Father Luke

A lifetime of commitment

As the bus begins pulling away from the curb,
the old woman moves from
her seat to the aisle.

“WAIT!” she says to the bus driver,
stopping the bus.

The door opens.

Out of breath,
her husband steps
into the bus, and sits next to her.

The door closes, and we drive away.

Wet Roads

Can you pick me up, she said into the phone. I’m at the airport. It’s raining, and I don’t have a ride.

I looked at the television, and I cracked a sunflower seed. There was a commercial on for diet cheese. I’m watching something on television, I said. I tongued the sunflower seed out of its shell, and into my mouth.

You’re watching something on television?

Yeah, I said. I could hear her disappointment, and it made me happy.

I hung up the phone, and sat on the sofa. I watched it raining outside the window, and I cracked another seed.

 

Father Luke lives with the woman he loves in Portland, Oregon waiting for a perfect world.