Alex Carrick’s Blog

Secrets! Sugar sprinkled on candy or arsenic mixed with nightshade. Are you in the know or flying blind? Delicious seductive power or unpredictable happen-anytime pain. Who to bring into the inner circle? Who best left excluded? Where to extend the intimacy? An implication of purity that’s non-existent. Most secrets aren’t. Obscuring the truth, they rarely […]

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There once lived a king who loved the theater. His taste crossed all genres – romances, sophisticated comedies, broad farces and stomach-churning tragedies. He particularly liked historical pieces that featured his ancestors. Watching his predecessors parade around in crowns and tiaras while engaging in outrageous behavior was a self-centered delight. The royals’ peccadilloes were well […]

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What he liked about her was her laughter. What she liked about him was his silence. Her laughter was quiet, rich and reflective. It was doled out sparingly. When forthcoming, you knew it had been earned. It carried neither price tag, nor was gained at another’s expense. Sometimes she giggled. Those were special occasions, when they […]

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“China has one. Why can’t we?” Trevor Deeds was reading a quote from a magazine article while he waited for his appointment at the doctor’s office. The featured story examined a number of proposals to build a wall across the entire U.S.-Mexican border. Several artists’ renderings were included. There was speculation it might need to be […]

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This is a more serious piece than I usually write. It’s another effort at prose/poetry based on an important theme, how many of us become trapped into doing what we may not want to do. By the way, should anyone wonder if my ventures in this area are an attempt to ease the burden of […]

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“Keep your voice down. I don’t want either of us to get into trouble. There are some things that aren’t talked about up here.” Jebediah Senior and Jebediah Junior were meeting in heaven for the first time since the former’s death thirty-five years earlier in a car crash and the latter’s recent shackles-shedding on account […]

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A father drove his two children, 12-year-old Bud and eight-year-old Betty-Lou, to school every morning. In good weather and bad, mostly in heavy traffic, they motored slowly along the well-established route and talked through many of the major issues of life. “What’s that guy doing, Dad?” asked Bud, sitting in the front seat with his […]

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  “Daddy, why does Canada have so many comedians?” 10-year old Justin asked, one blustery winter evening.  The magic hour approached when the burden of parenthood was about to be ever so briefly lifted and some time might be spent by mom and dad alone in front of the television set.  “I have a theory […]

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Branscomb Hall was where the brainiacs lived. There might be psychedelic drugs, free sex and rock and roll elsewhere on campus, but the boys of “Branny” were renowned for keeping their noses to the grindstone. South of the border, Americans were agonizing over the Vietnam War. In Canada, these were the halcyon days before OPEC […]

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Paul didn’t care that some people might find it maudlin. Perhaps even in questionable taste. It had long given him comfort. And now he was sharing it with his children. It was their annual day to visit the cemeteries – two in fact. One on the outer fringe of the mega city, that Paul liked […]

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