Saturday, October 23, 2010

Funny Tale of a Lost Senior Citizen

When I went to lunch today, I noticed an old man sitting on a park bench sobbing his eyes out. I stopped and asked him what was wrong. He told me, 'I have a 22 year old wife at home. She rubs my back every morning and then gets up and makes me pancakes, sausage, fresh fruit and freshly ground coffee.' I continued, 'Well, then why are you crying?' He added, 'She makes me homemade soup for lunch and my favourite biscuits, cleans the house and then watches sports TV with me for the rest of the afternoon.' I said, 'Well, why are you crying?' He said, 'For dinner she makes me a gourmet meal with wine and my favourite dessert and then we cuddle until the small hours.' I inquired, 'Well then, why in the world would you be crying?' He replied, 'I can't remember where I live.'


Sunday, August 29, 2010

Wipe out - short stories online

This is new nice short story- read free and online short stories with 7 short stories blog
The waves were nice and big when Lenny decided to skip his work of flipping burgers at the local burger joint. Unfortunately, he had not ever finished high school because he thought it was not very important compared to having a fun lifestyle. Now, at age 25, he was still in a never-grow-up state of mind. He would always be immature until he decided to take his life a little more seriously. But, for now, surfing and partying would have to do. Beckoning him to come and play, the never still water taunted him with an excellent surfing challenge. They were particularly nice tothy with massive crests curling over on themselves. Lenny had waxed up his board the thy before and was ready for action. He quickly donned his wetsuit and hit the water with a sense of anticipation. He waded out far into the ocean while admiring the grandness of the waves. After finally getting into the perfect position, Lenny patiently waited for the right wave to begin to ride. Finally, a rather large mound swelled up underneath him and he jumped onto the yellow surfboard. He rode the wave all the way onto the shore with a professional flair. Lenny had been riding waves like this for most of his life. He waded slowly back out to his starting position and waited to catch another wave. This time a massive wave came barreling towards him. “Excellent, dude!” He exclaimed as he jumped up onto his board. He rode the wave in for only few seconds before it completely overpowered him and crashed down on top. His board jetted up out of the water as the wave passed over. Lenny, however, did not come to the surface. He was pulled under deep into the ocean by the undertow. Unfortunately, he blacked out and did not surface. Later, he woke up on a dry patch of sand. He could not remember what had happened to him. At first, he thought maybe he had died, but later realized that it was not the case. He slowly stood up trying to shake the deep sleep out of his body. He found himself on the ocean floor far below the surface. A large bubble shaped dome kept the water from cmshing him. “Whoa, dude! Where am I?” he thought out loud as he examined his surroundings. The ocean floor under the dome was as dry as the beach up on the surface. It was strewn with many more shells than the surface and lots of dead fish bones. The dome construction was like nothing Lenny had ever seen before. It was ipported by massive gray metal beams with a strange clear substance spanning between them. Lenny could not figure out the composition of the clear material. It looked like a thin plastic film but he knew that such a film would be unable to hold back such tremendous water pressure. A closer inspection showed him that he could stick his hand through the film and into the water on the outside without bursting the bubble. The film clung around his arm and sealed itself tight. It was the most fascinating thing Lenny had ever seen in his life. He looked around and guessed that the dome was probably about a half mile around. He looked through the wall and saw that there were many other domes that dotted the ocean floor as far as he could see. It was practically an underwater city the size of a large surface town. He looked around the interior of the dome with a sense of awe. That is when he noticed that there were several people off in the distance towards the center of the dome. Lenny began walking to them as he dusted the sand off of his body and out of his hair. As he got closer he could see that they appeared to be scientists in white lab coats. They were surrounding a large saucer shaped metallic disk. They all had strange tools and appeared to be trying to repair the ship. They were surprised to see Lenny and questioned how he got there. Shortly thereafter, several armed men in black suits came through the nearby wall between the next dome over and the one they were in. They pulled out their pistols and forced Lenny to go with them. They took him to another one of the domes where there was a normal looking building sitting on the bottom of the ocean. Inside the building, a room that looked like it was a sort of police interviewing area was their destination. They began to pick the simple mind of Lenny after injecting him with some sort of truth serum. He spilled the beans and let them know that he had skipped work to go surfing, and that a large wave had pulled him under. He explained to the two men in black that he woke up in the dome and did not know how he had gotten there. After several hours of repeated questioning, the men were satisfied that he was telling the truth and had just accidentally discovered their location. He was locked in one of the rooms and allowed to sleep off the serum. Meanwhile on the surface, an exhaustive search by the authorities, lifeguards, and EMS personnel was being conducted to locate Lenny’s body. One of the people tamiing on the beach had seen Lenny surfing and saw him go under. They had recovered his surfboard but were unable to locate him. After several days of fruitless searching, they figured the sharks had eaten his body or he was stuck under the water somewhere and they gave up. Lenny had been living under the surffice in the locked room. The men brought him food and water while they discussed what they were going to do with him. Clearly they could not allow him to go back to the surface. They had already had a funeral for him there. He knew too much to be released back into the public. They could not allow him to reveal the location of their secret base. After several more days and after consulting with the scientists, they decided to allow him to stay. The men in black explained to him that he had two choices. He could stay in their base for the time being provided he would help the scientists and become a sort of assistant. All of his needs would be met if he chose this option. Or, he would be released out of the dome wall and allowed to try to make it back to the surface on his own. They quickly explained that that would pretty much be suicide. They were terribly deep under the ocean. There was no way he could hold enough breath to make it to the surface. In addition, the crushing force of the water would surely kill him long before he made it to the top. Lenny thought hard for a moment, and then spoke. “0. K. dudes, you are saying I can stay here and help the science dudes or I can die trying to go back home. Right’?” The men in black nodded their heads in affirniation. “Well I guess I am staying with you guys then. All right!” The men looked at each other and shook their heads while laughing. Lenny stayed down in the secret base for months and months. He never really caught on to what the science dudes were doing but he had an awful lot of fun helping them. He would go get them tools and parts that they needed at various times. Finally, one thy the scientists felt bad about holding Lenny captive in their underwater world since they could come and go freely to the surface at night via special ships. They held a conference amongst themselves and decided that Lenny had never really comprehended what they were doing. They reasoned that his intelligence level was low enough that anyone on the surfitce would never truly believe a story he told about the base. They decided to knock him out and take him to a far off city on the other coast. They waited until he was sleeping for the night and injected him with a sedative. They loaded the out-cold Lenny on to the ship and flew out of the dome and to the surface. It was midnight and thrk as they zoomed across the continent in the classified ship. They dropped him off just outside of New York where it was very uurly in the morning. The scientists flew back to their base and forgot about Lenny. When he woke, he had a terrible heathehe. He found himself somewhere near New York. He wondered what had happened to the science dudes, but was happy to be back on the surface. He got a job at a local restaurant as a dishwasher and found himself an apartment. After many months he began to miss his surfing action. He saved up some money over time and bought a one way ticket to Hawaii. He eventually became a professional surfer and competed in many large tournaments to earn a living. He loved his life and was grateful that his major ‘wipeout’ was not fatal. The mysterious scientist dudes who lived under the water gave him a second chance at life. Of course, nobody really believed his story but they listened just to be nice. The author, Andre’ M. Leger, is a Louisiana State University graduate. Currently, he writes in his spare time whenever he is not at his full time job as a field supervisor for a large security company. His interests include camping, target practice, and spending time with his family. His love of science fiction, as evidenced in his writing, started when he was very young. Andre’ considers this short story collection to be the begimiing of a long and prolific writing career.


