Sugar Dumplin

[Jamie Hogan]

In the mornings he liked to call her sugar dumplin and she didn't necessarily understand it, having never been in the presence of an actual sugar dumplin, but it sounded like melted butter when he said it.

 

"You want me to start a fire?"

 

"If you want to," but that was as good as yes because he always wanted to and she always wanted him to, not for the warmth but to watch his hands, weathered old crustaceans snapping at the kindling and worrying the geometry of the logs and pinching the match until the searing of the flame passed through that delicate sweet singe and into real pain.

 

The San Juans rippled brown and old across the windows at the back of the cabin and she felt the first easy smile of the fire on her neck and wondered how a woman could love the hands of a roughneck when everything else she chose to put against her skin was satin and feather, cocoa and breeze.

 

"I'm going to head into town for a few things, if you want to ride.”

 

She didn’t, and on the back porch she drank coffee and listened to the gossip of the wind in the high grasses and savored the waiting for the unmuffled gurgle of that rustbucket Jeep.

[Bill Floyd]

There was a moment when I thought it might turn ominous, too, but then I said, "Nah, this is just beautiful, a deft vision of where those who love honestly might wind up."  I like that she didn't go into town with him.  

[Brittany]

I think there is a sweetness and adoration to him always asking. She is a bird, caged in heart but not in hand. Love with enough room to be independent; love with enough room to grow.

[Cita]

So many parts of this are amazing, excellent, surprising.  FAVED.  And Jamie, I just want to know when we can all buy a Jamie Hogan novel?  May I please be first in line?  I am reading James Salter... and in a way, your writing reminds me of his.  

[Toby Tucker Hecht]

I am trying to figure out why this sounds ominous to me.  The writing is beautiful but I feel a movement--something sinister beneath the words. 

[Stephen Torelli]

This account has an excellent rustic backdrop and I'm wondering what's next, when that "rustbucket Jeep" returns. Nice tale, Jamie.

[Jenny Darlington]

I love the line "on the back porch she drank coffee and listened to the gossip of the wind in the high grasses". The "gossip of the wind" - love it! And this one - "wondered how a woman could love the hands of a roughneck when everything else she chose to put against her skin was satin and feather, cocoa and breeze". Great 6!

[Gita]

The dialogue consists of :
"You want me to start a fire?"

"If you want to."

"I'm going into town for a few things if you want to ride." 
All three sentences contain "you want."    And I am wondering why...

[Will]

Seemed to me to say "This is where I belong" and I would say that is a great feeling.

[Paul de Denus]

I found a gentler take reading this- a well-worn couple snug in their ways- "the first easy smile of the fire on her neck" beautiful.

[Teresa]

Because I'm in a weird state of mind, I thought he was going to kill her.  Maybe he still can, ha.  No, not ha.  This definitely has the feeling of introduction, of moving toward the larger story.  Maybe those "crustaceans" are capable of passing "through that delicate sweet singe and into real pain."  This could be and probably is quite a subjective interpretation, but this is what I got out of it.  Beautifully written and full of possibility, dark or not...;-)