(Images by Christopher J Ananias)
It wasn’t a big deal or was it? Keifer stared at the baby for a long time. Archie was sleeping, right? He put the slobbery dog toy, next to Archie’s little red ear, SQUEAK-SQUEAK-SQUEAK. Archie didn’t move—not even an eyelash.
Better than his stupid fucking crying, thought Keifer. “Good boy.” Like Archie was the dog. Who always ran, like a chocolate streak, for the bedroom when Keifer trounced down the hall in his shiny paratrooper boots. It was rough being a dad when you’re seventeen.
It was hot, but after he jacked-off—all sweaty. Keifer preheated the oven to 425 degrees for a Tombstone Pizza. He sat on the couch, eating a thick slice with hot cheese and red sauce dripping on his olive green PTSD T-shirt, watching WAR movies.
The explosions, helicopters flattening the elephant grass, M-60 machine gunfire, were so loud, people walking by the dirty white bungalow, with big yellow dandelions sticking up, ducked for a second, thinking an active shooter was on the loose.
If the baby had been crying, Keifer couldn’t hear it, anyway.
CJA
(Ed note–CJA is also a great photographer and we would like to refresh the readerships’ memory with a few of our favorites by him–Leila and Dale)
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Saragun Springs 
Christopher
That first sentence chills the soul and speaks of two lives done. I am much more than tired of this sickening, violent world in which no one really is at fault. Even this loser, with his obviously low intelligence and high testosterone, isn’t to blame. Nor the asshole nor the bag that made him, nor before, nor before.
Brilliantly written and thank you for the life affirming photos
Leila
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LA
Thank you for curating today’s material in a William S. Burroughs-style internet collage.
There are a million things you do as an Editor (for two great sites) that never get ENOUGH credit. But they treated Shirley Jackson and H.P. Lovecraft the same way, and it’s always been part of the game, of course. Harlan Ellison was brilliant at ranting about this stuff on TV. Eventually the mainstream publishers booted him out and he went to the small press. That episode he wrote for Star Trek is “wow and whoa,” surely one of the greatest.
Anyway, thanks again! Your editing is creative WORK, as is (of course) your writing and pictures. For me, the fact that you do all this “for free” = holy, as in a kind of art saint in a very bad time (in many ways) for the arts. In other ways, however, this is a very great time for the arts: and that’s what this site is all ABOUT, first and foremost: SNARL AT THE DYING OF THE LIGHT (just one thing it means). (The yin and yang is as certain as gravity.)
dWb
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Hi Dale
Thank you, but really, CJA supplies such great stuff one can hardly miss!
Leila
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Hi Leila
The world takes it to a new low everyday or just keeps going sideways to hell.
“The asshole and the bag that made him,” ( got a chuckle out of that.) I think it’s “the bag” that got me going.
Glad you like the pictures!
Thanks
CJA
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CJA
What strikes one first about this piece is HOW MUCH you are able to accomplish in such a small space. An entire world is created here, a representative world that stands for the real world but goes deeper.
One of the new informal mottoes for Saragun Springs is, “This is realism, only deeper,” which Dostoevsky said about his own work (he’s one of those writers who’s become so known in English that one hardly needs mention his things are appearing in translation). This story falls into that category.
I think this tale, as brutal as it is, is open to a wide variety of interpretations. It changes like a crystal each time one reads it. As with Homer, at times the presentation of ugliness becomes (almost) beautiful.
And I leave you (for now) with a question.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Adolf Hitler were contemporaries. Bonhoeffer was a far, far, far, far (and many more), far better human being on every single level imaginable than was the odious and detestable Adolf.
And yet, all these many years later, Adolf is still FAR FAR FAR (and many more) far more famous than Dietrich is.
WHY IS THAT?
Thanks for wonderful work!
Dale
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Hi Dale
Hitler has his 1000 Year Reich of infamy and probably well beyond. So to answer your question infamy seems to last longer to a point. I think infamy with a historical context carries a lot of weight because of the sheer size of his crimes. But take a Ted Bundy and Bob Dylan. Dylan’s Star is going to shine longer and for artistry–but that damn Bundy may find a resurgence from time to time.
Thanks for your excellent comments. I defiantly want to check out Hemingway’s book on micro fiction. I wonder if he leads it off with his famous Baby Shoes story?
