http://slow.writerscafe.org/DavidRyanM The original writings of author DavidRyanM en-us Copyright 2026 WritersCafe.org 1775995348 WritersCafe.org RSS Generator 15 He had jumped from a building. He had landed on the pavement. Had you been standing near where he landed, you would have heard bones cracking and organs fighting to stay in place but ultimately being set free. The man he had landed just a few feet from checked his pockets for money. No one seemed to.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1295837/ My master said to my other master how my balls were bigger than his. Now he has taken them from me.  http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1295835/ At the reunion I wasn't planning on attending because I feel I have outgrown that part of my life, everyone reminisces about the valedictorian's speech and the funny joke that made everyone in attendance laugh. I sit, stewing, knowing it was a joke I had said while in the classroom. I can't believe .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1193905/ He was trying, you could tell that much. Clearly years spent with a bottle in one hand and bills in the other. You couldn't help but watch him frantically pace down every aisle, grabbing anything his teenage daughter might want. She let him know every time that his taste was way off from what she wa.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1191467/ Curtis opened the bedroom door. "Claire?" he called out.  "In the kitchen," she responded.  Curtis buttoned his jeans and started walking down the hall. "That handjob you gave me earlier, while extremely appreciated and amazing, was pretty vicious. You actually cut the base of my.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1138068/ I feel like I'm the only one that doesn't want to hear anything about Iraq. Or the war. Or terrorism. People are so fascinated by these stories, news reports, and movies. It's going to be the defining moment for my generation and yet I want nothing to do with it. I'm too busy worrying about potentia.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1130104/ She thought about his question for a moment laying next to him in the dark. "I can't say for sure. Might have been when I was thirteen. Could have also been when I turned twenty-one. That's one of those things you never really know for sure." He said, "Losing your virginity is something you definite.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1113083/ You have to choose between us, she said, pointing at herself and then to the girl lying on the sidewalk.I couldn’t choose. They both had their pros. She had a smile that could make you forget you can only afford Ramen. The one on the street reminded you every day that Ramen was the only thing .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1109544/ Before you try to figure out why, or try to guess how this ends, know none of it was my fault. It wasn’t my fault that her things were lying all over the street. The guys that I hit, that wasn’t my fault either. They attacked me first. She said some pretty mean things. Yelled them really.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1105634/ They said it was in the past. That I know longer owed them anything and there were no hard feelings. I decided to go home. Watch some bad T.V. Have some food. I ended up dead in a bowl of Cheerios. They claimed it was suicide by milk. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1105244/ We sing songs like “He has risen” every day. Our job, basically, is to praise Him endlessly. The few moments we have for breaks, it’s a bunch of people I never really knew, or don’t recognize at all, telling me of past memories we shared. I have to just smile and tell them I .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1105243/ She placed her rings on the bedside table. He kissed her back, between her shoulder blades. She ran through her rules one more time and he promised he’d obey them. It took him five minutes to slip up. She was used to guys not keeping their word. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1105020/ “It’s not about who is inflicting the pain and who is receiving it,” he tried to explain. He put the whip down on the floor next to the man’s hands and said, “It’s about trust. Respect. Exploration!” He said exploration as if it was the most magical word eve.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1105015/ Each day you get up, you do the same routine. Sometimes, when you’re in the shower, you like to shake things up and close your eyes as the water hits your face. You pretend you’re drowning. Maybe you’ll place the two pieces of toast together and eat them at the same time .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1104150/ To her I am:A chair.A lamp.A convenient store.A couch.A blanket.A mistake.An accomplishment.A friend.An enemy.Family.A stranger.To her I am everything. I am everything and more. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1104145/ "Do you think this is some kind of game?" "Would it make it easier for you if I said yes?" "You're impossible to deal with." "Yes."  http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1091546/ "Always burn bridges. That way you can't help but keep moving forward."  http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1078167/ Klotzka was my Russian landlord. When I was looking for a place to rent, I was looking for Klotzka more than I was looking for square footage. He adds character to a building that's lacking. I want to say he drinks Vodka and f***s hairy women. I want to tell you how he has a dog that's too skinny an.