dirty Pictures

Kelly leaned forward, picked a pebble and threw it across the sidewalk into the algae sludge at the edge of the pond. It barely rippled and he smiled, satisfied "So, Ryan was a psycho-control freak."

Jacob sat against the bench and twisted a piece of grass in his fingers until it was a series of tiny threads. "Ryan had a way of taking control of a situation even when it appeared it was the last thing he wanted."

Kelly moved his bare knee against Jacob's and left it there. They were dissimilar in many ways. Jacob's skin was pale white compared to Kelly's dark, reddish tan. Kelly's body was more delicate and defined than Jacob's –

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My grandmother and I traveling in time (essay)

2004-02-17T19:29:16Z

My grandmother travels though time. I'm not certain when she started.

It might have been the lack of interaction. Maybe she started to travel while no one was around because, in my own experience, I find that lonely people dwell on the past. History magnifies, enhances, enlarges and eventually becomes tangible. That quiet space in our heads fill with those problems or joys and some people simply retreat into something happier or simpler.

It's strange to see this happen to someone. When my grandfather died, I watched this play out repeatedly with my grandmother, in our conversations. I overheard it at the funeral home.

I watched her slowly stray backwards through time: a day, a week, a year, a decade. I saw her disposition, her expression became distant, the conversation would leave her, our voices would fade and other voices - from some far memory -…

Gargoyles make lousy houseguests (fiction)

2003-09-16T19:21:46Z

The Gargoyles were how David found Fredrick DeCormyr's apartment over an art shop called "Great things on High" in Columbus. He'd followed the railroad tracks west from his crash site, found his way along High Street by a large, multicolored convention center and found a pebble of gargoyles in the store window.

DeCormyr lived in Columbus for quite some time and David was surprised that there weren't gargoyles everywhere, on the eaves, before the doors, on the windowsills. A well grounded angel could expect thousands of them to show up after a while. Since there were only a hundred or so Stone Spirits in the front window he was rather baffled.

David then noticed that each of the gargoyles in the window bore small handwritten paper price tags. He then had to assume two things: either this shop did a rather brisk business in gargoyles or DeCormyr was just a bastard and…

He needed to repeat some well-used mantra of love just one more time (fiction)

2003-08-07T20:11:58Z

previous:Pause and Effect

Seven: He needed to repeat some well-used mantra of love just one more time

I found that dirty picture of us the other night when I was looking to see if I'd packed any extra razors in my gym bag. I found it tucked inside the pocket, forgotten. I don't know how, Frankie or Ryan must have put it there after the party a month-or-so ago.

Ryan was furious when Frankie took it and threatened him; Frank gave it up pretty quickly. I'm just surprised that Ryan didn't burn it when we got home. He must have forgotten about it after he calmed down. Maybe he was just too drunk to remember it at all - that's most likely it.

Anyway, in May, Frankie threw a pool party and we met a group of friends at his place. It's strange, I

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David decides to fall (fiction)

2003-06-13T18:30:12Z

All manner of supernatural beings can stumble into our human reality. That is how David arrived, falling though cloud and sky. He crashed through the roof of an old, empty tool casting factory just off Cleveland Avenue and ended up in a crater-like hole in the basement, covered with ancient shop rags.

He had plenty of time to think about his course of action during the fall. Granted, a fall from Heaven takes seven Earth days so there was plenty of time to wonder if he was making a good choice.

After the first few minutes the thrill of falling was pretty much gone. The stomach dropping sensation, the wind, the speed, it all became commonplace after an hour.

By the end of hour three he wished he brought a book.

That was the biggest problem with manifesting oneself on the planet - travel time. Angels were,

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