By the Numbers

By the Numbers is the first in the "A Cajun Murder Mystery Series" of short stories by Chief of Police L. Scott Silverii. This fast paced serial killer mystery takes place along the bayous of south Louisiana's Cajun Country. Sometimes murder just doesn't add up. Laissez les bons temps rouler - until somebody gets killed of course.Not being particularly bright or particularly particular, I sometimes wrote my thoughts and feelings down and have decided to release some of this treasure trove of futility for public consumption. I read some of the things I’ve written in the past and have to chuckle now. You may find other writings are sappy or immature, but to me, they still express how I feel and reading them gives me an inner peace when I realize I recaptured a fleeting moment of clarity where I could almost tangibly touch something as vague as a feeling and remind myself almost like a sixth sense of its presence and ethereal, almost spiritual existence.The following attempts at poems, songs, stories, and random thoughts I’ve written were dug up from various archives including notepads in a photo album box or old files backed up on CDs from old computers. Since 1986, I invite you, the lucky reader, to peek into a section of an arc in my life where each piece of work reveal a tone and stage of maturity which in themselves tell a story about me and who and where I was in my life perhaps in the context of the day – or maybe it’s all a bunch of random thoughts and a complete waste of your time, you decide!Hey, I read “Tale of Two Cities” and didn’t skip a word. To be honest, after I read this classic, I really wish I had skipped the entire book.For some reason, if you make it through this short book, I think you may agree I could have been a country songwriter even though I never particularly cared for country music. That reason could be simple, though. Every morning at 6:15, my Dad would listen to the local country radio station as he corralled my brother and I to get ready for school, so perhaps I associate the daily drudgery of being forced to go to school each morning with country music so echoes of my feelings of disdain still linger and resonate somewhere in my subconscious. The following early writings are not in any chronological order. When I was younger, I sometimes found myself in angry, rebellious, skeptical, and often depressing periods of introspection going head-to-head with a simple but honest sense of positive hope. If I had my mid-life crisis, I rambled through it in my own way. Maybe this will help those who are at that stage in their life now – or perhaps make them more depressed. If it will make you more depressed, because I do go into some sad and dark corners of life experiences, please do NOT read on.I don’t take much of my writing very seriously, but who knows, with over 100 attempts at poems and songs, maybe an 80s hair band staging a comeback might want to buy one?!- Aaron