Little arguments: stories,

, flash fictions from a work-in-progress,

~

God doesn’t live here anymore. I’m not sure if he ever did. I attend to a map of the solar system. Since I was a child, we’ve one less planet, reduced in body-type. Possibly a moon.

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It is important to be precise. One does not say, “I am tired of Fleetwood Mac.” One says, “I am tired of hearing the same Fleetwood Mac song hundreds of times over the past thirty-odd years on randomly-heard radio, and the whole thought of their music now sickens me.” If I could turn the page.

~

In the film Forrest Gump (1994), American actor Gary Sinise played Lieutenant Dan Taylor, introduced during Forrest’s military service as part of the American upheavals that furthered the war in Vietnam. Knowing so many other military members of family had proudly died in every other American conflict, “Lieutenant Dan” had decided his fate would be equal, but it wasn’t to be, and his character became, temporarily, lost. A decade later, Sinise played McCanna Llewellyn “Mac” Taylor, son of Millie and WWII veteran McCanna Boyd Taylor in CSI: NY (2004-2013), introduced as a man grieving the loss of his wife due to the events of 9/11. I’ve long wondered if there was a deliberate connection between the two characters, whether Lieutenant Dan meant as an uncle or cousin to Captain Mac. An Easter egg, set for those who might notice. Look at English actor Alex Jennings, who played Prince Charles in The Queen (2006), Charles’ great uncle, Edward VIII, the Duke of Windsor, in the first two seasons of The Crown (2016-2017), and King Leopold I of Belgium, uncle to both Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, in the mini-series Victoria (2016-2017). How many characters in a single family can one actor play?