The Way of All Things

by Teague Bohlen

Illinois is place where things happen slowly, without purpose. That’s not to say things happen without meaning — but the seasons don’t change because someone decides they should; they simply change. Rain doesn’t fall because it’s time; it simply falls. And crops, dogs, and people alike all die with no master plan. And that’s why people here think the way they do, why change happens slowly when it happens at all. Because those who make a home here are used to change being made without their counsel or consent; it’s the way of some things, and slowly, over time, it becomes the way of all things.

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Teague Bohlen is an Assistant Professor of Fiction at the University of Colorado Denver, and a regular contributor to Village Voice Media nationwide. His first novel, The Pull of the Earth, won the Colorado Book Award for fiction in 2006. He’s currently working on both a hybrid collection of flash fiction and photography, as well as his next novel.