Gloom Cupboard

Welcome to the non-fiction section of the Gloom Cupboard, temporarily edited by yours truly, Alan Garvey.  There’s a right grab-bag of writings selected for you, from the lives of ordinary people – take your pick: sobriety is under the microscope for an estimation of its worth, there’s a piece examining attitudes towards breast cancer and [...]

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     In the early 1980s when I transferred to Dalt’s restuarant in Miami as an opening team member, I never imagined I was beginning a life in the restaurant business that would last more than a decade, that I would invent an entire category of health drinks for TGI Friday’s that are still on their [...]

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This is a story about my mother. It begins with my first memory: I’m standing with my brother at the big window in our apartment in Bochum, Germany. We are at the top floor and our window is in a gable, but I do not know what that is yet. I only know that we [...]

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Though I was only ten years old I had a mild crush on Monica, and fantasized running my fingers through her lusciously long, auburn hair, which highlighted the sheen of her pretty face, faintly freckled.  She, however, preferred George, which I accepted with the resignation of a younger brother.  She came to mind as I [...]

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I will give the Swiss this much; they know how to float. In the nearby town of Zuchwil, there is a sprawling sports center with tennis courts, mini-golf, soccer fields, ice rink, and a maze of pools.  All kinds of pools.  Indoor and outdoor.  Heated and not-heated.  Baby pools and adult-only pools.  So many ways [...]

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The Ritalin Riddle Matthew Dexter The Crime They needed gasoline to travel across country. Yet once the stolen credit cards were cancelled there was no more cash to turn to. Theft was the only option. It had been so innocuous and easy. Three successful gas runs and nearly a thousand miles of pavement. But now [...]

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“Hello, it’s me. I was wondering if you could help me out again. I know we never talk, but I’m in way over my head this time, and if you could just please get me out of this, I’ll do anything you want…” These are basically the same words, a million junkies, whores, thieves, and [...]

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I. Seeking             She was the quiet one, the weeping willow who soft-stepped into a room, causing all heads to turn.  I stood beside her, soothed by her geisha-like stance.  I loved her, ignoring her follies, and pretending that she understood my tales.  I believed we both heard the same song, and that song would [...]

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- I’d like to rip myself apart to prove to you how I work. Standing on the edge of a mental precipice, and the choices seemed to overwhelm me, each colour invading my sequence, I started to externalize every thought, the actions of others no longer had any meaning to me, indeed the forms and [...]

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