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Homefield Disadvantage

January 20, 2026 in 299 Words, Dog, Family, Flash Fiction, Haunting, Home, Humor, language, Marriage, Memory, Metaphor, Parent, Sports, Very Short Novels | Tags: , , , , | by | 2 comments

I’m helping Dad break into his house. The doors are unlocked but he can’t use them. They could fall from their hinges and he wouldn’t step over them, wouldn’t cross the threshold, wouldn’t pass through the frame. We’re standing before one now. Don’t poet me, he says, doors are not metaphors. He’s right to discourage me; I translate everyone into bad verse, sometimes out loud. Just now I pictured Dad “tackled by memories” at every doorway because he played high school ball. Cheesy, but I use it to stiff-arm season-ending thoughts. That linebacker sprawled across the welcome mat where she collapsed coming home from their anniversary dinner? The linebacker with the boobs? That’s Mom. She won’t be getting up. Dad’s pain is real, but for me it’s a chance to sketch with the telestrator. See how the weak-side end-around avoids the dead wife. The obvious play is an out-route at the pantry, but that leads to the accessible entry he built for his grandson sidelined by an IED. There are losses in every direction, shut-down defenders at every door. His best man was clotheslined and dropped for a loss at the entrance to the garage. I risk telling him what I’m thinking, and he laughs without mirth and punches me. So we might get through this. But we never make it inside. The memory of Buster sprawled at the slider off the deck where he collapsed scratching at the glass takes Dad to a knee out of more than fatigue. He’s my wife’s Dad, actually. He hasn’t a hint of a bald spot. I touch his shoulder, speak his name, call him coach, help him up. He lets it happen, hates still living, wants to go. He’s offered us this house because he thinks we walk thoughtlessly through doors.

original story Copyright © January 10, 2007
revised story Copyright © January 20, 2026


Trade Rumors (for the screen)

January 16, 2026 in 299 Words, Adoption, Baseball, Business, Child, Childhood, Dialogue, Family, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Humor, Nuclear Family, Parent, Sports, Very Short Novels | Tags: , , , , , , , | by | Leave a comment

Video versions of Very Short Novels are coming to your screens (one at a time and slowly). Trade Rumors is the first to be posted to our affiliated Must See Theater channel on YouTube. Life Line has been shot and is in post-production. And Eat the Air is on the schedule next. Check in often.

The Video Version in 299 words

The Print Version in 299 words:

—Dad, are you trying to trade me?
—What would make you say that?
—Mister Moyer said you offered me for his daughter.
—Not just his daughter, son. That was a package deal.

—Why would you want to do that?
—Do you mean why or do you mean why now?
—
—I don’t think you’ll ever be worth more.

—But I’m nothing but potential!
—
—What if I go somewhere else and thrive?
—That’s what I’m hoping.
—Oh, so you’re doing me a favor.
—
—Is it my grades?
—You think I care about your grades?
—I don’t know, but you can’t just trade your family!
—No? Your mother managed it pretty well.

—Is this something I can veto?
—You can beg. You know I like that.
—What if I’m not happy where you send me?
—I didn’t think you were happy here.
—I’m very happy here.
—You don’t act it.
—This is how a happy teenager acts, Dad.
—
—At least let me stay in the same school.
—With those grades?
—
—Anyway relax, there’s not much out there.
—Maybe your standards are too high.
—Why, because I won’t take on someone else’s liability?

—Dad, just admit you don’t like me and let’s move on.
—I couldn’t do that, son.
—You think it’s better not to say it?
—

—This isn’t fair.
—What, fathers and sons? It’s inevitable.
—If that were true, your dad would have traded you.
—Yeah, well. I might have been better off.
—Oh, Dad, is that what this is about?
—
—You think I won’t get enough chances living with you?
—
—Look. Grandpa was an asshole.
—Yeah?
—Yeah.
—Yeah?
—Yeah. You don’t have to be.

—So, what do you think of the Moyer girl?
—She’s cute, but she’ll never tell you the truth.
—Yeah.
—Yeah.
—Play some ball?
—Let’s play some ball.

print version Copyright © July 31, 2009
video version Copyright © September 2025

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299-WORD NOVELS

Character, conflict, emotional impact. And sentences! Everything you want in a novel, without one extra syllable.
  1. davidbdale's avatar

    This is a close relative of a Very Short Novel titled Short for Family from 20 years ago. The revisions…

  2. davidbdale's avatar

    This is a close relative of a Very Short Novel titled Red Water from 30 years ago. It's different enough,…

  3. grantman's avatar

    Interesting piece which touches on many aspects of getting old especially the part where we don't fit anymore. Having worked…

  4. davidbdale's avatar
  5. davidbdale's avatar

    This is a close relative of an early post titled Something Delicious from 20 years ago. This revised version is different enough,…

Behind the Pseudonym

The pen name davidbdale honors my mother Beatrice (Bea) and my father Dale

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