Ghosts and Lilacs...

Hello friends,

What a week it’s been! And I feel as if I say that every week.

Here in Portland, Oregon, warm temperatures have made way to soft, spring rain. The trees, bushes, and plants are glorious, and the birds are nesting.

Figuring some of you might need a breather right now, here’s a photo of some lilacs I had the pleasure of encountering on a recent walk. Pause a moment, and inhale.

This week, I’m sharing a short story funded by my amazing Patreon supporters. It’s called Riding in Cars With Ghosts. It’s about a teenager inclined toward the paranormal, dealing with ghosts and the adults in her life. I’ll leave it to your imagination which parts of it are true. Here’s a taste of it:

Tim and I were both interested in the paranormal. Psychic stuff. Ghosts and Kirlian photography, telekinesis, and all the rest of it. 

So we’d made a game of practicing our psychic skills by playing catch. One person would throw a thought at the other, who would try to catch it, by guessing the thought correctly. 

Mostly, we practiced with images, as they had proven easier to throw and catch than phrases or scents. Our plan was to branch out once we got better, but we needed to raise the stakes to improve our odds.

The raised stakes sat between us in a low glass dish. A rich, square slab of chocolate cake, cut in half, filled with a thick scoop of vanilla ice cream, topped with caramel sauce, hot fudge, and the rapidly melting whipped cream. 

The spoons had tunneled into the sweet concoction, one arc on each side, showing one success for each of us so far.

I took in a long, slow, breath, timing it with the whir of air conditioning. My mind flashed on the cake. It was hard to focus when the dessert smelled so good. I inhaled again, even slower this time, and imagined growing soft like edges of the ice cream. That was the trick of it. You had to walk a weird tightrope between paying attention and acting as if you weren’t. 

To pick up on psychic messages, you had to sneak in from the edges, not barrel toward the target directly. 

That was hard for me. I was a blurter and a stumbler. Finesse was not my strong suit, no matter how much I wanted it to be…

Click through to read the rest.

This week, I also have a movie recommendation. It’s called Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution and begins with archival footage of a 1970s summer camp run by hippies that sowed the seeds of the Disabled Rights Movement, leading eventually to the Americans With Disabilities Act. I can’t stress enough how powerful a slice of history this is, and how germane it is to our current situation. People with disabilities are still fighting for their rights. It is said that half the people killed by police in the US are disabled in some way. This film is powerful and inspiring, and currently streaming on Netflix. I encourage you to check it out.

That’s all for me. I’m still engaged with my own healing process, and having fun tinkering with not one, but two, novel series. Look for Steel Clan Saga Book Two this summer!

Wishing you well, and thanks again for subscribing.

— Thorn