Paul A. Merkley
Bio
Mental traveller. Idealist. Try to be low-key but sometimes hothead. Curious George. "Ardent desire is the squire of the heart." Love Tolkien, Cinephile. Awards ASCAP, Royal Society. Music as Brain Fitness: www.musicandmemoryjunction.com
Achievements (1)
Stories (101)
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Guide Stones
The outside world was unknown to her, but she could see a glimpse of it through the window in his room. It was a very small window—from the ancient book her grandfather had given her, she wondered if it was what had been called a ‘clerestory’ window, whatever that meant—and she had to stand on a chair to see out of it, but this was the last place in the colony where she could look out, and this apartment had become hers yesterday when her grandfather, her only living kin, passed. She peered out through the dirty glass. She missed her grandfather and this way she felt a bit closer to him.
By Paul A. Merkley3 years ago in Fiction
Operations
10 a.m. I think there is nothing more beautiful and satisfying than a perfect operation. Call me Jeff. I don't go by that name, but I need to anonymize things just a bit in order to tell this story, and I do want to tell it to you. I love games, mysteries, and operations. You say you're not into operations? Well you are missing out on a wonderful part of life. Maybe I can draw you into that world.
By Paul A. Merkley3 years ago in Criminal
Thanksgiving gone South
I fear that, as you read this, you will ask questions like how could I not have known? How did I allow this to happen? Why did I.... Well stop right there. Why is a sucker's question. Why gets us nowhere. When things go as far south as they did on that 2012 Thanksgiving, the "Allower," myself, the one who you may say dropped the ball, can usually explain how, but seldom why. So I will tell you how.
By Paul A. Merkley3 years ago in Families
Jack Dempsey. Runner-Up in The Aquarium Challenge.
It was hard to give Jack up. We'd been with each other through thick and thin. When we moved here there hadn't been much for me at first. I'd left my friends behind. Cousins too. I had no brothers or sisters, so not much. Lots of TV stations in this new place, but there's only so much Jeopardy and Perry Mason a guy can watch, you know? And Sundays, Sundays were slow. Not even the FBI on Sundays. Dad was stuck on Ed Sullivan and Have Gun Will Travel. Topo Gigio is okay, but even so...
By Paul A. Merkley3 years ago in Petlife
Dinner with Friends
Magilla Gorman arrived late to Girls Night Out, and slid his very large frame into the booth. That was okay because they always left one of the end seats of the booth open for him, seeing as how Magillla was claustrophobic. How bad? The eminent psychiatrist, the best in Geyserville had asked him that, explaining that with the new phobia cures you can get over almost anything. Magilla told him he couldn’t wear a coat in the car, even unzipped. The psychiatrist, as Magilla told it, lowered his voice to a semi-hypnotically suggestive whisper, and said, “Just stay away from closed-in spaces and it shouldn’t be a problem.”
By Paul A. Merkley4 years ago in Fiction
Cracking the Sleep Mystery
I suck at sleeping, and in the past five years it has been harder (worse) than before. There. I’ve said it. I’m not embarrassed to admit it because, chances are, if you are reading this, you, or someone you know and want to help, has a little or a lot of trouble sleeping too. Yes?
By Paul A. Merkley4 years ago in Lifehack
