Apr 25, 2023·edited Apr 25, 2023Liked by Sherman Alexie
What an evocative, powerful universe of a short-short story. It kind of snuck up on me. I'd been hoping that this pinball wizard was going to be good guy. I guess not all Tommies can be Who we want them to be.
Apr 22, 2023·edited Apr 22, 2023Liked by Sherman Alexie
This is a powerful TEASER!
We need a lot more about this character presented by you - whether fictional or documentary or a hybridization:)
It reminded me, though, of the concept/practice of karma. I wonder if he was caught in the middle of some - and had to pay the price of dying young for embodying someone else's malevolence.
Apr 21, 2023·edited Apr 21, 2023Liked by Sherman Alexie
I had a tormentor in elementary school, a hulking monster who terrorized me along with a lot of the smaller kids. He was cruelty personified. One time, he caught me right outside the gymnasium on the night of my first school dance. I was dressed in my Sunday suit, corsage in hand for my first girlfriend. She was so pretty. I was in love.
Raymond was lurking in the shadows and cornered me before I could reach safety. He did the usual shakedown, a few hard shoves into the wall, a slap or two, a couple of punches to the gut. The normal routine. But then he saw the flowers. They were perfect fodder. Something beautiful to destroy. I can still hear his leering, “Flowers for your girlfriend?” As he crushed them in his meaty, wet paw. Just a few minutes was all it took. The night was ruined, along with my first chance at romance. It’s hard to impress a girl when you’re sobbing and broken.
I told my friends about it, and they decided that he’d finally crossed the line, so we hatched a revenge plan. I would be the bait. The three of them would hide in bushes and rush him before he could get to me. As soon as I saw him, I yelled and called him an asshole. He was caught off guard by my insolence, but quickly regained his bearings and lumbered towards me, angrier with every step.
The plan was perfect in theory and execution. They caught him just inches short of my destruction and drug him to the ground. It’s been five decades, and I can still see his eyes bulged with fear as he realized what was happening. We lit into him like piranhas and extracted our revenge in brutal and creative fashion. We unleashed years of pent up humiliation, fear and rage and left him in a quivering heap on the edge of the playground. He never touched me again.
I'm curious about characters that recur in your stories. Thomas Runner's name reminds me of Thomas Builds-the-Fire. Does he also have a source in your past? I always thought that both Victor and Junior are your alter egos.
I have always believed fear causes bullies. The few I had to deal with growing up, all feared their fathers, the ones that made them afraid, made them bullies. And thanks for John Wayne's Teeth. I'm going to pullout my "Smoke Signals" dvd to watch one more time.
People often know about the creation story and don’t care because they lack cognitive and emotional empathy. I’m being trolled viciously on here for being the daughter of a murder victim who happens to write Black and women’s history. In the 4+ years since she was taken, I’ve had to accept that some people practice sadism. Blame the victim is the name of the game.
Wow Sherman. You just blew my mind. I hadn't consciously realized that. That in order to fight the monsters you run the risk of becoming one. Now that would be an interesting story. The choice to self sacrifice to either not become a monster. Or the choice to become one but still deep inside remembering who you were and be able to make the right decision later on when it comes down to it. Oh! I just realized. That's what happened in Indian Killer, ennit?
As a current pinball enthusiast, I probably have played that table (I’d guess a Gotlieb) at some point. Someone bought that table was it for spite, a joke, or just what was available?
Anyway, I encourage everyone to play pinball it’s good for the soul and most of ‘em aren’t going to trigger bad memories.
This post (and any post) about pinball get my approval.
We all have these monsters in ôur pasts. The Inde' (Apache) have stories of our beginnings. The biggest and best is about two brothers, Born for the Water and Monster Slayer, and their mom Changing Woman. There's no dad really. Because their mom was hot and very special indeed. She got pregnant by the Sun and Water once bathing in a stream. Anyhow I guess there was monsters all over the place eating the people. (It's a long story about men and women arguing that we don't have time for.) The mom was able to hide the two boys from the monsters. But when they were teens they started wanting to get them monsters. A friend of mine made this story into a comic book. In it Monster Slayer is on his own. Except he's begun to lose it from all the bad stuff he's seen done to his mom, his people. Through his eyes he sees those monsters just as he heard the old people describe them on the rez, a giant eagle who could see you wherever you hid and swoop down and swallow you in one gulp. The thing was the monster was just some dude who did evil things. Monster Slayer walked in both worlds and because of it, he was crazy. But it didn't matter. Coz monster or evil guy, Monster Slayer killed 'em. And the world was a better place for it. He even had like a team. A guitar player who was a combination of Prince and Hendrix. A girl who Monster Slayer freed from an evil white man who wanted to eat her soul. This was back before they were mining the comics for blockbuster films. It woulda been a killer movie. Haha! So I don't know if the pain broke him or if he transformed it into something else. It's that true? Do people really turn the pain into something else that can help, that is good?
What an evocative, powerful universe of a short-short story. It kind of snuck up on me. I'd been hoping that this pinball wizard was going to be good guy. I guess not all Tommies can be Who we want them to be.
This is a powerful TEASER!
