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New to Five Minute Observations? Welcome. I’m Joe Class III, and I write stories and essays about what I notice, the encounters that reveal something true, and the moments that stick with you after they’re gone. If you’re just getting started, these three pieces will give you a sense of what this space is about:…
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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.”…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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Pulling off the highway onto the gravel road leading to the new plastics facility, Emulsion Plastics, Kathy’s heart raced, thinking about the different kinds of work she could soon do if the hiring manager decided she was the right fit. Instead of wearing the uniform for the diner, she wore a very modest dress with…
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Kathy pulled into the parking lot of Janice’s Diner, dust flying over her new 1985 Oldsmobile Cutlass Sierra. It drove like a luxury vehicle, unlike Jack’s Studebaker. The cloth seats felt like butter compared to the pseudo-pleather of the Studebaker. All electric controls meant she could roll down the passenger window. It wasn’t a convertible…
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Zander Melton wasn’t the brightest student in law school. He wasn’t as adept as his classmates at retaining information. And what he lacked in actual intelligence, he more than made up for in his ability to see where the pieces on the board were moving. Zander was a strategist, and a good one, at that.…
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“Doc, you sure this ain’t all that serious?” Jim watched Doc move strategically around the sick bovine, using a stethoscope to hear for anything abnormal. “I got more than 6,000 head needin’ to be well enough to sell some. I can’t very well go to market and not talk about what this old gal has.…
Stories. Enjoy!
