Motel Sepia

from "Motel Sepia"
. . . Roy picked up a pebble and casually tossed it into a part of the stream where water had pooled. He watched the widening ripple. Every action we take, he pondered, produces some form of reaction. Parts of the ripple bumped into the surrounding bank and were repelled, while other parts filtered through reeds, engulfing them gently. Another section of the growing undulation was quickly swallowed by the force of moving water.
. . . Just a few hours ago this man was enjoying life. How can this be? Byrne fought off the impulse to consider that killing was part of man's nature, an inherited trait that was not discarded after the Stone Age. Do we exit our mother's womb with an intrinsic proclivity to harm others? Is the belief of most religions that man is basically good - is that wrong?
. . . The two people, entangled in the rigors of bad decisions, traveled through one of the most bountiful regions on Earth, but were bound in the poverty of mutual anxiety. The marrow of their existence was soured by servitude. It was a tragedy in which a crime was consummated, and the usual joyous condition of a honeymoon reduced to contrivance.
*Other books by Dale Kueter
"Vietnam Sons"
"The Smell of the Soil"
*Available at: Author House, Amazon and Barnes & Noble