justdustwords

         The Toss of a Coin                         by DAF                                                                                        ''I don't need to be pardoned for my past sins. What's in the past is in the past unless you take pleasure in opening up festering wounds that never seem to heal over. Time can heal many wounds but it doesn't make a deal with your memories. This one you cope with yourself in your own way but maybe I need to be pardoned for the sin I have committed. This is my story as it happened. ''                          I know I am getting too old now for the cold weather that's seeping into my bones and leaving me feeling short-tempered, but it was extra cold that night in mid-December. I don't know how many stops I had made during the night but I think it was three, yes it was three, I remember now because each time I stopped I was taking a mental flogging for events in the past and those which were ab

A FATHER and SON STORY                                                                             By DAF     A native of the rainforest lived all of his life with nature thinking and knowing that it was the giver of all he needed in his lifetime. He respected nature and now knew its ways that were passed from father to son. He was also doing the same for his own son, passing on the skills and the way of survival to live in the rainforest, but he also knew the future was changing and may not be quite the same for his son as it was for him. The son was also going to a school run by missionaries during the week and returning at the weekends to his family. He was not keen on the separation from his family but the distance by the river was too much to travel each day and made it difficult during the monsoons. So they compromised, and schooling came with separation.    O n the weekends, father and son would go out hunting, being the only son and the last born in a family

                The 13th Dog                                                           By DAF                    Jill woke up before Jack .. it was her habit at this stage now of their relationship. She liked to have the coffee simmering for Jack in case he had to leave the house without breakfast. They have been together for almost over twelve years or maybe twelve and a half, nobody was counting. She knew if she was to wake up Jack right now and ask him ...    ''Hey, sleepy head, how long are we together now ...'' Jack would not be able to tell her the exact date.    ''Hopeless, totally hopeless ...'' she would say,     '' ... and more to the point, do you even remember the date of my birthday, I will give you a  little hint .. 12th or the 13th, think now .. carefully, 12th or the 13th of November ...'' She was teasing him and liked to watch the expression on his face change, like the clown looking for the right ex

         CIAN and ABLE                                                                               By DAF                                                                                         Two old men, Cian and Able are 'ending' their days in a 'home' where people go when nobody else wants them in their life and for many other reasons too. Cian and Able worked hard throughout their working life, provided and helped to raise families, as men can only do in their way, paid their taxes and prayed to their God, and now are paying to end their days in 'dollar-comfort' and spend most of their time going over in their minds the memories of a lifetime .. 'what-if-I-had-it-all-over- again' syndrome. The two in more ways than one depend on each other for consolation in the 'what-if' syndrome. The things they talked about were just not talked about to strangers or outside of their friends and their friendship grew deeper in that .. for each was tell

            J umping S hip                                                                      by DAF                                                 S tanding at the ship's railings, smoking and with the fresh smell of whisky on his breath looking out at the port, was like having a knife stabbed into his back. He hadn't been 'home' for twenty-two years now .. yes, he came into 'this' port often but never left the ship. It was a cold night, cold outside and cold inside, in spite of the couple of shots of whisky he had taken before going on deck. The ship had been in port for two days now waiting to be unloaded with its forty-foot containers but they were on hold. The weather, doing its best, had slowed things down in the port to slow motion and everything was running behind time. He was uneasy and getting more disturbed in his mind the longer they were in port. He wanted to go to sea and the sooner the better. He could tell that things her

A Dog's Life                               Written by DAF                                                             Two dogs, one black, one white, and both loyal to the 'hand-that-feeds-them' are sitting on a bank of a paddie field as they have done every day in the hot sun, half dozing but alert to the sounds of their owners bent over planting rice and talking, some to themselves in 'that' complaining tone which the dogs are used to hearing and some praying, in the hope their karma is being paid-off. One of the workers slowly straightens himself up in a slow stretch and looking at the dogs says... ''It's a dog's life''. The black dog hearing this being said so many times asked the white dog... ''What does he mean, it's a dog's life''. The white dog scratching himself answers ... ''Our owners see only what they want to see and say only what they want to say in words that will suit their feelings,