Closures

All of life’s chapters reach closures ...

People seek closures, accept closures, or are desperate to prevent closures. Grieved or celebrated, closures are human experiences preceding death, life’s final closure. As the stories in this collection reveal, closures can be positive or negative … and sometimes both.

Jeff Boyle is the author of the award-winning novel Nam World (2015), the award-winning story collection Hidden Truths (Bold Venture Press, 2016), and the novel The Bookseller’s Secret (Bold Venture Press, 2020). Jeff lives and writes from in the city of Ormond Beach, Florida.

Excerpts from the story ...

“His busy hands were liquid smooth, effortless movements too quick for thought…brushing the leather like a jazz drummer until it sang, snapping the cotton cloth over the surfaces, a maestro conducting a symphony finale.” — The Last Bootblack

“The boys looked to him as a surrogate parent, constantly seeking approval. Leonard, always a mentor but never a buddy, carefully maintained distance. Adolescents struggling with life’s pass-fail tests needed discipline.” — Coach Z

“Out on the flea market aisle, people of every age and shape shuffled by in slow-walk rhythm, tattooed young couples pushing baby strollers, seniors rolling spouses in wheelchairs, ethnic families conversing in foreign languages, somber folks down on their luck looking to stretch a few dollars.” — Mike and the Psychic

“The railroad tracks ran diagonally through the south end of the business district, creating a triangle-shaped public park where a towering tree canopy shaded a small one-story library, a deserted train station, and a bronze memorial listing the town’s war dead.” — 1963

“South Beach, with its iconic art deco buildings, luxury hotels and pool decks is no more, destroyed by permanent flooding of the barrier island. Waist-deep water at low tide has created an abandoned ghost town visited only by looters in small boats.” — Miami Beach, 2050