The Ten-Minute Storyteller

This week we meet Liam.Liam works for AAPT (Animals Are People Too). It’s a tough job, as dailyhe has to make sure livestock animals are being treated humanely before destruction.Prior to this employment, Liam worked as a deckhand on freighters that circled the globe. He led a wild, carefree life, boozing and whoring his way from Boston to Bangkok to Buenos Aires. Until that day on the Black Sea off the coast of Romania...See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we meet Dan. Dan wants an eye for an eye.  Sure, he’d been a frat boy, done his share of drinking and carousing. But it was different then. More innocent. They didn’t slip mickeys into the girls’ drinks. Dan’s memory of his college days might be a tad murky and a touch selective, but he knows what he knows, and he knows the names of the boys who violated his daughter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we meet James. More than a quarter of a century ago James penned a critically acclaimed bestseller. Hollywood even made a movie out of the novel starring Al Pacino. The success of the book helped him earn tenure at the university where he taught literature and writing.Tenure put him on easy street.Or did it?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we meet Pete. Pete's a podiatrist. Pete does feet. Pete works for the New York State Department of Corrections. He does the inmates' feet. It's a tough job but somebody has to do it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

All's well at the local parish. At least on the surface.   This week we meet Father Joseph. Father Joseph and Nathaniel's parents sit in the priest's office and have a nice little chat. They discuss the upcoming pancake breakfast, the flower show to raise money for the local orphanage, and next Sunday's sermon on assisting the poor and the persecuted.  Father Joseph has an engaging smile and an easy laugh. He is very popular among his parishioners. Unfortunately, Joe is a very sick pup. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we meet Larry. Lar, like crazy armed nut-jobs from sea to shining sea, owns a Bushmaster XM-15 with a Vortex Spitfire scope and plenty of ammo. All legally obtained.   It's a beautiful spring morning. Opening Day of a brand new baseball season. The sun is shining. The grass is green. The boys are ready to play ball.  But unless sanity suddenly intervenes, unlikely, it’s best to prepare for more American carnage. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we meet Jack. Jack’s about to turn ten. His family has just arrived at their Airbnb on the coast of Maine. Right next door to their sea-front cottage is a graveyard, with gravestones dating back before the 18th century. Young Jack stumbles upon one stone that sends a shiver of terror down his spine.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we visit an old Southern plantation. Likely one that grows cotton or tobakkie. The War for Independence has come and gone. The Founders have grown fat and happy. But their slaves, well, not so much. Folks don’t like being enslaved. And so, occasionally, they rise up and fight back. They declare their Independence.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we meet Stan. And Ollie. Neighbors. Friendly but not really friends.Stan has a wife, three kids, a couple businesses. He’s a busy guy, high strung, stressed out. And now this broken bone in his left foot has him hobbled. Ollie’s divorced. A good guy, a lonely guy. Ollie and Stan’s wife Patty often walk their dogs together. Long walks. In the hills. Now something has transpired between Ollie and Patty. Or has it?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we meet G Otterbein. When G Otterbein moves in next door, the MacLeod boys are quite certain he is either Gestapo, SS, or a concentration camp guard. Their father landed on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. Over the next year he battled the Nazis and helped liberate the death camps. He has no love for Germans. And he has passed his hatred on to his boys.How’s it going to work out in this tranquil New Jersey suburb?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.