CrispyPastas

 The time clock read 17:58. I patted myself and yanked my badge out of the back pocket of my scrubs, fumble-fucking it into the edge of the machine and swiping fast. Upside down. 17:59. I flipped and slid the badge again. The time clock recorded my arrival at 18:00. I turned in silent triumph to saunter into the break room for morning report and ran face-to-chest into Jenny, badge in hand. She reached over my shoulder to badge in as I bounced off her cleavage. 18:01. “Hey, better luck next time.” She shrugged.  Ted was charge nurse again tonight, the last of his 6-night stretch. That wasn’t promising. His voice was flat as he rattled off the list of patients currently in the department, and the number of ambulances lining the halls waiting for beds. It wasn’t a surprise, we’d all weaved around the rigs to get into the parking lot. I sank into the busted leather couch against the window as I scanned the faces around me. It was the usual mix of cross-fitters and exhausted-lookin...

  When I was a kid, I used to play in the woods at my grandma's house all summer. Looking back, my parents just needed someone to watch me when school was out, but man I loved it. She'd make runny eggs every morning and I'd explore or read or watch tv. Whatever, didn't matter. The best was a cave way back on her property. She never told me I couldn't go in--I think she'd forgot it was there-- so I'd hunch through the crumbly walls. It was 90% mud but there was a small apse. I loved to turn off my flashlight, huddle in the dark quietness, and feel held by the earth and apart from the world. When I was 9, I found an arrowhead and the whole summer I sat just knowing that I was in the same place as some Cherokee hunter had been hiding or waiting out deer hundreds of years before I was born.  I grew up and I kept searching out that feeling. Fifty-five degrees and silent. Did you know that the Appalachians are older than bones? Literally, they formed before li...

"You guys, I think I've got a sunburn," Tyler yelled up.  It was almost 100 degrees out, and they were crawling up the surface of a vertical skillet.   "Awww. Does baby want us to kiss it better?" Kyler yelled down.  Tyler never wore sunblock or brought enough water.   "You can kiss my ass better, Ky!  Fuck you.  This is why Britney dumped you."   "Yeah, she probably wants a douchebag with melanoma instead." "Fuck you!  The cancer'll make my dick even bigger."   "Won't matter when they have to chop it off."  An outsider could easily miss the affection in the Fuck Yous. "Hey, uh...shouldn't we be at the top by now?"  Skyler called down to his friends from the lead position.  Nobody said anything for a moment.  He could sense the other three looking at one another.   "No, Skyler.  We should be where we are."  Guyler finally called back up at him.  Skyler thought he heard him say s...