The Jacksons

“It was just one of the 2×6 studs in the exterior wall,” said Andrew. “Those studs shrink in the cold, just like everything else does. Every so often the cold will actually make one of them split or crack and that’s what that big bang was. Bernie Belfour says when it gets this cold, living

The Jacksons

That’s it for the Mayans then I guess,” said Andrew Jackson resignedly folding his newspaper and laying it on the table next to his plate. “December 21st of 2012 came and went and the only thing that ended was the Mayan calendar.” Rose looked up from her own reading. “At least the doomsday prophets will


The Jacksons

We need to get away,” said Andrew Jackson leaning back in his chair and tossing his section of the newspaper onto the table so emphatically that his wife Rose had to put out her hand to stop it from sliding off the edge and onto the floor. Rose looked at the paper for a moment

The Jacksons

The weather these last few weeks, here in the Jacksons’ neck of the woods, has been like the voters every American news channel has dragged kicking and screaming into their newsrooms for live, on-air interviews. Undecided. Not warm certainly, but not really cold either. Rainy sometimes, but not really raining. Sometimes a few snowflakes have


The Jacksons By Rollin Penner

You seem out of sorts Dad.” Randy Jackson leaned back in his chair as he spoke, and pushed his empty plate away. The other people at the table, Randy’s wife Jackie, his sister Jennifer and his mother and father, Rose and Andrew, kept eating, although it was clear they were nearly through as well. A

The Jacksons

Jennifer Jackson stood at the dining room window of the Jackson house gazing out across the yard and up the driveway and down the empty beyond. “I thought they were going to be here at two o’clock,” she said. “Where the heck are they?” Andrew looked up from the sports section. “As Winnie the Pooh


The Jacksons

They tell me that in Hawaii the temperature varies about 7° throughout the course of the year, and they say at the South Pole, while the temperature varies more than that, it nevertheless always stays below the freezing point. In other words there are places on earth that have no seasons, or more accurately, they

The Jacksons

A strong south wind rattled the windows of the Jackson house and howled noisily through the eavestroughs. The last vestiges of snow melted rapidly on the roof and formed a small river at the bottom of the downspout at the southeast corner of the house, and a pair of crows argued noisily in the big


The Jacksons, Feb. 23

Jennifer Jackson stared in silence at the computer screen in front of her, her index finger poised above the return key on the keyboard. Click. Click. Clickclickclickclickclickclick! Nothing. “You got a problem?” Jennifer’s mother Rose peered at her over her reading glasses from across the table. “The Internet connection is gone,” said Jennifer. “It just

The Jacksons, Feb. 9, 2012

Andrew Jackson turned on the windshield wipers as he pulled into town and scanned the street in front of the café for an empty parking spot. It’s not every year that you have to use your windshield wipers on January 29 in central Manitoba. In fact it’s probably not even every decade. It really doesn’t