Author: jimlatham

Ollie, in the middle of the street, balanced on one leg for what must have been his twentieth selfie with a llama wearing a multicolored knitted cap. Pen, at the bar, sipped her pisco sour and pondered levels of stupidity. First, you have absentminded or merely dumb mistakes. Embarrassing, but understandable in the day-to-day rush. […]

Zach didn’t want to shoot the moose.  April wanted revenge. She had named the moose Stew after he munched her broccoli and kale down to nubbins and trampled the rest of her garden. She wanted his head on the wall and his steaks on the grill. The whir of April’s sewing machine faltered and stopped.“Zach!” […]

Ray laughed until ran out of breath, which didn’t take long. “Shit, Manny, I thought you were smarter than that.” “Than what?”  Ray wiped his eyes with a red handkerchief then mopped the rest of his face. He took a long, tentative breath and chuckled. “You think your ma named you after paper? After an […]

A Bobcat A bobcat freezes at the edge of a clearing, its head cocked, its yellow eyes drawn by sunlight glinting on a gold ring encircling a finger. A breeze carrying the smells of meltwater trickling in the creek bed and sap working its way up the birch trees ruffles the tufts of black hair […]

I see you, human. I see your wide eyes, your sunburned skin, your trembling fist clutching a green-tinted bottle. I smell the pheromones flooding from your skin and I hear your racing heart. To be honest, I’m surprised you heard me. I figured I’d drop down off the ridge pole of your fancy canvas tent, […]

When you’re in a tree stand hunting bears over bait, you gotta watch out for two things: peeing and sleeping. Three things, really, counting the bears.  Peeing marks the area with your scent, which you don’t want. Some guys use special sprays that supposably eliminate human odor and whiz-bang fabrics that block whatever the spray […]

Three of us live in the piece of shit house on the hill two blocks past the end of the train line: Ma, the monster, and me. Four of us if you count the cat, but he only eats here a few times a week. Not that I eat three squares, but you know what […]

The day I slaughtered the first sheep, the three dogs laid their black and white ears back and their deep brown eyes looked away. They didn’t, however, turn their noses up at the chunks of mutton I tossed them a short while later, the fat still sizzling from the fire. Now, Lainey’s the only collie […]

People say lots of stupid things. I think we can all agree on that, though I’ve noticed people don’t always agree on what qualifies as stupid. Not that any of you primates ever stops saying more things, though. You all are a chatty bunch. The stupid thing I hear most frequently (Note 1), residing as […]

Joe checks his knife. The steel blade is sheathed in the moose-hide scabbard strapped to his thigh. Next, he pulls the spray skirt tight over the lip of the cockpit and taps the black neoprene four times, once for each of the four directions. Ritual complete, he digs the blade of the two-ended paddle into […]