AUTHOR'S OTHER TITLES (124) 58th And L (Poetry) Becoming a man [95 words] [Drama] A City Pineapple (Poetry) - [117 words] A Fair Brown Maiden (Poetry) - [155 words] [Erotic] A Father And Son Chat (Short Stories) Are racists born or are they made? [278 words] A Good Vision Demands Keen Insight (Essays) This is a part of a larger work entitled the New Union Standard. [1,302 words] [History] A Grand New Age2 (Novels) The final chapter of a middle reader novel I am about to submit. [1,531 words] [Fantasy] A Matter Of Faith (Novels) This is a small section of a piece I'm tossing about entittled "Calling all Angels". [408 words] [Fantasy] A New Iraq- Repost (Poetry) For the brave Iraqis who chose liberty over fear and voted in the first democratic election ever! [45 words] A Peaceful Sabbath (Short Stories) A reflection on modern times. [915 words] [Psychology] A Seattle Dawn (Poetry) - [41 words] A Sense Of Timing (Short Stories) - [564 words] A Shooting In Iraq---Part Two (Short Stories) The special opts his ranger squad conducted was illegal and may have resulted in the death of a teenaged girl. [400 words] [Crime] Abilene And Beyond (Short Stories) Further adventures of Bob Coltrane's war against the railroad in the Old West. [932 words] [Western] Algolagnic (Short Stories) What happens when you replace total pain with total pleasure? One woman is about to find out! [2,768 words] [Fantasy] Appomattox (Poetry) What is love can be domination too! [23 words] [Drama] At A Wto Rally (Short Stories) - [853 words] [Fantasy] At A Wto Rally 4 (Short Stories) Joe confront the internal workings of the consortium. [723 words] [Fantasy] At A Wto Rally (Part Three) (Short Stories) Joe gets his first lesson as to what is the consortium. [435 words] [Fantasy] B B C (Poetry) I just love the English accents.... [70 words] [Humor] Back Page News (Short Stories) The thoughts of a dying US soldier on the road to baghdad. [805 words] [Drama] Bird In The Hand (Short Stories) Gothic story of two men on a battlefield dealing with racism. [5,695 words] [Mystical] Bloody Mary (Short Stories) Sometimes slumber parties games can get the best of you. [564 words] [Horror] Business Card (Short Stories) Madness can be in a simple telephone call. [723 words] [Thriller] Cascading (Poetry) - [57 words] Clean Things..Part 2 (Short Stories) Brenda is horribly murdered and the police think it's Ryan who did the deed. [570 words] [Crime] Clean Things...Part 3 (Short Stories) Ryan is surprised when the person he believe did the murder ends up murdered himself. [578 words] [Crime] Clean Things...Part One (Short Stories) Unchecked desire can lead a man to the dirty things in humanity. [463 words] [Crime] Clean Things...The Conclusion (Short Stories) There's one thing with being right...being dead wrong! [734 words] [Crime] Colloquium Part Two (Short Stories) Ryder arrives at Moon Base George W. Bush in the 21st century. [349 words] [Science Fiction] Colloquium...Part One (Short Stories) Inhabitants on a planet prepares to travel in time in order to save their own world [431 words] [Science Fiction] Colloquy (Poetry) - [37 words] Comatose (Poetry) - [92 words] Cool Moonlight Outside My Hospital Door (Poetry) Ponder life as death lingers [86 words] Droit Du Seigneur (Poetry) - [98 words] During A Nursing Home Visit (Poetry) A poem of reflection. [92 words] Egalitarianism (Short Stories) We must pay for the sins of our enculturation that tells us we own the world one way or another. [750 words] [Fantasy] Equivocation (Novels) The Sage of Scarbourgh is more powerful than Rye thought. [748 words] [Fantasy] Equivocation Part 2 (Novels) Rye and the sage confront each other. [822 words] [Fantasy] Fear Of Water (Short Stories) What's is in out drinking water anyways? [637 words] Fighter (Short Stories) In a moment of weakness one can find strength to endure. [561 words] [Drama] Forgive Us Of Our Debts So We Can Be Debt Free (Short Stories) A gunman owes a debt that he's come to town to pay in the old west. [1,241 words] [Western] Forgive Us Of Our Debts...Finale (Short Stories) This ends the first two chapters of the Novel I hope you enjoy it. [1,472 words] [Western] Forgive Us Of Our Debts...Part 3 (Short Stories) A company of US soldiers block Coltrane's way into Topeka but going around isn't an option. What's a man to do....? [1,274 words] [Western] Forgive Us Our Debts Part 5 (Novels) Confrontation between two of Coltrane's gang and Lincoln Washington. [1,022 words] [Western] Forgive Us Our Debts...Part2 (Short Stories) - [1,525 words] [Western] Form A Vision To Success (Essays) This is a speech I am going to give to Junior High Schoolers today 1/16/04 for Martin Luther King Jr day. [759 words] [Self-Help] Freedom Riders Of 1966 (Poetry) After a rally in a southern town in 1966 four SNCC kids are heading back to Vermont. [83 words] Gambling (Poetry) - [100 