Hello @steinhammer,
Your nonfiction story is very good. The story creates a heavy atmosphere, almost like a Raymond Chandler novel. It is a dark night and the errant taxi with Tim's wife is possibly heading toward her doom. Where is she? The search of the three friends ends well, but there is a sense of gloom overriding the piece. There is first of all what seems to be the woman's alcoholism. There is a darkness to that, which cannot be resolved in the space of a short story.
You hint at Tim's marital difficulties in the beginning of the piece. Now we see beneath the curtain. Each of these friends comes to the bar with a history. We now know more about Tim's.
The story is sensitive, intriguing and well developed. @litguru's comment is apt, but this reader did not miss dialog. Somehow, the narration, unbroken, felt like a train speeding toward a tragic conclusion. Dialog might have broken that illusion. Fortunately, the conclusion was not tragic, although Tim's personal challenge remains on the table.
Thank you for sharing this with us, @steinhammer.
First of all, thank you for reading it, @theinkwell.
At the beginning of the story, I tried to describe the dynamics among the trio and provide a bit of information about each of them. My aim was to highlight how the dark and depressive atmosphere that New York especially gives during the winter months, although not enough to spoil the group's cheer, was suddenly replaced by anxiety and panic with shocking news.
While Tim's problems with his wife align, I also wanted to emphasize that in reality, none of the issues they face are more important than losing each other. Since this story was an event I was also personally involved in, I thought I could express these feelings more clearly.
Honestly, I never thought I would receive such a beautiful review from the outside. Your comment beautifully captures the details while providing an extremely satisfying summary of the entire story. I thought that an idea about each character could be formed from a few things they said, instead of mutual dialogue. There will be stories I want to write involving dialogue, but length was an important criterion for this one. It's really hard to convey something like this in just over 1500 words. For that reason, I owe thanks to the Ink Well community. I feel like it was a great learning/writing experience for me.
Thank you again for reading and commenting.