We need a lot more about this character presented by you - whether fictional or documentary or a hybridization:)
It reminded me, though, of the concept/practice of karma. I wonder if he was caught in the middle of some - and had to pay the price of dying young for embodying someone else's malevolence.
I had a tormentor in elementary school, a hulking monster who terrorized me along with a lot of the smaller kids. He was cruelty personified. One time, he caught me right outside the gymnasium on the night of my first school dance. I was dressed in my Sunday suit, corsage in hand for my first girlfriend. She was so pretty. I was in love.
Raymond was lurking in the shadows and cornered me before I could reach safety. He did the usual shakedown, a few hard shoves into the wall, a slap or two, a couple of punches to the gut. The normal routine. But then he saw the flowers. They were perfect fodder. Something beautiful to destroy. I can still hear his leering, “Flowers for your girlfriend?” As he crushed them in his meaty, wet paw. Just a few minutes was all it took. The night was ruined, along with my first chance at romance. It’s hard to impress a girl when you’re sobbing and broken.
I told my friends about it, and they decided that he’d finally crossed the line, so we hatched a revenge plan. I would be the bait. The three of them would hide in bushes and rush him before he could get to me. As soon as I saw him, I yelled and called him an asshole. He was caught off guard by my insolence, but quickly regained his bearings and lumbered towards me, angrier with every step.
The plan was perfect in theory and execution. They caught him just inches short of my destruction and drug him to the ground. It’s been five decades, and I can still see his eyes bulged with fear as he realized what was happening. We lit into him like piranhas and extracted our revenge in brutal and creative fashion. We unleashed years of pent up humiliation, fear and rage and left him in a quivering heap on the edge of the playground. He never touched me again.
Wow, John Wayne's Teeth! That's why I always try to listen to your writing...for little gems/earworms like that!
Also, I want to say something about the use of anger/hate in your stories...It's such a strong emotion...is it easy to write about?
A true to life ‘Pinball Wizard’, and what a marvelous tale of twisted lights, bells, and cowboy ghosts. And under anger, sadness.
"...every piece of anger has a creation story." It's truths like this that knock me speechless the first time I read them.
I'm curious about characters that recur in your stories. Thomas Runner's name reminds me of Thomas Builds-the-Fire. Does he also have a source in your past? I always thought that both Victor and Junior are your alter egos.
Brilliant. Especially the spit turning into bloody monsters. I am going to try that!! P S...never played pinball!!
I have always believed fear causes bullies. The few I had to deal with growing up, all feared their fathers, the ones that made them afraid, made them bullies. And thanks for John Wayne's Teeth. I'm going to pullout my "Smoke Signals" dvd to watch one more time.
People often know about the creation story and don’t care because they lack cognitive and emotional empathy. I’m being trolled viciously on here for being the daughter of a murder victim who happens to write Black and women’s history. In the 4+ years since she was taken, I’ve had to accept that some people practice sadism. Blame the victim is the name of the game.
And Nietzsche's abyss. Stare into the abyss too long and you become the abyss.
Wow Sherman. You just blew my mind. I hadn't consciously realized that. That in order to fight the monsters you run the risk of becoming one. Now that would be an interesting story. The choice to self sacrifice to either not become a monster. Or the choice to become one but still deep inside remembering who you were and be able to make the right decision later on when it comes down to it. Oh! I just realized. That's what happened in Indian Killer, ennit?
As a current pinball enthusiast, I probably have played that table (I’d guess a Gotlieb) at some point. Someone bought that table was it for spite, a joke, or just what was available?
Anyway, I encourage everyone to play pinball it’s good for the soul and most of ‘em aren’t going to trigger bad memories.
This post (and any post) about pinball get my approval.
We all have these monsters in ôur pasts. The Inde' (Apache) have stories of our beginnings. The biggest and best is about two brothers, Born for the Water and Monster Slayer, and their mom Changing Woman. There's no dad really. Because their mom was hot and very special indeed. She got pregnant by the Sun and Water once bathing in a stream. Anyhow I guess there was monsters all over the place eating the people. (It's a long story about men and women arguing that we don't have time for.) The mom was able to hide the two boys from the monsters. But when they were teens they started wanting to get them monsters. A friend of mine made this story into a comic book. In it Monster Slayer is on his own. Except he's begun to lose it from all the bad stuff he's seen done to his mom, his people. Through his eyes he sees those monsters just as he heard the old people describe them on the rez, a giant eagle who could see you wherever you hid and swoop down and swallow you in one gulp. The thing was the monster was just some dude who did evil things. Monster Slayer walked in both worlds and because of it, he was crazy. But it didn't matter. Coz monster or evil guy, Monster Slayer killed 'em. And the world was a better place for it. He even had like a team. A guitar player who was a combination of Prince and Hendrix. A girl who Monster Slayer freed from an evil white man who wanted to eat her soul. This was back before they were mining the comics for blockbuster films. It woulda been a killer movie. Haha! So I don't know if the pain broke him or if he transformed it into something else. It's that true? Do people really turn the pain into something else that can help, that is good?
Me too. I hit my stride about 7 minutes in! LOL!!!
Full disclosure... you need to know, that came from someone who has written songs that feel like essays!