By Jim Bates I’ll never forget my first helium balloon. I got two of them for my second birthday. Two red ones, my favorite color. My grandpa gave them to me. “Here you go, Lonny,” he said, smiling. “Enjoy.” I did. My grandpa loved helium-filled balloons. Not those mylar ones with sayings on them like … Continue reading Helium
Hydrogen
By Jim Bates I remember hearing the song by Three Dog Night, “One Is the Loneliest Number,” and thinking, Yeah, that’s me. All by myself. No one cares. Now I see that thought for what it really was, a cry in the night from a frightened six-year-old kid whose parents abandoned him to the child … Continue reading Hydrogen
Nitrogen
By Jim Bates Twenty years ago, during the spring of the 2020 lockdown, Mom announced, “We are planting a garden.” I was thirteen and my brother Jay was nine so, of course, we complained, me being the loudest, “Aw, Mom. No!” “What, you’d rather play video games?” Well, yeah, of course, but I couldn’t say … Continue reading Nitrogen
Academy of the Heart And Mind 