Author Archives:
Walking the Rim
Armen found that he was well suited to the job at the sewer plant. It was certainly more stable than the jobs he’d held down on the coast. He was invigorated by the walk he took out on the steel deck every morning to take samples of raw and partially treated sewage. Sometimes he felt [...]
Back to School
Armen didn’t have much going on beside his work for the Dorahs, so he helped them now and then at the dairy. Though his presence was sorely desired at the empty Adroushan nest, his presence also thickened and reinforced the palpability of loss, and it served to feed and encourage Cindy’s ghosts. He could hardly [...]
Homecoming
The southbound bus rolled into the Fresno Greyhound Depot at daybreak. Armen stretched as he stood up, picked up his textbook and notepad, and stepped up the bus aisle with his hands stepping from seat to seat. After claiming his pack, he picked up a Sunday Bee, sat down against the depot wall, and scanned [...]
Spelunking
One day in autumn, while Armen was sitting in the sun by a cave entrance puzzling over the old Recipient’s book, a ragged greybeard emerged from the cave entrance. At first, Armen thought the man had said something to him, but he quickly realized that the man was just muttering to himself. Armen nodded at [...]
On Campus
Armen turned the page, and the large feather began to slide out of the book. He caught the feather, and he began to inspect it. He ran his finger along the edge of it. It had a gold sheen in the light. He lifted it and waved it through the air, and he put it [...]
Holy Land
In 1963, a full hundred solar years after Husayn declared himself to be the Promised One of all Promises, and a quarter century after I had joined the Flock, I attended the inauguration of the next great epoch of the End of Days, as the Flock was transformed into the Letter Day Recipients of the [...]
Abbas and Sons
“my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.” —Thomas Paine, 1791 C.E. 1795. The sun burned above the high Iranian plateau, and its heat rolled over the land. It gave heat and only heat. It was a dark sun, for there were no eyes to see it. It burned upon the [...]
Music of the Spheres
One day, while Armen was cleaning a toilet, an attractive Iranian girl walked into the restroom. Armen turned to her from the toilet and told her he’d be done in five minutes. She replied that she only wanted to invite him to a talk to be given that evening by a famous Recipient author. Armen [...]
Interoffice Memoranda
Armen’s job at the pizza place didn’t last. He walked back down to the state Employment Development Department to look for his next job. He got something after a few days. This job was not in Santa Cruz at all, but up in the Santa Cruz Mountains near the community called Bonny Doon. He’d need [...]
Going Coastal
Armen pulled his thumb back and turned to walk. He felt the traffic rush by, and he reflected for a moment about how he had come to trust the traffic so much that he could turn his back on it when it was so dangerously near. He’d never really thought of that before, so far [...]