Robin Whetstone

  A story I told at The Moth story contest about the biggest scandal to ever have rocked a small North Florida town. CW: Swearin' https://youtu.be/Ozeghp8V9Z0

One Wednesday night in 2009, I had just finished washing my face in the bathroom sink. I was drying my face in the towel hanging from the shower curtain bar when I heard a voice say, very clearly, "Your mother is going to email you and tell you that your grandmother has died." My face was totally buried in the towel when whoever it was announced this. I knew I was alone in the house, but still, I stepped back and looked all around the small bathroom. Who said that? It was a male voice, and a bland one. Not deep, or scratchy, or anything, and no particular inflection. Just a very neutral statement from a very neutral voice that definitely wasn't my own. I walked into my room and sat down on the bed. Looked at the clock. It said 9:55 pm. I thought things over. My grandmother was in her 80s, and lived 200 miles away, in the same city as my mom and stepfather. She'd recently moved to a retirement home, where she'd promptly started a residents' committee and been e...

Back in 1985, I showed my mom a picture I'd taken of some of my punk-rock friends, whom she knew well. In the picture was a new friend, a big guy with dreds, which, in 1985 Orange Park, Just Was Not Done. "He's SO cool, mom," I said.  "HIM?!?!" said mom, wrinkling her nose. "He looks like trouble." She doubted that a person so unconventional and menacing-looking would amount to much.  Last night, I spent some time standing next to this same guy, whom I haven't seen since that day back in '85. He lost the dreds long ago, but is still SO cool. We each have kids who are older than we were when I snapped that photo. And not only did he amount to something, he's an incredibly accomplished and successful person. An overachiever, even! So, and I mean this in the most loving way possible, TAKE THAT, MOM.  This is but one of the many ways that worlds collided and the past and present folded in on each other last night in Athens at the 40-Watt, w...