words] Gay Marriage Is Constitutional (Essays) - [807 words] Georgia Peaches (Novels) This is a portion of a novel I'm working on. [963 words] Global Part Four (Short Stories) Some clones are like bad pennies...they keep turning up even when you don't want them to! [610 words] [Science Fiction] Global Part One (Short Stories) It's in the near future and human organs are in great demand...to make money you have to get them anyway you can. [655 words] [Science Fiction] Global Part Three (Short Stories) Clones can bleed and have emotions and what's worst they can have babies..... [792 words] [Science Fiction] Global Part Two (Short Stories) One way around the problem of made organs and real organs is a line straight line! [585 words] [Science Fiction] Hanging With Jack Day (Poetry) Jack Day was a friend of mine who shot himself one afternoon....at times I think of him. [182 words] Heaven And Earth (Poetry) A poem about life and death. [75 words] Hell (Poetry) - [181 words] [Spiritual] If There Are Two (Poetry) - [59 words] Instincts (Short Stories) A young reformed gang member is trying to just survive the night and make it home. [3,398 words] Laborer (Poetry) - [86 words] Lady America (Poetry) - [146 words] Lead In Walls (Poetry) - [72 words] Love Ended A Long Time Past (Poetry) Another poem in my series of the usage of sunlight [97 words] Madness In The Dark (Short Stories) Insanity creeps up the spine of a shunned lover during a blackout in New York. [660 words] [Psychology] My Cat (Poetry) What exactly is a habit any ways? [135 words] Mystery (Novels) A Private eye and Catholic Priest attempt to find out what is really behind New Orleans. [888 words] [Mystery] Mystery Part2 (Novels) The seeds of voodoo grow in New Orleans. [605 words] [Crime] New Iraq (Poetry) Repost of a poem I did yesterday. [45 words] Not In My Name Part 1 (Short Stories) A spirit from the terrorist attack on the World Trade Towers must let go of the living in order to cross over with the dead. But he is held to the living by the revenge of love ones. [2,458 words] Not In My Name The Conclusion (Short Stories) He confronts the fireman in death that couldn't save him in life. The fireman hopes he can convince him to let go of the living and embrace heaven and finally peace! [1,402 words] [Fantasy] One More Highway Song (Short Stories) Racial hatred can burn both ways and be all consuming no matter what color your skin is! One eight year boy learns one night during the Newark Riots in 69 [3,735 words] [Drama] Pieces Of The Pie (Novels) This is the first three pages of a novel I am just about finished with...it is 189 pages in length and is targeting high school readers. [650 words] [Science Fiction] Place's End (Poetry) This is an old one I posted a while ago but thought I would re-write it and re-submit it. [137 words] Poltergeist Inc. Part One (Short Stories) One corporation has figured out how to defeat it's competitors...cut all energy cost and convert to seemingly endless energy....there's a catch...ghosts [683 words] [Science Fiction] Poltergeist Inc. Part Two (Short Stories) Hilliard Aerospace has a secret.... [390 words] [Science Fiction] Ripple Effect (Short Stories) A scientist has discovered time travel or maybe his own descent into insanity. [838 words] [Science Fiction] Scarborough Fair (Novels) This is a portion of one of the chapters of the novel Scarborough Fair. It is a place the people there aren't completely sure what it is. The chapter is entilted Brenda. I will submit it in portion to... [657 words] Scarborough Fair Part 2 (Novels) Further portion of the chapter Brenda. [701 words] Scarborough Fair Part 3 (Novels) Further portion of the chapter entitled Brenda. [888 words] Semantics (Short Stories) A police interview. [305 words] [Drama] Shooting In Iraq (Short Stories) - [466 words] [Crime] Should I Look Within (Poetry) For my mother. [125 words] [Spiritual] Silicone (Short Stories) (The centralized theme of the story is to ask the question in a marriage how much of it is companionship and how much of it is sexual? Is there a balance? On the psychological level, what is the balan... [3,012 words] [Psychology] Sirens (Short Stories) - [682 words] Space, The Final Finale -Repost- (Short Stories) What happens in space can be inside or outside the mind. [1,008 words] [Science Fiction] Stains (Poetry) - [120 words] Standing On A Monterey Pier (Poetry) - [59 words] Stephanie (Poetry) - [63 words] Tacoma (Poetry) A poem about the city I love and believe has potential. [111 words] Tangled Berry Bushes (Short Stories) In the style of Edgar Allen Poe. [1,892 words] [Crime] Tempered Tools (Poetry) Healing is always a miracle [30 words] [Spiritual] Tenements (Poetry) - [58 words] The Adventures Of Roco Clay (Novels) A man hunts the takers of his wife in the Sudan. [1,128 words] The Axe Man (Poetry) A professional on his