Story: True Love’s Passion

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True Love's Passion

from the book: Life Will Get You in the End:
Short stories by David Satterlee

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Life Will Get You in the End:
Short Stories by David Satterlee

Read or download this story as a PDF file at: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4eNv8KtePyKWjZjWVQzbl9qcms/edit?usp=sharing

  A young couple find that their life together is becoming predictable. Is that a bad thing?

True Love’s Passion

A Fergus Johnson story of gender relations

Fergus is annoyed. He and Suzette are approaching their fifth anniversary and things have changed. Suzette is taking him for granted. Spontaneity is being replaced with routine. Passion is giving way to familiar closeness. Everything that was special is becoming accustomed. It isn’t that things are bad, but if she were to give him half as much rubbing and stroking as her cat, he would damn sure be purring too, and a lot more besides. 

It is his job to put her favorite frumpy plaid flannel pajamas into the dryer for five minutes before they dress for bed. He enjoys watching her put them on, totally nude at the foot of the bed. She always bends over, peering down into the bottoms, searching for the label in the back, her full

Story: Going to see Jesse

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Going to see Jesse

from the book: Life Will Get You in the End:
Short stories by David Satterlee (also included in: Honoring My Father: Coming to Terms).

Find out more, including where to buy books and ebooks

Life Will Get You in the End:
Short Stories by David Satterlee

Honoring My Father:
Coming to Terms

This is an (almost completely) true story about old people in love. It is given a stream-of-consciousness treatment that reflects the tender tedium of elder care. It is only right to tell you up front that, by the end, they both die and that most early readers wanted to reach for a tissue and a good friend. 

I was writing and editing for a publishing company in St. George, Utah when they ran out of money to make full payroll. When I told my parents back in Missouri about the development, Mom got on the line and said, “David, we need you here.” My Uncle Ed was eighty-six and had just had hip replacement surgery. He was about to be released from the hospital; could I move back and take care of him in his home?

Providing home care develops a predictable and cadenced routine. Ed’s wife, my father’s sister, had dementia and was confined to “Pine Manor,” a nearby nursing home. I would take Ed to go to see Jessie most days. Going to see Jessie was an integral part of our Sisyphean life together. It was more than a routine; it was an obligatory rite, a necessary commemoration, like giving thanks before a meal or putting flowers on a grave.