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Odin odin@aflx.com

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Books
· Perceptions

· ECHOSIS

· Prosetry at Work

· Said and Unsaid - Vol 1

· 3 WAY MIRROR


Short Stories
· Patience Waning

· Ladle Lines (A prosetry memory)

· A Gentle Man

· Pacing Love's Journey

· Gratitude

· A Sticky Conversation

· Blazing Now and Then

· Vulnerable Captivity

· The Kite That Would Not Bow

· Time


Articles
· War and Peace

· Desperation Breeds Desperation

· Preference Manifest

· Innocent Guilt

· Barbed Isolation

· A Place...

· Sanity's Loss

· Organs Anonymous

· Fatuous Beyond Absurdity

· Truth is One


Poetry
· The Life-long Pernicious Evil

· Cherishing Sounds of Silence

· Understanding the Unexplainable

· Reality of Another Kind

· Finding Trust Again

· Aromalicious Memories

· A Jungle-rain Pastorale

· Sediment Within the Soul

· Life's Enormous Green Chest

· Roadkill Memoriam

         More poetry...

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When the Wheels Stop Turnin' (flash fiction)
By Odin odin@aflx.com
Last edited: Saturday, November 23, 2013
This short story is rated "PG13" by the Author.
       
Recent stories by Odin odin@aflx.com
· Patience Waning
· Ladle Lines (A prosetry memory)
· A Gentle Man
· Pacing Love's Journey
· Gratitude
· A Sticky Conversation
           >> View all 367

Age, especially witnessing it in parents, does have it’s lighter moments, few as they might be.


When the Wheels Stop Turnin’
by Odin Roark

It’s not just gas, Gladys. Damn it. I know gas and this ain’t gas.

It’s gas.

Am I spent like a worn car? Is my transmission filled with nothing but fragments of old gears, gunkin’ up my forward momentum? Leavin’ me sittin’ on this bed like an idling clunker wanting only to shut down, huh?

You’re rambling again, dear.

Or have my wheels stopped turnin’ ‘cause there’s nowhere else to go? Nothing else to see?

You have the remote, dear.

If the engine still sparks, if the rest of the body is lubricated, if all that’s missing is…someplace to go, shouldn’t I be kickin’ my own ass, worrying less about if I have enough insurance and…and just plain goin’ for it? Like we used to do? Remember those days, Gladys?

Yes dear. And they were good days, but Lucy reruns start at ten.

Reruns, shlemielruns! Did you shut the garage door?

Of course. Why?

You didn’t lock it, did you? You always forget to lock it.

I locked it. You’re always on me…why so concerned, for Gods sake?

In case we want to…you know, go for it…later. Rev the engine. Go somewhere. See somethin’.

You’re sweet, but that’s the gas talking, Leo. It’s already later. Ten o’clock. Drink your Ovaltine, dear, and turn up the volume.
  

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Reviewed by m j hollingshead
Reviewed on May 31, 2014

chuckles


Reviewed by Diana Legun (Reader)
Reviewed on February 26, 2014
I was able to drag and drop the image onto my computer desktop and zoom in to read the caption. Very true -- we have become the 'Kleenex' (un)civilization. Your wheels stop turning brought a wide smile for its humor and smack on-ness. Your line: "Leavin’ me sittin’ on this bed like an idling clunker wanting only to shut down" is a stab of truth that I have seen with my own eyes. Elderly lives, sitting on the side of the bed, watching TV, waiting. My Mother is like that right now...and, like your piece here....we just move along with a laugh wherever one can be made. Thank you. ~~ Diana

Reviewed by Ronald Hull
Reviewed on May 20, 2013
Good story, a lot like my grandparents. They used to argue about little things like that for hours and never got anywhere.

Ron

Reviewed by Budd Nelson
Reviewed on May 20, 2013
so endearing
budd