Richard Buck
Stories (6/0)
No One Knew His Name or Address
Julian Cable heard the motors buzzing outside his cabin, listened for a second as they got closer, then dove to the floor. He rolled twice until he was pressed up against the living room bookcase. He heard something drop on his doorstep, then what he now understood to be a drone flew away. He waited and heard nothing else. Staying low, he crawled to the long storage chest by the foot of his bed. Without raising his head, he lifted the chest a few inches — just enough to pull his rifle out from the hollowed recess in the floor. He crawled to the back window and, still without raising his head, looked around. A clear line-of-sight showed the back window from the front door. Not ideal, but better than opening the door directly. Gathering himself, he reached up, slid the window open, and slipped over the sill, landing as quietly as he could on the dirt outside. Looking in all directions, he walked slowly around the back and side of the cabin.
By Richard Buckabout a year ago in Fiction
Empowerment, Agency, Grace, and Reinvention
A lazy narrative says that Taylor Swift writes breakup songs, or songs about boys that are written for adolescent girls. It’s lazy both because it ignores the depth and breadth of what she has accomplished, and even more so because it doesn’t consider the empowering stories and lessons she tells. This (long) essay explains why I see her work as groundbreaking, transformative, and vital to our 21st century world, a world that doesn’t experience enough peace or grace and sees far too much anger and intolerance—a world that needs and is blessed by Taylor Swift.
By Richard Buck2 years ago in Beat
Space Is Not Empty
Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. I’m living in space right now, if you can call this living, and what they say is true: no one can hear me scream. And I can’t hear any of the other people around me. I think a few of them are screaming, based on their faces. Others seem happy, or at least content. Many are hiding their emotions.
By Richard Buck2 years ago in Fiction