Outskirts Press, INC.

Ride on. When the trials of life seek to slow you down.

While chronicling a journey of self discovery and direction. We follow the narrative of a midwest teenager as he escapes to Denver, during the early stages of the 1980’s. In a naive attempt he hopes to explain, with a poetic flair, this new world that he encounters with optimism. As he struggles to support himself, while embroiled in both an emotional as well as a physical battle of redemption. Even the luck of finding love seems to fall short of his expectations. As he encounters a various array of misfits and opportunists, amidst the coming of a cloud, that begins to darken the very dream he once thought he would find. Thus forcing the examination of every truth he had held dear. Later determining the outcome to be found, on the other side of his excursion into adulthood.

As we followed him outside to where the bonfire was roaring. Some dude tossed another pallet in the fire as the crowd roared up with approval. The sparks and embers lifted to mingle with the starry sky. We moved close enough to feel the heat. Close enough to share in the mystic ritual of people around a fire . . . The basic need of man’s marriage to flame. It creates an almost automatic sense of peace to all who share in the glow. We clutched our beers in warming hands. Joints floated around like a sacrament to the heathen night. We were young, and it was nights like this that drove our spirits to howl. Primeval, maybe, but an itch that needed to be scratched. Pulling Kat close to me; we seemed all alone while surrounded by friends. The unspoken need between us was knocking at the door. We both wanted badly to be together. It was time. We embraced and kissed while the party melted away, like the crystalized snow, waning around the fire’s rim. As we were distant in a kiss, I felt the party’s grip strike me in the hip in the form of a snowball, whirled in by none other than Pete. “Hey, we made it, cowboy.” He came up laughing with a halfempty twelve-pack under his arm. Kathy slowly caught her composure to come around to the sight. After I introduced them, he handed me a fresh one.