CJ Woods III’s Story Archive

The Child’s Voice

August 20, 2015 | by CJ Woods III

“Someone wants to talk to you.” I was standing in the aisle of a grocery store when I answered my cellphone and heard my eldest daughter’s voice. She sounded sleepy, but the next voice I heard was both sleepy and accusatory. “I couldn’t find you,” said my 6-year-old granddaughter. I … Read More

Clap Out

August 13, 2015 | by CJ Woods III

My son-in-love came bounding up the steps of the apartment: “You ready” We gotta go clap ‘em out.” I hadn’t expected to see him at that time because his children – my grandchildren – were in school. That Monday in June in Cedar Knolls, New Jersey was the last day … Read More

Esmerelda

August 6, 2015 | by CJ Woods III

I ended the phone conversation with an employee who could do nothing to correct my circumstance and turned to my eldest daughter, saying, “I have to go get her.” Lisa took me to the train station in Morristown, New Jersey, where I boarded a New Jersey Transit train to New … Read More

Turkeys and Turtles and Deer, Oh my…

July 30, 2015 | by CJ Woods III

One recent morning, I stepped onto the path that leads from my apartment to begin my walk to the store. Ahead of me, a squirrel paused in its work; it gave me a sharp look before it whirled and leapt into a tree. A dove flared up, chittering, its white-edged … Read More

Here, Beer,Everywhere

July 23, 2015 | by CJ Woods III

I was looking for some diversion on a recent Sunday afternoon when I remembered the Indy Film Fest. I checked the schedule and saw that, within an hour of my reading about it, a movie about craft beer brewing that featured two young men from Braddock, Penn., would be showing … Read More