Arlo Hennings
Bio
Author of 2 non-fiction books, composer of 4 albums, expat, father, MFA (Creative Writing), B.A.
Stories (120)
Filter by community
Who Started the Gaia Movement?
Introduction The original Rainbow Tribe Gathering was in July 1972. Since then every year on National Forest land. Gatherings have been held annually in the United States from July 1 through 7. And in many other places around the world.
By Arlo Hennings4 years ago in Earth
I Feel Happy! I Feel Healthy! I Feel Ter-r-ific!
A discordant melody is heard, played upon a hundred honking cars from the traffic outside. Before us is the unemployment office - a labyrinth of angular cubicles. Only the white glow of the pale ceiling lights upon the waiting area forestage; the surrounding area shows a gloomy haze of blue. As a spotlight light appears, we see a long line of tired people. An air of the dream clings to the place, a dream rising out of reality.
By Arlo Hennings4 years ago in Fiction
Goodbye on Mothers Day
Mom worked a low-wage job as a leader of a nonprofit organization for girls. When she got home she tossed her jacket and purse on the table and walked past me without a word. She continued on to the refrigerator. Looked inside to bare shelves. In robotic movements. Withdrew something wrapped in foil and dropped it onto the countertop. The loud crash of a frying pan followed, which broke up the fight between my dad and me.
By Arlo Hennings4 years ago in Families
Under the Volcano
After my brother was drafted into the Vietnam War. I rarely saw him again. Following the divorce from his first wife. He’d suffered cocaine addiction and visited me for a short time. After completing a substance abuse program in California. He returned to visit me a few years later with his new and much younger Asian wife. Soon after that, in 1989, He hired to work as a technician for an observatory on top of Mt. Mauna Kea. So they moved into a house near the base of the mountain in Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawaii.
By Arlo Hennings4 years ago in Families
Journey to Nomadland
I woke up in jail with the jackboot of a SWAT team officer pressed down on my back. Choking from tear gas, grabbed by my hair, handcuffed, and thrown into the back of a paddy wagon. This was not a dream or an anti-vax demonstration flashback. I was under arrest for joining a homelessness rally. After all, America was great again. I worked as a business development executive and my employer bankrupt.
By Arlo Hennings4 years ago in Fiction
I Married into a Foreign Culture
I was on my way to find a gift for my daughter's birthday when my motorbike hit a hill of construction dirt. The accident sent me hurtling barelegged into the merciless jaws of the pavement. In a daze, I looked up from the street and saw a brown-colored angel standing over me. She offered a hand. The hand was that of Tuti, a lovely Javanese woman I had recently met online while living overseas.
By Arlo Hennings4 years ago in Humans
Unsung Hero Dreamt of Helping Children
After two and a half years of trying to reinvent me in Bali. I faced the prospect of ending up as a 60-year-old vagrant on my stepmother’s doorstep. The building process on my Ubud, Bali villa had depleted my financial resources. and much of my resilience. I had bookings for the villa, but not enough savings to get me through days or weeks of vacancy. I couldn’t bear the thought of losing the place. Having to leave my Tuti (my wife), and head out, yet again, on that unmarked highway.
By Arlo Hennings4 years ago in Criminal
Night of the Anti-Vaxxers
Once I'd regained my strength, I returned to the road. But before making it to the end of the parking lot, I started sweating. My underwear felt heavy and damp again, sticking to my legs like soggy swimsuit trunks. With the hot summer winds swirling around my body. Each step was heavy and laborious. Like walking through chest-deep water in a river current that pulled and pushed me at the same time. I heaved my suitcase up over my right shoulder onto my back. Gripped the guitar in my left hand, and kept trudging on toward my goal… to get vaccinated for Covid 19.
By Arlo Hennings4 years ago in Horror
My Daughter and her Mother Addicts Both
After a year and a half of unanswered emails/entreaties/pleas to my 22-year-old daughter. I received the long-awaited reply. She had been working 10 hours per day in an $8-per-hour. No benefits fast-food job to finagle time with co-workers so she could visit me. She had never traveled overseas by herself. I booked a route with the fewest connections and layovers possible. I cashed out my last bit of savings from a 401k savings plan to pay for the trip. Soon, my precious daughter and I reunited.
By Arlo Hennings4 years ago in Families
The Return of the Stay-at-Home Dad
My daughter's mother, my ex, died. The news stopped the flow of blood to my head. The funeral was to happen in 48 hours. I scrambled to find the quickest way back to Minnesota from Bali, Indonesia. I told my daughter to do the best she could with the funeral arrangements until I got there.
By Arlo Hennings4 years ago in Families
