Five Minute Observations

Author: Joe Class III

  • Inside Walmart

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    Joe Class III
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    Walking through the sliding doors, Tabitha took off her sunglasses, letting both the shoppers and employees see her eyes. Making eye contact with her? Most of the people inside avoided that as much as possible. There was a terse, tense feel behind her eyes. It made you feel awkward. And if she may glance in…

  • Upsetting A Small Town

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    Joe Class III
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    She didn’t like the attention. Nor did she like how the other girls looked at her, staring at her new eyebrow piercing. Amber Hubbard was the first girl at Fairchild High School in the small town of Macon to have it done. So many questions. And so much unwanted attention from all the girls, from…

  • Why Storytelling?

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    Joe Class III
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    Sitting back in the corner of the café gives you an exciting vantage point to see most interactions between the staff standing on the other side of the register and the patron purchasing coffee, a muffin, or some other food or drink item. There is the yoga mom with a wealthy doctor for a husband…

  • The Day Before Cookie Gets Fired

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    Joe Class III
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    Kathy hated the day-to-day business side of the diner. She looked into hiring a full-time bookkeeper and business manager on more than one occasion. But after looking at the books recognized that wasn’t an expense Janice’s Diner could afford. There were more important things she needed to worry about. The least of which was the…

  • Lawson Returns to Spiner

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    Joe Class III
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    Marshall hit the brakes of the SUV, Lawson almost hitting his head on the dashboard, even with the seatbelt on. Struggling to open his eyes, Lawson rubbed them, blinking a few times. “Where in the ever-loving name of all that is holy are we? And where did you learn to drive, kiddo? Holy crap. You’ve…

  • Storytelling

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    Joe Class III
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    How can you bottle up the essence of spoken word, written prose, or visual mediums without using the term storyteller? Storytelling is an art form transcending time and space, breathing life into characters, and transporting us to places we’ve never been, giving us a ticket for emotional experiences, all of which ignite our creativity and…

  • EPA Results from Jim’s Farm

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    Joe Class III
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    Fieldwork wasn’t for the faint of heart, Anne being one of those homebodies who didn’t like to get out much. She had two close friends, both extroverts who loved dancing, clubbing, going to movies, concerts, and musicals. Neither woman met a stranger, whereas Anne met them all the time. She didn’t want to be out…

  • Donovan’s Broken Heart

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    Joe Class III
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    “It’s over now.” She leaned back in the wooden chair at the café, having explained to her boyfriend of almost six years that she was moving on. No. He didn’t do anything wrong, per se. Did he do anything right? Other than never asking for her hand in marriage? No. Not at all. But then…

  • Anne’s Master’s Degree

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    Joe Class III
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    Anne Jansen woke up to a high-pitched shrill sound from the hotel’s alarm clock on the nightstand beside her bed. She hated fieldwork because the best part of her job was testing inside the laboratory. Microscopes. Test tubes. Samples. Hours of waiting for results and retesting. Those were the highlights for her. Anne lived for…

  • Kathy Tells It All: Part II

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    Joe Class III
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    Filling up his coffee cup, she set the full carafe on the table between them, next to the ashtray with five butts from Kathy’s smokes. “Thank you,” Floyd said. Holding the mug to his lips, he blew just enough to cool down to the top of his coffee. Kathy slid back into the booth, flipping…

  • Kathy Tells It All

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    Joe Class III
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    Floyd sat and listened. For the first time in his life, he was silent, hanging on every word. Kathy talked about the EPA and Jim’s cattle ranch, talking about some kind of contamination in the water. And if they didn’t catch it fast enough? It would taint over a million acres of farmland, cattle ranches,…

  • Carded For Cookies

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    Joe Class III
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    Grandpa is a great guy, but he’s got this thing about Oreo cookies. He can’t get enough of them. Before we knew what an obsession was or a sugar addiction, there was what Grandpa called his sweet tooth. And every few days, when Mom, Dad, and my sister, Sarah, visited his condo on the shore…

  • Floyd Patterson Comes Home: Part III

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    Joe Class III
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    Kathy finished her cry, knowing it had been a minute since she checked on Floyd. “I need to check on Floyd,” she said, getting up from the crates. “I’ll go check on him,” Cookie said, wiping his hands on his apron. “Just needs coffee, right? Kinda like Jim? Drinks coffee all day long?” He touched…

  • Floyd Patterson Comes Home: Part II

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    Joe Class III
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    Cookie was sitting on a few upside-down milk crates, jumping up as soon as Kathy opened the swinging door. Tears streamed down her cheeks, smearing her eyeliner and foundation. No sound came from Kathy, her hand pressed tightly over her lips. The older man knew best to leave well enough alone, especially when it came…

  • Floyd Patterson Comes Home

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    Joe Class III
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    “Who’re you callin’ old, you old coot.” Floyd Patterson leaned back in the booth, sipping his coffee. He hadn’t touched it in the last hour, until now. Sipping his lukewarm coffee, he looked outside the diner’s filmy window, wondering what had happened to the bacon, eggs, and pancakes he ordered. “Kath, this coffee is lukewarm.”…

  • Telling Stories

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    Joe Class III
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    Before I was old enough to read, I told stories. Imagination incubated, spit out into the world through my limited toddler vocabulary. After being taught how to read and write, the magic turned from oral stories to written stories. Now I was writing my own material, reading everything I could to get ideas, even the…

  • Doc’s Final Wishes

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    Joe Class III
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    Jim hated funerals. He’d been to four in the last fifteen years, three of which Doc was also at. This time was different. This time, Jim was alone. Those who knew Doc either lived too far away to attend a funeral or wake in his honor or died. A lot of veteran pals were either…

  • Zander’s Backup Plan

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    Joe Class III
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    Zander wasn’t comfortable talking to another attorney about the scam connecting him to Unger and the Zaterelli family. So, instead of mentioning any names, connecting him in any way to Mark Unger or the crime family, he spoke about the shell companies and private investors that he wasn’t at liberty to discuss. Attorney-client privilege worked…

  • Melton’s Plan Takes Shape

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    Joe Class III
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    Three years ago. That’s when Mark Unger introduced himself to Zander Melton, believing him to be the right man to help him put his get-rich-quick scheme. If anyone had a reputation for being a strategic player, it was Zander Melton. As a financial advisor, Unger dealt with influential people. The majority of them were honest,…

  • Emulsion Plastics Opens in Iowa

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    Joe Class III
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    “Are we ready to open next week, Cole?” Cole Wilkes, the Global Human Resources Director, was working hard to hire new staff to open their latest hub facility, a segment of their production line that would utilize cheap U.S. labor to assemble each of the pieces needed to complete a variety of products overseas. RDF…