N.T. Franklin

“I’m taking the boat on a maiden voyage this afternoon,” Thomas announced. “Honey, you only picked it up yesterday, shouldn’t a used boat be checked over before it’s taken out on the ocean?” “Checked out, shmecked out. You’re just like your dad. It was fine before it was taken out of the water, it’s fine now.” He looked over the …

My grandmother was the best. Everyone in our small town called her Gramma. Well, everyone except her grandkids. She was Buzzy to all of us. I was her first grandchild, and like all firsts, I was special. For reasons that are now cloudy, I called her “Buzzy.” She loved it, and as the other grandkids came along, they too, called …

Ray Dan got up from the breakfast table when he heard a vehicle bouncing up the driveway. Before he got the door fully open, Blake Shelton belting out “God’s Country” filled the kitchen. “I swear Ray Dan, don’t you go bringin’ Joe Willy into this house when all I got on is this robe.” “Honey, maybe you could get something …

The jukebox in the corner of the diner was blaring. “For God’s sake, Ray Dan, you picked the only diner in South Alabama with a jukebox? You know I hate them things in diners.” “I didn’t know, I swear. Promise. Maybe the pie is good. Joe Willy, here, take a look at the menu.” The music quieted and the two …

It was a bright and sunny Saturday morning when Ray Dan looked out his bedroom window. He grabbed his cell and tapped Joe Willy’s name. “Ray Dan, what’s up?” “Well, it’s a beautiful morning in Middle Georgia, full of promise and adventure.” “You sound pretty sober for this time of Saturday, Ray Dan. Everything all good?” “What? I can’t give …

It was a foggy Saturday morning in Middle Georgia and Ray Dan woke up mostly sober, which was a change. Through the window he saw the puddles the rain left in the front yard of his trailer, not that it bothered him. In fact, nothing much ever bothered Ray Dan. But he quickly became bored. He grabbed his cell and …

Joe Willy finished filling up his pickup at the self-serve pump and headed toward the store with a grimy twenty-dollar bill. He stopped short and whistled. “Whoa there, Ray Dan, where’d you get that shiner?” Ray Dan shuffled his feet. “Aw, I was defending my mother’s honor. Your mother’s, too.” “Howzat?” Joe Willy didn’t wait for an answer. “You didn’t …

Fall wind bit through William’s threadbare coat producing a shiver. He pulled the coat tightly around his neck to cut off the draft. The coat used to be snug, now it wasn’t. William was somebody in the military, but that was five years back. Since his discharge he hadn’t adjusted well to a noncombat environment. An endless string of temporary …

James was sitting in a lawn chair in the garage having a beer watching Becky’s two-year-old draw with chalk on the driveway. Not the way he planned on spending his Saturday afternoon, but with the washing machine broken, the kid’s mother had to go to the laundromat. “She could’ve taken him,” his buddy on the phone said. “No kidding; she …

My first response to the accident? I was catatonic. “They’re all dead. They’re all dead.” I don’t know how many times I repeated it. I’m sure I sounded mechanical. That was my first response on January 28, 1986 to the shuttle Challenger disaster. At 11:39 in the morning. Seventy-three seconds of that day started the darkest period of my life. …