"A STORY A WEEK" NO. 2: MR. BLESSING'S ROMANCE
(This is my second entry in the weekly project called "The Spohn Challenge," in which the object is to write one short story a week for a year, any length and any subject.)
I looked at her. "Well," I asked, "what do you think?"
"Honestly?"
"Of course"
She smiled. "I don't think it's such a good idea."
That wasn't what I wanted to hear. "Give me one good reason why not."
"Okay," she said as she sat down and poured herself another drink. "Look at what happened to them."
"So what does that have to do with us?"
"Everything! You're the one who's always comparing our relationship to theirs."
"I do not." I paused for a second, to consider the possibility that maybe I did, at that.
"Either way, I still don't think – "
"Listen," she interrupted after swallowing a mouthful of her drink. "You said that they said that she said that he said that they would have if they could have, but he couldn't and she wouldn't so they didn't. Remember?"
"That's true," I conceded with a nod. "But I also remember that he tried the best he could – and very nearly succeeded, if what she said was true." I took a sip of my own drink before continuing. "All he needed was a little more cooperation on her part, I think..."
She stood up and took me by the hand. "Look, it's not that I'm really against it," she said softly. "Actually I think I may want it even more badly than you do. I... I just don't want it to go as badly for us as it did for them."
"So now who's comparing?"
"I know. I guess I'm just a little nervous, that's all."
"There's nothing wrong with that," I told her. "I am too, if you want to know the truth. That's part of it, I think. The only thing I know for sure is that I'm not interested in them; I'm interested in us. What matters is how we feel. And you'll never be able to convince me that anything that seems so right could ever possibly be wrong."
I paused for a moment before adding, "And I know that, deep down, you feel the same way. You just said so yourself."
She smiled again. "Yes, I did," she said softly.
And then she moved towards me...
In : A Story A Week
Tags: fiction
John A. Small is an award-winning newspaper journalist, columnist and broadcaster whose work has been honored by the Oklahoma Press Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press, the National Newspaper Association, and the Oklahoma Education Association. He and his wife Melissa were married in 1986; they have two sons, Joshua Orrin (born 1991) and William Ian (born 1996).
Mr. Small is the News Editor and columnist for the Johnston County Capital-Democrat, a weekly newspaper headquartered in Tishomingo, OK. He obtained his nickname, "Bard of the Lesser Boulevards," from a journalism colleague - the late Phil Byrum - in recognition of the success of his popular newspaper column, "Small Talk." (In addition to the many awards the column itself has received over the years, a radio version of "Small Talk" earned an award for "Best Small Market Commentary" from the Society of Professional Journalists in 1998.)
John was born in Oklahoma City in 1963; lived in the Bradley-Bourbonnais-Kankakee area of Illinois for most of the next 28 years (with brief sojourns in Texas and Athens, Greece, thrown in to break up the monotony); then returned to his native state in 1991, where he currently resides in the Tishomingo/Ravia area. He graduated from Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School in 1981, and received his bachelor's degree in journalism from Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais in 1991. The years between high school and college were a period frought with numerous exploits and misadventures, some of which have become the stuff of legend; nobody was hurt along the way, however, which should count for something.
In addition to his professional career as a journalist he has published two short story collections: "Days Gone By: Legends And Tales Of Sipokni West" (2007), a collection of western stories; and "Something In The Air" (2011), a more eclectic collection. He was also a contributor to the 2005 Locus Award-nominated science fiction anthology "Myths For The Modern Age: Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Universe," edited by Win Scott Eckert. In additon he has written a stage play and a self-published cookbook; served as project editor for a book about the JFK assassination entitled "The Men On The Sixth Floor"; and has either published or posted on the Internet a number of essays, stories and poems.
He has also won writing awards from the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the National Library of Poetry. He is a past president of the Johnston County Chamber of Commerce in Tishomingo; was a charter member and past president of the Johnston County Reading Council, the local literacy advocacy and "friends of the library" organization; served as Johnston County's first-ever Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator in 1994-95; served two terms as chairman of the Johnston County (OK) Democratic Party; and has taught journalism classes for local Boy Scout Merit Badge Fairs. He is a member of the New Wold Newton Meteorics Society.
