By Chad Hanson
Myers works for a company. He understands the bargain that he struck. Most days a paycheck seems like compensation for the tie. For the shoes with heels that clap on the linoleum. But in July, grasshoppers start to buzz outside of his window. Myers walks to the storeroom. He puts a folding table under his arm. He grabs a set of drapes. In his office, he hangs the curtains around the table. Then he crawls into the fort. He runs an app on an iPad that shows a campfire. It also plays crackling sounds. Myers’ boss steps into the doorway. He says, “Myers. Is that a fort?” Myers ducks out from between curtains. He tells the associate vice president: “Yeah.” The V.P. says, “Good thinking, Myers.” Then he walks by his assistant. He says, “Mark me out.”
Chad Hanson serves as Chairman of the Department of Sociology & Social Work at Casper College. His creative nonfiction titles include Swimming with Trout (University of New Mexico Press, 2007) and Trout Streams of the Heart (Truman State University Press, 2013). His collection of poems, Patches of Light, won the Meadowhawk Prize (Red Dragonfly Press, 2014). For more information, visit: www.chadhanson.org.
