Issue VI Spring 2015 Staff Table of Contents Editors ..............................................................................Zachary M. Alley Poetry Liz Arnold A Day in the Life: The Tale of Dr. CapiTillar, Danyelle Pullens...............5 Courtney Cox 10-42, Blake Fields...................................................................................12 Abby Edele Believing, You’ll See, Emily Bounds.......................................................13 Michael Edele Bookstore Limericks, Abby Edele..........................................................19 Brandon Evans Daniel Definitions, Daniel Coker.............................................................20 Jacob Grayson Don’t You Remember?, Danyelle Pullens...............................................31 Hannah Lawson Flatline, Blake Fields................................................................................32 Taylor Morris He Tells Me, Laine Johnson.....................................................................35 Aeriel Niccum Grecian Romance, Danyelle Pullens ..................................................... 36 Rebecca Spaggiari Influence, Abby Edele..............................................................................40 Kristine Wagner Hickory and White Paint, Emily Bounds.................................................41 Sing Me Purple, Hannah Lawson........................................................... 46 Faculty Advisor ................................................................... Spencer Hurst One Last Song, Liz Arnold.......................................................................47 The Ashes of a Man I Used to Be, Devin Mitchell Durbin ..................... 51 Layout and Design ....................................................... Jennifer Stahlman The Debater’s Clock, Stephen Hawkes..................................................53 The Four Changing Seasons, Jaymie-Rae Martin ................................ 59 Cover Photo .............................................................................Isaac White The Missing Poem, Emily Bounds ......................................................... 60 The Mouth, Emily Bounds........................................................................68 Print Wizard ........................................................................Darrin Mamone The Spinning Top, Hanna Hollis.............................................................69 The Story So Far..., Devin Mitchell Durbin ............................................. 72 Wanderlust, Devin Mitchell Durbin ......................................................... 80 What’s In A Word, Brian Thomas ........................................................... 89 Creative Nonfiction Jimmy, Abby Edele....................................................................................7 [email protected] Edele Family Vacation 2014: Wisconsin, Abby Edele ......................... 21 www.lindenwood.edu/ArrowRock Arrow Rock • 2 Arrow Rock • 3 Vagabond Spirit, Hannah Lawson ......................................................... 33 A Day in the Life: The Tale of Dr. CapiTillar In That Moment, Hanna Hollis.................................................................37 Danyelle Pullens Black Magic, Blake Fields........................................................................42 There is a story The Hatching, Kristine Wagner................................................................70 about a doctor. But not just any doctor, Fiction He’s Dr. CapiTillar. Danse Russe, Danyelle Pullens...............................................................14 The only caterpillar who knows Little Red, Danyelle Pullens.....................................................................48 how to perform CPR The Classics, Blake Fields ..................................................................... 54 on other caterpillars. The Ebb and Flow of Sir Jacques DePluntaine, Courtney Cox .......... 62 The Librarian, Abby Edele.......................................................................74 His degree, he got from France. Good Things Bad People, Zachary M. Alley ......................................... 81 His stethoscope, Dubai. Art His body is black about to melt the sky, Mai Urai ..............................................................11 and he wears a blue polka-dotted yellow tie. Silk, Isaac White.......................................................................................18 I can’t fly -except into the wind, Sergio A. Poveda .............................. 30 One day, as he meanders through St. Valentine, Isaac White........................................................................34 the crispity, crackally, crinkally leaves, Founder’s Rest, Emma Verstraete..........................................................39 he stumbles upon a caterpillar struggling to breathe. What is the true color, Mai Urai ............................................................ 45 Macabre, Isaac White...............................................................................50 First, he gives it a Mother Nature, Isaac White.....................................................................58 hufffff. The Lookout, Kristine Wagner.................................................................67 Then, Shower of Light, Haruka Kawata ........................................................... 71 he smacks it Indian Winter 1, Michelle Gilligan............................................................79 in the face. photo 1, Rachel Schuldt ......................................................................... 90 But if that doesn’t work, he’ll lift his fuzzy, stubby legs to the sky Contributors ........................................................................................... 91 and yell, “WHY?!” Arrow Rock • 4 Arrow Rock • 5 Then he forgets Jimmy about his fallen brother, and wriggles away Abby Edele to save another. A small blue car pulls into the parking lot, and everyone inside the bookstore groans. We love Jimmy, but he is a pain in the ass. Jimmy sits in his seat for a few moments before grabbing a stack of worn books from the passenger’s seat and making his way inside the building. He swings open the glass door with a piercing ding of the automated “doorbell” security system. “Hey, Jimmy! What’s up?” Sasa [pronounced “Sasha,” if you want to call him by his full name, or “Sass” as we all affectionately call him] says from behind the counter. Jimmy walks up to the counter and sets his stack of books on the ledge. His clear, light blue eyes twinkle in his worn and weathered, pink face. He stands at an average height, and he has a mop of white and grey hair that is twisted back into one ponytail. Unfortunately, that ponytail has existed for so long that it has morphed from free flowing hair into one large, ratty dreadlock at the back of Jimmy’s head. He has a grizzled beard that matches his white and grey hair, and if it were fuller and crept up more on the sides of his face, I’d say it was Santa-like. He usually is dressed in a casual, button-down shirt and jeans, and today is no exception. As my coworker Chad has said to me, “the only fault Jimmy has is that he was born in the wrong time.” It looks like the 1960s were good to Jimmy, and he probably would have benefitted if they had lasted much longer than a decade. We’re not just Lindenwood University’s bookstore; we will buy back books year-round from other college students or anyone who happens to have textbooks. We have Jake, who commands the basement of the store and sells any books that Lindenwood is finished with, or books we purchase from anyone who wants to bring them in and get rid of them. Jimmy is one of a few individuals who finds college textbooks and the occasional novel and then brings them to sell to us. He’s one of the “regulars.” Jimmy greets Sasa and begins to tell him one of his notoriously bad (and sometimes downright filthy) jokes. His voice is gravelly and filled with mischief. While Sasa is scanning books into the computer to see if they’re worth anything for us to purchase, Jimmy has wandered over to my side of the counter. “How’s it going, Jimmy?” I ask. He grins and replies, “Good, good.” He digs around in his pocket to produce his wallet. With that ever-present smile on his face, he produces what looks like a business card from the folds of his beaten-up wallet. “Did I show you this one?” he asks me. I’ve heard most of Jimmy’s jokes and I’ve seen most of his “business cards,” but I shake my head in negation and reach out for Arrow Rock • 6 Arrow Rock • 7 the card he’s holding. It’s what looks like a normal business card, but is head at him. I don’t give a shit if there are pencil marks.” in fact one of those comic cards that has a fake name and occupation on You would think it might take just a few moments to scrub a pencil it. This one says something about how the cardholder was abducted by eraser across a few markings. With anyone else, that might be the case. aliens, and there’s a little green face staring back at me from the glossy With Jimmy, it can take up to half-an-hour. He gets so excited to talk to paper. I chuckle and hand the card back to Jimmy. He turns around to the employees as they come upstairs or come in to work or come back Kurt, another one of our employees, who has walked up to the front of the from lunch. He greets each person enthusiastically and shares some store, and shows him his abductee business card. Kurt laughs loudly and new (or old but still good)