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Eventually, things got back to normal after the big flood.  Businesses cleaned up and reopened.  Homes were repaired, mud was pushed out of the way, and the new semester started at school.  Marty and his friends were halfway through their…

I hear the drizzle of the rainLike a memory it fallsSoft and warm, continuingTapping on my roof and walls.* Marty awoke to the pounding of the rain.  He checked the creek from his bed, and it was back to being…

While the power was out during the day at the Rusty Bucket Ranch, Marty used no flashlights or candles, to preserve them for the long, dark evenings.  He sat by his window next to the turgid creek, or under the…

After trying unsuccessfully to sleep with an aching, bulky log of plaster where his leg used to be, the reality of Marty’s incapacity finally sunk in.  He ran out of Percocet and started using various and sundry drugs to dull…

The Christmas issue of the Jolly Roger devoted its entire back page to an extremely detailed doodle Marty had completed the month before.  It was a random collage of images resulting from a cartoonist’s free association, depicting anything and everything…

Thanksgiving was sad without Otter around, and Rabbit was understandably subdued.  Marge put together a nice spread anyway, with traditional pumpkin pie instead of the usual clowny brownies.  Marty empathetically imagined his father, picking at a pasty piece of pie…

The first thing Marty wanted to do was get some new clothes.  He worked very hard for his age, and could afford the things that were important to him, like good buds, records, and books.  He decided it was time…

Mike was already 18, and seriously considered dropping out of high school.  He was deeply affected by the horror of his return to Drake, and didn’t want any babes staring at him, who used to know him as “a fox.” …

On Labor Day weekend, Marty wanted to go on a hike instead of just hanging around the house.  It was so gloomy lately, with Marge in self-imposed exile and Mike recovering in their bedroom (with Annie at his side), he…

The following week was a blur.  Marty had to work, but was on the phone a great deal, explaining to their friends what happened to Mike, and lamenting poor Randy and Tom.  Mike had the second surgery to clean up…

Susie was turning 14 in August, and she was still naïve enough to imagine a big party with balloons, pony rides, and games, but Marge got two keggers instead.  Her daughter was just beginning to smoke cigarettes like her mom,…

The following day, Marty got up early, and waited in line for over two hours to get tickets to the “Monsters of Rock” concert.  There was going to be another Day on the Green at the Oakland Coliseum, with Ted…

One of the best things about living at the Rusty Bucket Ranch was that there were so many places to go hiking.  Marty wanted his leg to get better quickly, so he went on a lot of hikes.  That was…

Both Mike and Marty worked more during the summer, but the lack of a mandatory sentence to serve at school left them plenty of time to get into mischief.  They were tossing a football in the driveway one day when…

Memorial Day weekend was getting close, which meant Mike and Marty’s junior year would soon be done and they would officially be seniors.  The two were looking forward to being the “unofficial caretakers” of the Inkwells.  Unfortunately, Annie didn’t want…

During the last few weeks of school, Marty began writing features for the Jolly Roger, in addition to his regular column and comic strip.  The modest 8-page newspaper was now nearly 25% composed of his creative output, and he wasn’t…