The Smoke Weaver’s Daughters

“I see you are leaving the portrait of the great ass behind,” I remarked to my cousin, admiring a framed black and white photograph still hanging on the exposed brick wall above the fireplace.
I remembered when Stephen first moved into the Perry Street apartment, years before Jose came into the picture, when the piece [...]

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The Smoke Weaver’s Daughters

Unlike most West Village New Yorkers, Stephen and Jose did not have pets. Perhaps the four floor walk-up was the reason the couple did not adopt a dog and grant it a cosmopolitan name like “Dino” or “Fee Fee”. A glass aquarium in the corner of the half-empty apartment was the only drop of the [...]

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Smoke Weaver’s Daughters

The stairway  of Tom’s brownstone was covered in a moss-like substance. Friction from the well-worn shag carpet made walking up four flights exhausting and the smell of mold reminded me that I hadn’t done laundry in three weeks.
Walls painted in a shade of red enamel, like that of a whore’s lipstick were adorned with exquisite [...]

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The Smoke Weaver’s Daughter Continued

Tom was watching Wolf Blitzer on CNN when I knocked on his bedroom door. The television was so loud that it rattled the door to the room. Rather than pound loudly in an attempt to outdo Blizter’s reporting, I waited for a commercial break, then, using the free knuckles of my left hand, tapped on [...]

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The Smoke Weaver’s Daughters

“I think Tom likes you,” Stephen insisted as he mixed Tom’s nightly martini, made with Alexi Vodka.
“The last time I drank Alexi vodka I made a promise to the Lord that if he got me through that most horrific state, I would become as John the Baptist and never drink again.”
“Tom always buys Alexi vodka [...]

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The Smoke Weaver’s Daughters (Part IV)

“Did you make out checks for yourselves?” Tom asked as he settled onto his chair in front of the computer, noticing a pile of invoices with checks neatly clipped to each one. He gasped like a child glancing at a quarterly tax payment to the I.R.S. which was due.
Stephen handed Tom the checkbook which [...]

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Polaris North

Tom’s kitten Whiskey moved from the perch so often used by felines when they pass time in their master’s homes– computers. Cats are naturally drawn to computers. They sit seemingly in a trance created by the jungle of the modern communications era. The furry stalkers are bound to the scar of neutering and seem to [...]

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What Exactly is Psychosis

Paula S. Yorke, an administrative law judge for the New York State Department of Labor demanded that I present evidence of my claim that I was fired from my job at the Youth Counseling League as a result of disability discrimination–
“Your employer may not have the right to demand a copy of your medical records, [...]

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The Smoke Weaver’s Daughters (Part II)

Why anyone worth thirty million dollars would take the time to note every single stock market transaction in a database seemed absurd, especially considering the fact that the Barbour Trusts were being managed through the Bank of New York and a paper trail as thick as a good novel came in the mail once a [...]

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The Smoke Weaver’s Daughter

Tom Barbour was more than just my sugar daddy. He saved my life. The character actor may have played important roles in several major motion pictures including ‘Arthur’ and ‘Suspect’, but his multi-million dollar fortune was earned the hard way– through family inheritance.
My cousin Stephen Smith and his lover Jose Ramon lived on the [...]

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