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1075538/ The neighbor's lab. He has three legs. He always sits on their front lawn and barks as cars go by. He s***s in the middle of their driveway and then returns to the grass. I saw him eating a rock once. What would he have done with a fourth leg anyway?  http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1075536/ The Elmer's glue she applied to the blue piece of paper looked like God placing a cloud in the sky. It looked like that day you told me you loved me. When the power shut off and we sat on the kitchen floor talking about things in a passionate way to pass the time. It was a lonely glob in the middle .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1075535/ I would sit Indian-style on the ground as my mother pulled the clothes out of the dryer. She would ask me about my day despite the fact I wasn't yet old enough to ever be out of her sight, and I would tell her things we both knew never happened. "I killed pirates," I would say. She would smile and a.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1075532/ My eyes were bloodshot going on a week. They felt heavy and they burned; like someone was putting out cigarettes on the back of them. I was scared at first, but I eventually embraced it. What if I went blind. I would be "the blind guy" in my town. People would know me. Someone would take care of me... http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1073344/ Chang was the new kid at school that his mother made him invite over. Devin didn't trust him at all. He couldn't quite place his finger on it, but he knew something waswrong. He would tell Chang he was going to the bathroom and then watch him through the crack in his bedroom door to see if he t.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1072027/ He talked about how he would go into the store with a pocket full of coupons. How he couldn't leave until he had used them all. A shopping cart full of things he didn't need. He couldn't stop. His therapist just nodded her head. Nodded her head and chewed on her pencil. She would say, "Mmmhmmm," or .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1062438/ He imagined if he was going to be depressed it would be more interesting. He just laid on the couch eating cereal and watching episodes of The Honeymooners. Sometimes he would take a marshmellow out of the bowl and put it in his bellybutton.  http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1062435/ "Dad's dead. I'm sorry," my brother's voice turned into a whisper. "Dad's dead. He's f****n' dead." He said the word so many times he could have been telling me he was at a carnival. Or the store. My dad was dead and it didn't even sound like a thing.  http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1062430/ "When did we decide we smoked in the house?""We never talked about it." "Exactly. So why are you doing it?" "I was never told I couldn't."  http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1062428/ Carl was deaf. The fire alarm in his house made no sound; a light would power on to tell him when there was danger. He thought about how if he was sleeping, or looking at something else, he would have no idea it had gone off. He closed his eyes for a moment and imagined everything around him engulfe.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1062390/ "It's a product of getting old," he said as he stretched his arm out. "Things start to hurt for no reason." He looked at his son and said, "Once you reach my age, you start to break down whether you like it or not. You can lay around all damn day and the next morning have a pulled muscle." His son l.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1059822/ Ten year old William sat with his nine year old friend Curtis. "I played with your sister when you were asleep," William told him. "No you didn't," Curtis protested. He put his matchbox car aside and made sure William was really joking. "Yes, huh," William said. "I went into her room and she was wat.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1055696/ He had been fired and this was his chance to make sure they knew he hated them. The ride up the elevator didn't seem as long as he thought it would and, at first, no one looked when the doors opened. When he started yelling, they looked. They looked when he grabbed his old boss around the neck .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1055691/ The Model:  Julie was a model. Or at least was trying to be. At her auditions, it was glaringly obvious she had some "chub" to her stomach. Julie decided to remedy this by not eating. Julie didn't eat for weeks. Julie died from starvation in front of her vanity mirror. Julie was a model.&n.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1050462/ He kept his wedding ring on every time they made love. She could feel every letter engraved into it on her skin. Broken promises gliding down her jawline. These were words written for a woman she didn't know. A woman she would never know. This is how she justified it.  http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1037538/ They found them in a box inside his closet after he died. Pages and pages of unpublished work. Each one had the same strong voice; each one was a mini masterpiece. He had delicately chosen his pen name, one that suited his physical features and intellectual prowess. He was unknown to everyone aside .