way to work. [113 words] The Cascade Hills (Poetry) In Washington State, there is nothing more lovely than the Cascades in the dawn. Another installment of my sunlight collection. [67 words] The Christian Thing To Do (Novels) Lincoln Washington sits in ambush for two outlaws from Coltrane' s gang. [1,021 words] [Western] The Clearing (Short Stories) A simple ghost story that happens to be true. [783 words] [Horror] The Conductor (Short Stories) What exactly is death? Is it the release of our spirits or just the recycle of energy? One person will soon discover the truth. [920 words] The Dawning Of A Seattle Morning (To Doc Bryon) (Poetry) I wrote this poem a bit ago but never liked it. With the passing of my friend Doc it seemed to all come together. [78 words] The Game (Short Stories) A contractor contracted to knock down the last vestment of baseball learns the power of the game. [1,838 words] The Hunter And It's Prey (Short Stories) - [446 words] The Manipulatory Factor (Novels) The only man that can save Known Earth struggles to save his sanity. This is a section of the chapter titled The Manipulatory Factor in book one of the DayStar Trilogy. I started writing this my first... [1,160 words] The Penalty Is Death (Short Stories) A Private Investigator is hired by a client to find out if his wife is having an affair. What he finds will change his life for good. [4,184 words] [Crime] The Phantom Group (Novels) Portion of one of the chapters. [2,308 words] The Quintessence Of Death (Poetry) - [96 words] The Reckoning Zone (Short Stories) A place we all must give a reckoning for the deeds you have done. [491 words] The Stairs Of Woman Hill (Phnom Srei) (Short Stories) It's time we brought home all our missing Americans from the Vietnam War. This story is for all who fought in that damn war! [1,208 words] The Stigma Of A Race (Poetry) - [79 words] The Strength Of Six Million (Short Stories) A young man is confronted with death but calls upon the strength of Six Million. [746 words] [Fantasy] The Trees On Mckinley Avenue (Poetry) - [153 words] The Union Chronicles (Novels) This is a portion of a chapter of a novel I wrote some time ago. I was re-reading it and thought it might be a nice read. [790 words] [Fantasy] The Voyage Of The Kyle Mayes (Poetry) This is a poem in 5 beat meter as a part of the poetry contest mentioned in the Advisor. [78 words] Title Less (Poetry) - [95 words] Union Chronicles (Novels) Just a little more of the story. I enjoy this section the most. [645 words] [Fantasy] Wal-Mart Wants To Rule The World (Essays) Someone left a message that this article was racist and I would like the site's opinion. [917 words] Wanning Colors (Poetry) - [102 words] Wanning Vivid Colors (Poetry) - [140 words] What Else Can Sunrise Do (Poetry) Driving to work I see the sunrise nearly everyday...it's a wonderful death and life expereince. [60 words] Where The Struggle Has Gone (Poetry) - [86 words] Who Are We (Poetry) I wrote this after my mother past away Are we spirits or just a portion of the universal constant...energy? [124 words] [Spiritual] Who Are We -Revise (Poetry) For my mother. [124 words] Wto Rally The Final (Short Stories) Joe has a rude awakening. [548 words] [Fantasy] Ze Zen Ta Continue (Novels) - [545 words] [Science Fiction] Ze Zen Ta (The Way Of The Thinking Fist) (Short Stories) First part of a potential novel. [692 words] [Science Fiction]
Blackout-Part One E Rocco Caldwell
It rained that night so hard the garbage in the street floated in streams ankle deep. It didn't rain like that too often. I hated the rain and coupled with losing Etta, I found myself that much closer to despair. It had been raining a lot the last past weeks and mingled with the heat of August, lightning periodically flashed against the night sky. I was standing in the shit holding my camera just across of a hotel where most of the streetlights were burned out. The night hung like those thick curtains on the stage in the small downtown theater beside the barber shop. There were lights from a few stores creating glare against the wet streets and on the limbs of trees; the few trees still standing anyway. Darkness loomed like a white bill collector outside your apartment. The city hadn't changed much in forty years the mills still produced ore. The region's economy still floundered. A lot of unpopular crap was happening in Alabama; something about a bus boycott and Civil Rights. Not one new building had been built since the 1920s when I was just a nappy headed little boy. Even in the downpour the whispers could be heard mistaken for the settling of aged buildings, the whispers spoke of the decline of the city's elegance and pending troubles. Already fire hoses had been used to spray Negroes across lawns and streets. The hatred whites held towards Negroes was simply economics… there were only so many jobs available.