CJA
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CJA
All of the photos here strike me as being very Hemingwayesque, which is wonderfully perfect because Hemingway would’ve absolutely loved today’s story. Indeed, this story is so Hemingwayesque in the very best of ways that it could’ve appeared within Hemingway’s second collection, IN OUR TIME (it came out in two versions; the first version was all micro-fictions; and the second version was micro-fictions interspersed with stories, most of which were 1,000 words, the longest two of which were 3,000).
All of these photos are Hemingwayesque, including the author photo!
Dale
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Thanks CJA!
That question had been bothering me this morning.
And after all, Jesus is the most famous person in history, bar none. Considering the way Native American, African American, and Hispanic American culture has completely embraced him (far more than overall white culture now) I don’t think this has to do only with him being rammed down the throats of the other cultures by the white conquerors (although maybe at first it did, especially with the Indians; black slaves subverted the white race by taking over its religion on their own and making it much more powerful; speaking in generalities).
I’m speaking now just of the USA, too, and in a half-secular, half-religious way. But also, he is a shape shifter. In Africa, he’s often depicted as black, and in India as an Indian, and in Japan as Japanese, etc. In Muslim culture he is basically on the level of Mohammed (or almost; Mohammed is the last but he couldn’t have existed without Jesus, and for them he never suffered at the end but was taken immediately to Heaven by the Creator).
And then there is the fake Jesus (just like there is the fake Mohammed), the one who gets equated with Mr. DJT in the “Prosperity Gospel” and the one about whom Jesus himself said: “Many will come in my name, beware of false prophets, wolves in sheeps’ clothing,” etc.
Sometimes I’ve known very clearly (like during alcohol & benzo withdrawal, as one example) that if I didn’t have HIM to lean on and turn to, I would be a goner. Kierkegaard called it the “leap of faith.” Often there is no apparent rational reason in this world to believe at all; and yet, for me, it then becomes all the more important to believe. (But never doubting is also wrong for me. But if he was “just a human,” in many ways the whole story becomes almost more incredible at times. What a tribute to the power of story-telling.) It was Dostoevsky and Tolstoy who “converted” me most (after a long period of severe doubting over many years even though I also remained as joyful as ever at least half the time which is about all I ever get now; but it’s more than enough).
ALL OF THE ABOVE IS INSPIRED BY THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPH FOR TODAY…….And today’s story. And today’s graveyard (alluring and terrifying at the same time)…Etc.
This is some profound work ILA and I have had the privilege to publish today!…It can’t fully be “gotten” after one look or one reading; it needs to be hung out with, and returned to; it is cause for pondering and meditation; and that is REAL ART.
DWB
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Hi Dale
This is quite an excellent micro essay you have written!
Jesus is the best! I can relate to what you said about your faith in him and joy. Usually when life gets me down or I’m feeling unacceptable of myself I turn to him. I used to have a myriad of problems from drinking and some drugging, but mostly booze. So I was always in trouble needing his support, and in the raw days of early sobriety–that lasted a long ass time, lol. These days it’s a kind of slow ache that I try to escape. Kind of like how a ship runs aground. Something to do with getting old. The plaster is drying quickly now.
It’s great that these other races and countries have accepted Jesus. It shows the universal and real power of Jesus. White society somehow thinks it has a monopoly on him but this is just another falsehood perpetrated by the so-called conquerors. They seem to forget that we were the Gentiles. Jesus took us over too, or we fell in love with his Christianity, since the human condition is full of pain and sin. Many things done in this world have nothing to do with his teachings.
When I first saw the above picture of Jesus. It kind of shocked me. I thought it had a lot of merit for artistic value, so I had to share it with you and Leila. I’m not quite sure how the artist feels about Jesus, but Jesus influenced him one way or the other.
Saragun Springs has been a great outlet for my photography and writing. A lot of times with my camera in hand I’m thinking about how a shot might look good on SS. It has revitalized my photography, and gives me inspiration to write these micro fictions and little essays on the pictures.
Thanks for this essay it has given me a lot to think about. You are the original deep thinker and your brand of philosophy, writing, and being you is pretty great!
CJA
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Hi CJA!
Just letting you know I received this. Thanks for your generosity and light; and thanks for NOT being a troll!
DWB
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A horror story made even more horrible because it portrays a grim reality that, somewhere, is probably playing out right now. The squeaky toy is particularly chilling.
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Hi David
Thanks for your excellent comments!
CJA
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