CJ Woods III’s Story Archive

Tonight, She Danced With Her Father

August 29, 2013 | by CJ Woods III

“Tonight, I danced with my father.” A woman wrote this on a public wall; it was posted on a site that has become for me a rich source of humor, anger, information and idiocy, and on occasion, heartbreaking honesty. I know the woman, and I fell into the post in … Read More

Now I Lay Me Down

August 22, 2013 | by CJ Woods III

“Joni, do you get mad?” I was sitting with my mother as she lay dying, and that question came out as she struggled to find a more comfortable position in the bed that was her prison. She spent most of those dying days in an underwater sleep, waking occasionally when … Read More

600

August 15, 2013 | by CJ Woods III

When I discovered that I had been conscripted into the service of this publication, I asked the creative director what I should use as a guide to determine how to fill the column assigned to me. “Ohthenumberofwordsintheothercolumnsisfine,” fired Paula Nicewanger, and once I replayed her voice at 33 RPM, I … Read More

The Woman With The Secret Smile

August 8, 2013 | by CJ Woods III

Elizabeth Berg’s novel, “What We Keep,” opens with a woman on a flight to California to see someone she has not seen for thirty-five years: her mother. That circumstance reminded me of a woman with whom I had worked. I remembered a post on her Facebook page saying that she … Read More

Disconnections

August 1, 2013 | by CJ Woods III

When a recent telephone conversation wound down to the disconnecting phase, I said “see you” at the same time the other party said “goodbye.” Since we had each stepped on the other’s statement, we attempted a repeat, with the same comic result. Disconnections are not always easy. When I was … Read More