Doc's Porchside Novels & Stories

He parked at the car park and they walked to the covered porch. He put his hand on the timber post of the covered porch. The honest porch — the threshold the section had drawn as already correct, the existing threshold honoured in the drawing. The timber post is warm in the June morning. He thought about all the arriving people who had passed through this porch in the forty years of the hall — the parish council and the toddler group and the amateur dramatics and Dorothy's eighty-three coming in from the February afternoon. He thought about forty years of the threshold already doing its work, unnoticed, the porch giving the arriving person the between-time of the approach.

“Go on, Shel, get yours too..” Yup, she was going to kill him. Note to self, do not let Shelby near a woodchipper. Neo bit his tongue to keep from laughing as that thought ran through his head. The drive across town in the pickup was tense as Shelby tried to cheer up her son and plot her boss’s demise. They pulled into the driveway at a small craftsman house with red cedar shake siding, green shutters and cream trim. The large porch had a swing at one end and a small child size rocking chair close by. Both were painted bright blue to contrast the cream porch.

Sleep didn’t come. It hovered, teased, then slipped away every time the motel’s ancient AC kicked on and rattled the window like a warning. Houseshoe took one of Doc’s pills and passed out hard in the chair, head tipped back, mouth open like a kid who’d run too far and finally collapsed. Surgeon stayed posted at the window until dawn threatened the sky, then traded out with me without a word. Doc slept in bursts, sitting upright at the table like he’d trained himself not to trust comfort.

"Well, just go straight down the road. You're going to get past some brambles. Doctor's place is literally on the outskirts. You can't miss it if you're leaving town." "Thank you," he said and left the smelling room. The man was right. One couldn't miss it. The doctor's house was on the right, cutting out the pathway. There was a horse tethered to a tree and logs of wood outside. The house was built with wood and John heard it creak as he approached. He stepped onto the verandah and knocked. John still wasn't feeling like himself. It was one of the reasons why he wanted to see a doctor.

The thought gave him no comfort as he and Lala re-entered the sun, lugging long boxes of shelves which he then struggled to fix to the roof rack of their car, while burning, sweating, and cursing his life, his wife, and the very sun. The doctor’s entrance was so non-descript, that if it were not for the little polished brass plaque on the wall beside the sun bleached Prussian blue door, one would never had known that there was a doctor's office there at all. Behind that door, though, was a secretary's office, with an open window space. A counter ran its length, with pens, forms, envelopes with patients' names written in fine lined, barely legible cursive, laid upon it. The letters, with thei

From one house to the next, each porch held items unique to it's tenant, from rocking chairs to dog crates, exercising machines and a bike. Stephie's porch in particular was lined with flowerpots and hanging plants. The house itself was painted a faded lime yellow. On the rainy night, the street was dimly lit from street lamps and porch lights; however unlike the other homes where the porches held a light, Stephie's porch was dark. At the sight of her dark lightbulb, Stephie set her lips in a straight line. A dog barked down the street, and Stephie prepared to open her car door. "You live... here?" Carter voiced, not bothering to hide his disdained shock.

Sometimes, he said with Shakespearean wisdom, "To have a crush, Aditi, is to submit to the truth that man deliberately seeks out sufferance. And, well, sex." Spotting the gate again as we stepped outside, I asked, "What's with the gate?" Doc, busy with diligently lighting the small kerosene stove outside with a lighter, glanced at the gate once before returning to the burner. "Oh, I, uh, wrenched it open with the wire-cutter thing." "No, I mean," I laughed lightly, making my way over to the hammock. Doc loves hammocks. There used to be more of them all around the lawn, but he'd chopped the trees down once for some weird experiment. "Why's it floating?"

My shoulders fell. "It's dry ..." I looked up and sniffed. "Your plants are dry here, Thornie." I saw Auntie Zidney staring at the plants near the Liadow. "I forgot planting it, queen. Sorry." I saw Doc smiled and bit his lip. "You're so busy, Doc, eh." I commented and smiled. He looked at me, I heard him chuckled and shook his head. "Kinda, I got a few adjustments for the new hospital in the province. It was tiring, we never once bonded with my queen." Doc said and glanced at his wife who was now carrying a mug and was slowly walking towards the plants.

The community center was taking up quite a bit of her time and she was sure after watching who Morgan Brewer hired yesterday that she was going to have to keep a close eye on the man. Letting out a deep breath in an attempt to calm her nerves, she glanced up at the wooden French doors that led out to the back porch. Her father was right, it was a beautiful day outside and it would be great to sit out there and enjoy their lunch. Two years, Jacqui. It's been over two years. She left her spot at the counter and walked around to the back doors, glancing out at the porch she hadn't stepped foot on in over two years. The afternoon sun beat down on the concrete as a slight breeze rustled the oaks

he stated, and we started to trek our way through the dense oak trees. When they cleared, I saw a small tan-colored cottage with a chimney and shingled roof. There was a picture window and a small porch with a weather-worn swing that was hanging by one chain. “It's not magazine cover quality but it's cute and is something you can call your own, Athena,” Bria commented in my subconscious. Stepping up the leaf cover porch I peeked inside the window and saw covered items of furniture inside. Turning to Anton I asked him if he could stick around and help me open windows and clean up a little.