Feb 6
Layer Drift
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Layer Drift
Another year ...
Today is the eighteenth anniversary of my first Tumblr post. To mark the day here are some of my favorite photos from the past year. I started, and continue, to post here mainly to let family and friends know what I'm up to, but really it's a pleasure to send my photos out into the wider world. That they are in the company of the work of so many visionary and skilled photographers is an astonishment to me. You all inspire me daily.
Onward!
Not So Far Away ~ A short story for the HuckleAbbot fandom.
———
Dennis hated coming back to Broken Bow.
It wasn’t the town itself, exactly. The endless fields, the quiet roads, and the old places that still looked exactly the same after all these years weren’t the problem.
It was the people waiting there.
His family had never really learned how to look at him the same after he came out. They’d mastered that uncomfortable middle ground: polite enough not to start fights, distant enough to make sure he still felt it.
So when his niece’s middle school graduation came up, Dennis almost didn’t go.
But then Jack had looked at him from across the couch and asked softly,
“Do you want to go?”
Dennis had shrugged.
“Not really.”
“Do you want to see your niece?”
A pause.
“Yeah.”
Jack smiled a little.
“Then go see her.”
Dennis narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
“You’re being weirdly supportive.”
“Oh no,” Jack said, reaching for his phone. “I’m gonna annoy you the entire time.”
Dennis laughed.
“You wouldn’t.”
Jack looked offended.
“Dennis. We’ve been dating for three months. You know I absolutely would.”
~~
Dennis was staying at his parents’ place for his niece’s middle school graduation, but tomorrow they were all supposed to drive out to Ash Hollow, where one of his older brother, his wife and niece lived.
Ash Hollow wasn’t much more than a tiny neighboring town — one stoplight, grain silos, a gas station, and the kind of place where everyone somehow knew who belonged there.
Dennis had spent enough holidays and family visits there over the years to know exactly what it felt like.
Long dinners.
Long silences.
Long conversations where every word felt like stepping around something sharp.
Right on schedule, Dennis’s phone buzzed.
Jack: How’s Ash Hollow treating you?
Dennis glanced across the living room where his family was debating graduation seating arrangements with the seriousness of a military operation.
Dennis: Thinking about disappearing into a cornfield.
Three dots appeared immediately.
Jack: Nope.
Jack: Not allowed.
Jack: You’d get lost after like ten minutes.
Dennis smiled despite himself.
Dennis: Ash hollow is like broken bow, I’m pretty sure I could survive here.
Jack: And yet I stand by what I said.
Dennis snorted loud enough that his brother looked over.
“What’s funny?”
“Nothing.”
But he couldn’t stop smiling.
~~
Later that night Dennis escaped to the guest room and his phone lit up again.
Incoming FaceTime — Jack ❤️
Dennis answered immediately.
Jack’s face appeared, looking way too pleased with himself.
“There he is.”
Dennis rolled his eyes.
“You’ve texted me like twenty-seven times today.”
“Correction.” Jack raised a finger. “Twenty-eight. You ignored one.”
“I was at dinner.”
“Rude.”
Dennis stared at him for a second.
At the messy hair.
The stupid little smirk.
The face that somehow already felt like home.
Jack’s expression softened.
“Bad day, baby?”
Dennis looked down, feeling warmth creep into his cheeks at the pet name he still wasn’t quite used to hearing.
“A little.”
A few quiet seconds passed.
Then Jack said softly,
“Okay.”
Not What happened?
Not Ignore them.
Just Okay.
Like he’d stay there as long as Dennis needed.
Dennis looked back at the screen.
“You know…” he said slowly, “I kinda miss you.”
Jack blinked dramatically.
“Oh my God.”
“Don’t.”
“Dennis Whitaker misses me.”
“Jack.”
“Dennis is in love with—”
“I am hanging up.”
Jack was already laughing.
But underneath it, Dennis caught the smile he was trying not to show.
And suddenly Ash Hollow didn’t feel quite so far away anymore. 🫶🏼
~~
Hope you liked it 🫶🏼
Ranma Montage
I don't think I ever posted my part of the montage for Fire Escape in the Sea!