How The Stoneslide Corrective Got Its Name

I like rocks. I like piling them in stone walls and the dull clonks they make when they fall together. I like hauling them from place to place in a wheelbarrow. I like how heavy and damned hard they are to budge. I like their unyielding disregard.

The Stoneslide was waiting for a walk light

along a busy street. The sun was high, its light and heat intense. A gentle breeze cooled Stoneslide’s fellow pedestrians, about twenty in number, as everyone waited.

One person was telling her friend how she and her husband had just got a rescue dog.

Shock to Equilibrium

The plane was nearly empty, though Graeme knew he was the last passenger to board. He’d slipped in as attendants waited to close off the gangway. This should have been a popular flight. The few people scattered among the seats made him think of a chessboard near endgame. It was a bad omen.