Mahdi sat in the passenger seat and thought about the body in the trunk. How did he end up in this place? He thought he was done with dead bodies when he came to Canada. He stared out the window and memories of Syria five years ago flooded back into his brain. What did these guys want with him? Why did they grab him? Why didn’t he stay with his wife and son? So many questions. And no answers, yet. Read more
Ralph pushed his shopping cart across the snow-filled street. It was everything he had inside for him to make it to the other side. He didn’t have a destination, he only needed to keep moving. Keep his circulation going. It was as cold as he could remember it being in Kelowna. He left Calgary two years before looking for warmer temperatures and a break from the addiction that plagued him all his adult life. At least he escaped the cold, Read more
I woke up from my dream, it was a strange dream. A dream of vacations yet to come… Or merely vacations wished for? My wife and I were booked to fly to Barcelona, departing on December 28, and returning on January 10. It all seemed so real. When I woke up, it took a few minutes to realize: No, we were not booked on a flight to Spain. We were not booked on a flight anywhere, and certainly not somewhere Read more
Only eight days to Christmas. Time flies when you’re having fun they say, and they’re right. I’ve been having too much fun skiing to want to think about shopping. I guess it’s time to start Christmas shopping. I’d rather be skiing. Or fishing, or well pretty much anything but Christmas shopping. There seems to be so much pressure on people and on Christmas. I know it has always been pressure packed at this time of year but as I get Read more
Mahdi Al Asheer ducked his head as he felt the rumble of the explosion. Debris fell from the ceiling, and he saw the glass shake. It was 3 am and the bombings were getting closer. So far, he was safe enough where he was. His wife and young child looked to him for salvation. “Daddy, when will they stop?” the boy’s eyes watered, and he held onto his mother tightly. “I don’t know son, Assad and the government forces keep Read more
The sounds of coughing echoed across the hillside. More and more people are sick again. Now that covid is in retreat, all the former illnesses in life are back. With a vengeance. I’ve had a cough for over a month now. And I know many other people suffering from some malady or other. After two years of masking up and washing hands suddenly everyone is sick. But it’s not covid… It’s the flu, a cold, and a cough. Hospitals are Read more
The first Monday of the rest of my life. Lately, I have been treating every day as if it was a bad Monday. It is time to change. Time is the most precious thing we have. A thing easily wasted, yet not easily replaced. Time… Monday, March 23, 2020, I embarked on a journey of self-discovery. A journey prompted by a worldwide pandemic that shocked us all into change. For a while, I wrote every day, inspired to record the Read more
I have never felt so much fear for my future in my life. I was 19 when I started my business and I had the world by the tail. I was going to clean windows and then become a writer. It all seemed so simple. So easy. Back then the cost of doing business and the cost of life itself was real. Things were reasonable. We bought coats made in Canada by Sun Ice, they were expensive, yes, but even Read more
I moaned into the night. My body sweat and my head was pounding. I must have gone through a whole box of kleenex that day. It started with a sneeze. I skied the morning, enjoying fresh tracks on the fourth chair. It wasn’t until we got back into town that I started to feel under the weather. I kept sneezing. So as my energy escaped my body I decided to try having a bath. Usually, a hot bath will sweat Read more
It started early the day before. Big fluffy flakes drifted to the earth and coated their mountain paradise. The thing everyone was hoping for began. Snow. Beautiful, peaceful, snow. It was day five of the young ski season and the first of two wonderful powder days. Barrman and Kaydee skied up the Ridge Rocket Quad Chair, and there was no one there. The clock read 8:32, he knew he’d missed Cookster and Kaydee’s friend Cammy by only a couple of Read more