Filling Up In Cumby And Other Stories

Filling Up In Cumby is a collection of stories about matters of the heart: the bonds and trials of lovers and friends, fathers and sons, even strangers in the midst of chance encounters. Carefully crafted and set in vividly described places, the stories reveal the interiors of everyday people working through dilemmas readers will recognize as much like their own. The author describes the situations with nuance and realism through the eyes of his main characters, revealing their struggles with the gentle touch of compassion, their lessons and reasonable triumphs with scrupulous honesty. The reader is welcomed into richly detailed evocations of very personal situations. In the title story, when a father's ex-wife appears at an inappropriate time, he struggles to protect their son from his difficulty keeping a healthy distance from the woman who still fascinates him. In "That Girl," a mother cooking dinner for her live-in boyfriend must persuade him to soften his harsh approach to her pregnant fifteen-year-old daughter. In "Uncle Eno's Bad Day," a gas station attendant with more wits than meets the eye delivers an important lesson about what matters and what does not to a man worried about being late for a meeting. In "Highway 47," a man stuck in a diner by a snowstorm, hoping for the fulfillment of a long-held fantasy that he has never thought possible or wise, finds something of much greater importance than a night with a lovely woman. He moves on, unsure of what happened, what did not, and what he will do when he gets home. In "An Apple Totem," a father preparing to take his ten-year-old son to live with his ex-wife in a distant town receives an unusual gift to commemorate their seven years together. Then it is time for the journey and the parting. In "Moschovitz And Pasternak," a man standing in line in a polling place gazes at an older man with a most pleasant countenance. Then he has a few moments of deep introspection and a brief encounter of unusual depth and satisfaction. "In The Middle" presents the reader with a man asked to mediate between his housemate, a woman with a young child, and the visiting father of her child. In a most difficult situation, the narrative character must struggle against his conflicting feelings and his biases in order to do the right thing for everyone. "The Blue Note" describes in extraordinary detail a couple's effort to begin repairing their marriage broken by an up-close infidelity. Like the title story, it is filled with a finely rendered backstory. Last, in a single page, Brotherhood In Beijing" describes a touching moment between strangers who cannot speak the same language. These are simple stories. Each is a fresh, clear, moving depiction of people in emotional situations. They are meant to be savored one at a time.