Breath In

A short short for your viewing pleasure.

Hard Pillows


As Adam peered through the Venetian blinds out his window, his attention was immediately drawn to the two-ton bull elephant standing on his front lawn. He knew it was a bull because of its posture, of course. However, he was confused by the color of its rough and worn hide. Bright gold hardly seemed the proper color for any camouflage situation. Other than maybe the set of a Puff Daddy video, and Adam suddenly became quite sure that this was exactly where the creature had come from.

The pachyderm came off as harmless though (no discernible stomping, a general lack of mauling), and so Adam grabbed his morning robe and walked towards the kitchen. The television was blaring and his head hurt at the sound of distant airplanes. They always flew a little lower to the ground on Wednesday.

His grandfather was already at the oak wood table eating an absurdly large bowl of grainy cereal. He seemed to eat a fork full, and then change the channel to an increasingly loud station, and then eat another forkful. Adam certainly noticed. And he also noticed that his grandfather had done something different to his feathers today.

Adam sat down across from him and mixed a little more milk into his bowl. His grandfather had now forgotten about the fork and had taken to lapping up the rest of his milk up with his large dark orange bill. Adam leaned across the table and looked into his small beady black eyes.

"I think I'll take the motor-coach to market today, Grandfather. And I did notice the new look with your feathers, very dapper. The ladies at the pond will be all over you".

His grandfather leaned back in his tall chair and sighed deeply and heavily.

"The doctors had said it would never be easy," he said.

Adam nodded with confusion, and he never could understand what his grandfather was talking about. And they sat there like that for the rest of the morning. The door was locked, the sky was soft, and the motor-coach never did arrive.