Winding Roads

When I started writing short fiction ten years ago, I didn’t realize the source of inspiration came from my own experiences. When it became clear, though, I consciously continued to use the same source. That’s why the headline on my LinkedIn profile says, “I’m blending my medical background and life experiences to practice creative writing.” When I published a collection of twenty-four bilingual short stories in March 2021, I entitled the book Transitions because the theme and action in many of the stories reflected the struggle and adjustments that occur at the edge between the end of a phase in life and the beginning of the next. To illustrate my point, I insert here a brief excerpt of one of the stories in the book, ‘Winding Roads,’ where a biologist narrates the story of the post-retirement phase of his senior colleague and researcher.

Excerpt

About a month later, I heard from Keylor that they were leaving on another trip—this time to coastal Mexico. During their travels, he again kept in touch with us through texts and photos. On this occasion, however, I became aware of a subtle change in his way of speaking. ‘Today,’ he wrote, ‘I sat on the beach at sunset. Marina went for a swim.? Crepuscular light made the water appear mysterious and the sky golden.’ These were the words of a poet or an artist rather than a scientist.