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The Howling Owl

The Howling Owl is a juried publication featuring poetry, fiction, essays, and reviews. The publication is committed to quality creative work from a diverse group of writers.

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Brighton Rock

The first time my son and I hit the road on our own

4 min readApr 30, 2025

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Photo by Ben Guerin on Unsplash

A memory.

2014.

The open road ahead of us and Brighton the destination. Father and son. Cruising down the M25 after staying behind in London on our own for a couple of days before re-joining my then wife, and daughter in the coastal city.

Depending on your approach to parenting and who does most of it, you might have added the phrase “to our own devices” in the previous sentence, ideas of haplessness and clumsiness circling your head, a snarky joke ready to slip out of your lips, images of dad and mini-version of dad having an Indian takeaway, pizza or some other “easy” food.

Or you might have thought of a father and son working together on various chores around the house and relaxing at the end of the day with a good film and some proper grub, cooked by the two of them. Tarkovsky accompanied by a curry (made from scratch).

We had pizza the night before we went to Brighton.

We also watched Airplane!

In our defense we did do various chores around the house such as cleaning the patio, mowing the lawn and ironing clothes. Airplane! was my decision, part of what I believed to be my…

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The Howling Owl
The Howling Owl

Published in The Howling Owl

The Howling Owl is a juried publication featuring poetry, fiction, essays, and reviews. The publication is committed to quality creative work from a diverse group of writers.

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