Nelson Pahl
Nelson Pahl is a multi-award winning writer. His The Pahl Paw Patch is a collection of socially-relevant micro-fiction, flash fiction, and short fiction pieces. His Two Pence the Richer features thought-provoking essays. Both columns are carried by 21 online publications and read by more than 14,000 people.
Articles by Nelson Pahl
January 25, 2011
I pulled up to the cash register, black mesh basket in hand. As I unloaded the basket onto the small register conveyer belt, he scowled at me. I didn´t encroach on his space. No, that couldn´t be it. He continued to scowl.
"What´s up?" I asked, my tone as pleasant as if I´...
January 16, 2011
This week Nelson uses his The Pahl Paw Patch space to run a non-fiction article that appears in his Two Pence the Richer blog column.
In the past several years, the independent bookstore sector has gone out of its way to appear as if it´s the David fighting the Goliath; it serves up clever ...
January 13, 2011
A cloudburst. Then, the sky clears, grounds saturated.
She´d been here, for some time. But not enough time. Are they ever?
I prefer to think I loved her enough, that I demonstrated that love, in ample amounts. However, I´m restless; I´m never sure. Never.
I ache, of course. I´ve been here b...
December 29, 2010
"Where da ya think he´s goin´?" Gus said.
He and best friend Merlyn sat side by side, along Lake Lament´s southern shore, fifty feet from Merlyn´s cabin, 150 feet from Gus´s place. Both men—slender, frail, eighty-something—wore tan Docker slacks, white sh...
November 19, 2010
They'd met online, a dating site, three weeks earlier. She knew only his first name, him hers. According to his bio, "Jake" stood six one, muscular, with thick brown hair and "Paul Newman-like" blue eyes. Self-made, he claimed to be the last of the classic "lone wolf" cowboys, simply looking for a w...
August 10, 2010
Arfie lay on the hardwood floor, chin resting upon his paws; he stared out the sliding glass door, toward his backyard. Squirrels quarreled beside a large oak tree. Arfie didn´t budge. Three chickadees bickered on a nearby bird feeder. Arfie didn´t bat and eyelash. The three-year-old chocolate boxer...
July 30, 2010
The apartment building door burst open and Nate heaved the mountain bike before him. He hopped on it, slapped his feet into the pedal straps, and down the cobblestone streets he rode, headed for his favorite coffeehouse; although he´d only lived in Europe a month, Nate had grown quite attached to Ma...
July 20, 2010
Sporting soiled coveralls, dusty work boots, and a Johnsonville Titans sweatshirt, Stan sat in the porch swing, gripping a beer can. He´d lived in this house all his life—fifty-one years, to be exact. He inherited the modest, lemon-yellow Victorian from his mother, who inherited it from her mo...
July 14, 2010
She winks…then smiles, that alluring smile, the one that drew me in fifteen years ago…fifteen years before this life…before her husband and two children, before my confirmed bachelorhood.
Once upon a time, we were as hot as it gets; we smoldered together.
I´d already purchased a two-karat diam...
July 07, 2010
Three months ago, she couldn´t smile; no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn´t smile. In fact, at times her thoughts knew such despair, her self esteem such tatter, that it´s a small wonder she made it to this point.
Martie had been born in Panama City´s Canal Zone. Her mother, American, d...
July 03, 2010
I zig-zag through the switchbacks with sweaty palms, white-knuckling the steering wheel. I drive a car I´ll most likely lose soon. Navigating one switchback then the other—sixteen take me to the small enclave my wife, Ellie, and I call home—I stare at the distant prairies, amid heavy tho...
June 30, 2010
Blood cascades down my face, from my scalp. My chest and spine feel like they´ve met. I sit here, unable to rise, my legs growing weaker, number by the moment.
A billion dollars, Canadian. That´s what Ottawa spent on ensuring we couldn´t protest these meetings; that´s what they spent to "ensure t...
May 07, 2009
Heath sat at the long, horseshoe-shaped, black-lacquer bar, gazing at his splintered reflection in the mirrored wall: brown curly hair, olive complexion, light blue dress shirt, patterned navy-blue tie. Between shelf-mounted bottles, he looked himself in the beleaguered, thirty-one-year-old hazel ey...
May 01, 2009
Lyle stood with rake in hand, staring at the leaves scattered about his feet. The black nylon, full-zip windbreaker flapped against his slender, five foot nine, sixty-seven-year-old frame; he hadn´t eaten much lately. The thick, wavy white hair stirred in the late-autumn breeze; he no longer combed ...
April 22, 2009
Sam shouldered open the heavy oak door and stepped through it. He slapped the door closed, lobbed the car keys onto the nearby vanity, then shuffled across the saltillo tile, to the computer desk resting against his living room´s far wall.
The mid-morning sun oozed through the window behind the c...
April 15, 2009
"And the winner is…"
Alex peeled open the envelope. She knew her best friend watched and waited from ten rows away.
A five foot four brunette with dark features and a slender physique, Salma Ray hadn´t built her career on overt sex appeal; although "attractive," she´d built it on talent, by wa...
April 08, 2009
Norman scuffled along the cobblestone, from street corner to café patio. He´d made this trek 10,000 times over the past forty years. Each morning throughout that time, wife Jeanie handed him his briefcase, buttoned his coat when weather called for a coat, and kissed him goodbye. Then, Norman trekked...
April 02, 2009
Mason clasped her hands, as he squatted before the sofa. "I love you, Nan…more than anything in this world." At thirty-six, no shame would accompany the words—the affection for his beloved grandmother.
After his father ran off with a younger woman, never to be heard from again, after his mo...
March 26, 2009
Nick ached for her; he had for weeks, since they first met.
Elle Mason measured five foot six. Honey-highlighted, shoulder-length cocoa hair cupped her jaw line. Large doe eyes rested upon ample cheek bones. She spoke through full lips and a perfect smile.
Elle, thirty-one, owned and operated...