Stalking macaroni and cheese

"Nobody stalks macaroni and cheese," is one of my favorite lines from 'A Better Way,' a story I published recently on Amazon.com.




Subtle and silly in its own right, it sums up the bewilderment Darryl Johnson feels as he realizes the strange occurrence that keep happening around him are all related and that he has somehow offended some very powerful people.


I have a mild affinity for this story, which I started writing a few years ago. I took the name of the main character from my late cousin, but that's where the similarities between real Darryl and fictional Darryl end. Fictional Darryl is in a world of trouble and he doesn't realize it; he is a regular guy with a wandering thought process that was a challenge to write. Indeed, his thought process was so random and filled with a bizarre kind of stream-of-consciousness wool-gathering that the story was once three times as long as the final version (you're welcome for that, those who read it).


The story itself was based on three things: the title, which came from a Ben Harper song, an upside-down stamp and the disquieting feelings I had about the action of our government (and our willingness to accept those actions) in the wake of the 2011 terrorist attacks. Okay. I may as well admit it here, too. It was also partially based on a fart joke.


It was initially designed to be a pure satire, but it took on a darker tone in the week or so before I finally published it and I included some observations about the state of corporate America. I still think the comedic elements hold up, and I like the way little bits of universal truth peek through the seams when you are not expecting them. (Wait long enough, Darryl muses, and God will eventually turn you into everything you once mocked.)


Real Darryl's funeral, if you'll forgive my own wandering thoughts for a moment, was such an inspiring and unexpected affair that it will be recreated, in some fashion, in a forthcoming novel entitled The Other Side of Goodbye. Real Darryl was a regular guy like fictional Darryl: a mail carrier, volunteer firefighter and a pilot, but his funeral procession required the cooperative efforts of three different policing agencies to manage, it was so long and it reminded me that we all, each and every one of us, deserve to be celebrated.


Thanks for reading.