I couldn't get his face out of my mind; his pitiful face in need of a shave. He was a wreck having missed a lot of sleep and food he told me and something was eating him up inside. He needed resolution. He rolled into my office dropping his fat body in the chair directly across from my desk. It was a small office in the heart of the black section of the city. His wife, a sweet young thing out of Mobile, was having an affair. He didn't know with whom. Her loving at night had been sub par the recent weeks and she had always been a wildcat never able to get enough he explained. Someone else was filling her hole and satisfying her appetite. Fair enough, I thought… a husband should know of his wife's sexual appetite. What convinced me to take the case though were the crisp twenty-dollar bills he placed on the table directly in front of me. I didn't think a black man could amass such wealth to just give away twenties like he did. My rent was due and I had a white landlord who didn't shine kindly on black folk especially black folks that owed him money. It was sort of strange how the fat black man stared at me across my shabby desk. It was almost as if it was difficult for him to look me in the eyes. He was hiding something or just plain embarrass. That wouldn't be the last time I got the feeling that everything being said wasn't being said concerning his wife. He asked me if I ever had a woman pull my heart out. I thought of Etta but didn't acknowledge him.
According to him, his wife had been hanging out at Ryan's nightclub. A place I knew too well. Mafia influence was woven throughout the club like the presence of Christ in the communion meal. Ryan had been a boxer the mafia paid off with the nightclub for taking a dive in a championship bout a few years ago but the payoff came with a lot of strings attached. The club attracted the worst sorts but they all knew their places in Ryan's. Once some young black soldier out of Los Angeles got drunk and began turning over a few tables and breaking some of Ryan's liquor bottles. When Ryan, a large man blacker than coal, tried to subdue the soldier he was cut on the hand. The police found the soldier a couple days later stuffed in the trunk of his firebird. The soldier being a Negro wasn't worth the money and times to launch an investigation. They told us they had no leads. But we all got the message, the mob ran the city. I went to Ryan's whenever I got lonely and wanted to find some company to have a good time. The women in Ryan's were working girls or women on the prowl. I knew Ryan from way back and he let me drink for free because I did detective work for him every once and awhile. I tried not to make it too often because of his connections, uncovering something the mob didn't want you to uncover could mean the difference between living and dying.
I figured I would ask around the nightclub if anyone ever seen my client's wife hanging out with anyone particular; the bedrock questions to sound detective work. It was routine but you never knew what the right question might uncover. My client's wife sounded like a knockout, hourglass figure beneath coffee skin with lips so full they could suck a man inside. She liked to wear expensive things so placing here among the patrons wouldn't be that difficult. Not many black folks could afford anything more than average clothes and an average life. According to my client she was half white with all of the features of a white woman. Her momma used to clean house for a rich white man when she was in her early twenties. She got extra if she spread her legs. He spoke of his wife's auburn hair that dropped to her wonderfully high behind. There were many of those types, the high yellow women with the good hair sometimes it was difficult to tell if they were white or Negro. They could stop a black man in his tracks and twist his head around like he was possessed by a demon. That was what Etta had done to me the first time I ever saw her sitting in the corner booth of Ryan's club. There was that progressive Jazz shit being played by some brothers out of Chicago. Etta was a real looker. Her green eyes never stopped shinning. I had to take a double look to be sure she wasn't white. What the hell! Good things never last. Hell, I was doing pretty well with a wad of crisp twenties and the rent paid. I asked for a picture of his wife but he didn't have one on him at the time. He would bring me one the next day. That was strange…he wanted me to ask around about his wife but he didn't have her picture! Fine, I was paid by the day and that just added another day.
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