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1014625/ Barry had a slight mental problem that they were never able to diagnose. He would always try to put on two left shoes, never the same style, yet he thoughthe was doing it right. His girlfriend would help him in the morning to pick out the rightones, delicately slipping them onto his feet, hoping he .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1006072/ They say when you drink alcohol and the back of your throat burns, that could be a symptom of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. It happens to me when I drink orange juice. What could that possibly be? Malaria? http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/1006069/ "I'm going to dump him," she said. "Why?" her friend asked. "I thought you really liked him.""I did at first. He was cute and charming and the things he said were funny. Now, it's weird. When we have sex, he actually says 'Like' when I do something he enjoys. I went down on him the other night and a.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/975271/ She said she was an orange. A ripe orange that was now on my bed. I peeled her slowly and enjoyed what she had to offer. She had said she was an orange. And that orange has been disposed of.  http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/972133/ BENNY would not lie to you and say he stumbled upon the e-mail. He would tell you he went looking for it. He would tell you this because his suspicions had been right and he would not feel bad about that. He would read to you every word, emphasizing certain parts, that the man had written to his gir.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/952886/ Eric was taking a s**t when he noticed it. Just a black masssquished into the bath mat. It had once been a spider. A blackwidow. But now it looked like the inner lining of a t-shirt. Itwas the kind of spider that would have made his body freezein terror. But, when it happened, he had acted heroicall.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/912405/ He never paid attention in any of his classes. He would prop his text books up so it effectively hid his drawing pad. He was great at doing cartoon versions of the people around him. He told everyone he would be famous for it. He would make money, and support everyone's dreams. He never did get that.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/911699/ She fondled the book, flipped through it, and smelled the scent that only pages of a book can give off. "You may not want to buy that for your niece. It's classic literature, but it's full of sexuality." The woman looked at her and said, "There's nothing she can learn from a book that she doesn't al.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/906303/ "You haven't been the same since you came back from Mexico," he said, noticing she wasn't lying close to him anymore. "I don't think I ever came back," she said. "And that's the most honest I've ever been with you."  http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/876900/ It happened so fast. One minute he was admiring the trees and the way God decided to use so much green. The next moment, he was apologizingfor god knows what and she was crying. Really crying. Like, f****n' hard. She said she was okay. He said his trip was taking a turn for the worse. She .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/869162/ "She's got fucked up teeth, bro. You can tell by the way she smiles. Any girl thatsmiles with her mouth closed is hiding something." "What else can you tell just by looking at her?" "She would never sleep with you. Or me, for some reason." http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/840572/ "Everything is beautiful, if you look at it the right way," he said to me, in between sips of his beer. "People just don't know how to look. Or they've been taught all wrong." I finish my third beer and say, "I guess so." His dog wandered over near us, licking the bottle caps and smelling our calves.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/814162/ "I wouldn't respond to her texts for a few days. Then I would text something random like how I hated when it would rain. I would send this in the middleof the afternoon and then go back to not responding. This worked perfectly. That is until she stopped talking to me completely. Then I rea.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/809556/ "Her profile picture was of her sitting and looking straight up into the camera. But not with her whole head. Just her eyes. It was the sexiest thing I've ever seen.I fear I can only be attracted to her if she's looking up at me like that though. It will make sleeping next to each other di.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/807785/  My name is Curtis. I am twenty-eight And when I was sixteen, I was a father for a moment.  In school, our sex education teacher, Michelle Ramlin, warned us daily on being sexually active. Talking about sexually transmitted diseases, and the risk of pregnancy. "A child," she would say.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/791648/ He realized, as he was getting into bed, that he hadn't taken a shitall day. And this made him angry. Because something like this rarelyever happens, and he didn't even take the time to enjoy it. Now it wasjust something he would remember, that he didn't really remember.  http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/DavidRyanM/791333/