life rattle show no. 1332

Presented on thursday, february 12, 2015

hosted by laurie kallis

featuring

"Family Night"
"Life Sentence" and
"Valentine's Day Baby"
by Caleb Davis

and

"Wish"
by Jayson San Miguel

tonight's Show

Life Rattle No. 1332 celebrates Valentine's Day with new stories from Jayson San Miguel and Caleb Davis.

Nothing in life is quite as complicated as affairs of the heart. Love can bring us both the greatest highs and the greatest lows. The stories we will hear tonight show us a little of both.

Caleb Davis was born in 1990, the oldest and rowdiest of three boys and a girl, in the picturesque riverside town of Galt, Ontario. Growing up a bruised, scraped and careless boy, Caleb played hockey, soccer and baseball religiously, filling his weeknights with practice and his weekends with tournaments that his parents were selfless enough to take him to. When Caleb started high school, his family moved ten minutes away to Cambridge. A couple years after high school, this boy and his first girlfriend were expecting a child. This shocking gift was the greatest thing that happened to him (though this he realized only in hindsight), and he grew up in the following weeks, months and years. Caleb is the proud single father of Jacob Davis, a four-year-old bruised, scraped and careless replica of the proudest dad in Cambridge.

Caleb Davis brings us into the world of a teenage boy who, at the age where life should be casual and carefree, finds himself facing the reality of parenthood, and sharing that new reality with a young woman in a relationship he is uncertain of. His deliver some quite bitter and disappointed moments before bringing us, unexpectedly, to a final, sublime scene of love at first sight.

Jayson San Miguel was born in 1985 in Manila, Philippines, the eldest of two boys. He and his family moved to Canada when he was eight years old and he spent his adolescent years in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough. After he completed his teacher education, Jayson taught in England and in Australia before returning to Toronto to teach kindergarten and work in social services. He is currently pursuing his PhD. When he is not reading and writing papers, Jayson San Miguel enjoys performing with his improvisational sketch comedy troupes around the city.

Jayson San Miguel brings an infectious, positive spirit to his writing. "Wish" is so full of sweetness and joy that you won’t be able to stop yourself from smiling along with the openhearted narrator caught up in the joyful bliss of new, young love.

Creating a “happy” story of love on paper is almost as difficult as creating a happy romantic relationship in life. Jayson does this beautifully with a fresh and genuine voice that keeps the story this side of maudlin.