Frustrated Local Writer - by Rose Marie Zurkan

 

2014 Columns

 

 

December, 2014       The Evil Men Do  Chapter Nineteen   

 

The parking garages in the center of the city bore vacancy signs that sizzled red and green in the eerie pre-storm light. The parking garage which serviced Prudhomme's office building was empty now except for a few stragglers. Stu pulled in, recognized Suzanne's car in one of the slots. She must have been in the city already to arrive so soon. He parked next to it. The car, a blue Seville, surprised him. He  would have put her into a sports car, something flashy and low. The more substantial vehicle said something about her. He didn't ask what. He felt glad she'd disregarded is request for her to stay home.

 

October, 2014          The Evil Men Do  Chapter Seventeen    

 

The first thing Stu noticed was a suitcase in the hall and Mrs. Cartwright standing next to it. Her suitcase? "You're leaving?" he asked. "Looks like it," she said tartly. By the size of the suitcase, Stu guessed she was leaving for good. "What's going on?

 

September, 2014     The Evil Men Do  Chapter Sixteen    

 

Once it was a part of the city he had been familiar with. The place hadn't changed, still the slum he remembered from his days at Columbia.  Garbage littered the streets, blown around by subterranean drafts from passing subways. People, mostly blacks, loitered in doorways or sat on stoops in front of doorways that were little more than gaping holes. Stu, feeling conspicuous, hunched down in the car and searched for an escape route, thankful he had gassed up before driving down from his grandfather's house. He felt like an alien on earth for the first time and was ashamed of himself for feeling that way.

 

August, 2014           The Evil Men Do  Chapter Fifteen    

 

Stu's grandfather lived in the mansion in which he had been born. A semi-invalid, his mind was clouded on most days. Or so Stu had been told. He didn't know what to believe any more. George, the only one who still visited the old man, said he made sense on most days, more than many people. Stu hoped he'd ask the right questions. Without knowing exactly why, he guessed his grandfather would be the key. If he didn't ask the right questions, he'd never find out what he needed to know. No one else would, or could, tell him.

 

July, 2014                The Evil Men Do  Chapter Fourteen    

 

At the cashier's window, Stu identified himself and said he was looking for his uncle, but George's name didn't mean anything to the burly man behind the grill. "Then let me talk to somebody else," he said. The cashier, wearing an old-fashioned white shirt and sideburns, plaid suspenders and a red bow tie, pushed a button under the drawer, and another man stepped out of the back room.

 

June, 2014                The Evil Men Do  Chapter Thirteen    

 

CAt the cashier's window, Stu identified himself and said he was looking for his uncle, but George's name didn't mean anything to the burly man behind the grill. "Then let me talk to somebody else," he said. The cashier, wearing an old-fashioned white shirt and sideburns, plaid suspenders and a red bow tie, pushed a button under the drawer, and another man stepped out of the back room.

 

May, 2014                 The Evil Men Do  Chapter Twelve    

 

Frustrated Local Writer by Rose Marie Zurkan - Chapter 12 - Driving home, he spotted Suzanne leaving BG on Fifth Avenue and, to the annoyance of the traffic behind him, expressed with horns and fingers, he pulled over to the curb. She acted glad to see him but first rejected his offer of a ride home, then changed her mind. "Well, I guess I'd rather drive than take the Long Island Railroad."

"Gee, thanks," he said.

 

April, 2014                 The Evil Men Do  Chapter Eleven    

 

The marsh, subject of the controversy between developers and conservationists, was born about fifty thousand years ago when an enormous sheet of ice, the Laurentide Glacier, came down out of the north and pressed across Canada and the northern part of the United States. Rocks, sand and gravel, carried along by the ice sheet, were deposited at its southern limit. Suddenly the climate began to change, become warmer, and the ice started melting. As the glacier melted, the level of the sea rose, and, as the pressing weight of the glacier lifted, the land too rose. Then there came a time when ice remained only in the far, far north. The sea’s advance slowed, and plants began to grow on the edge of the sea.

 

March, 2014              The Evil Men Do  Chapter Ten    

 

When Stu woke up the next morning, he stretched each limb and moved his head from side to side, making sure everything worked. When he’d established, with relief, that everything did, he got up.  The cat, asleep on a chair, stretched and jumped to the floor, padding ahead of him to the kitchen. He fed it, let it out and phoned Janet. “I’m running a little late,” he told her.

 

February, 2014         The Evil Men Do  Chapter Nine    

 

Stu had always preferred his youngest uncle, George, to the other two. It began one day at the seashore, before Stu learned to swim, when Edgar, explaining that it was time he learned, threw him into the ocean, then watched him flounder. It was the aftermath of a hurricane, and the water was choppy.  Nobody but the lifeguard was watching, and Stu was already getting sucked out when the lifeguard swam out and dragged him back, then bawled Edgar out. Since that time, Stu stayed as far away from them as possible. He really believed that they wanted to get rid of him, and he was glad when there were no more reunions at the beach.

 

January, 2014         The Evil Men Do  Chapter Eight    

 

He almost missed his appointment because of a phone call. Sgt. Hinckley. "Can you come down to the station?" he asked.

Stu assumed it was the lineup Hinckley said he needed him for. "I told you I didn’t see the man clearly enough to identify him," Stu said.

"It’s not a lineup," Hinckley said.

"Then what?"

"Something worse."

 

 

 

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