The Strange Stray- short stories online

Troy was on his way home from school one thy when a medium size dog began to follow him. He had just jumped off of the bus when the dog approached him. At the age of 9, Troy was not afraid of dogs and welcomed the lost mutt. It had a slightly smushed face along with a pointy looking head. It was a terribly ugly specimen of the canine family, but Troy took a liking to the dog and allowed it to tag along. He hoped in his heart that his mother would let him to keep the dog. It stayed slightly behind him all the way to his house. Unfortunately, his mother was not too receptive to the idea, but saw the glow on her son’s face with the mutt and decided to talk the idea over with Troy’ s father. Troy was elated that his mother would even consider the notion of letting him keep the dog. As soon as his father came through the door, Troy jumped on him and begged him to say yes. His mother quicldy briefed his father on the little lost stray dog and it’s plight. His dad caved under the onslaught of pressure from the two of them and said Troy could keep the dog provided he would be the one to have to care for it. “Yippee!” Troy shouted as he jumped for joy at his dad’s decision. The ugly little mutt walked into the room and almost seemed to smile at the news. It appeared to know that it was welcome in their home. Troy quickly set up a water dish and a food dish for the little dog. Then he set up a little bed for his new friend. The ugly little dog seemed appreciative of the water, but did not seem interested in the food that he was offered. Troy reasoned to himself that the dog would eat eventually if he were hungty enough. Later that night the whole family went to bed. Troy’s mother tucked him into his warm bed and kissed her son goodnight. The little dog jumped up onto his mattress and lay next to Troy. His mother smiled as she was walking out of the room glad to see that the new dog was accepting his new home so quickly. Not too long after his parents had gone to bed and Troy was in a half asleep daze, the dog jumped down to the floor. It walked over to Troy’ s closet and nosed the cracked door open far enough to gain entry. The door creaked a bit and woke the sleeping boy. Troy watched his dog to see what he was doing but did not sit up to alert the dog that he was, in fact, awake. Amazingly, the mutt began to speak a strange language that Troy had never heard belàre. He was intrigued by the dog’s strange behavior and adjusted his position so he could see through the crack to watch it. The dog was lit up with a strange light blue glow that filled the little closet. A small panel on a bizarre device was emitting the light. The dog was speaking into the device with its non-earthly language. Then the device began to speak with the same weird language.Troy figured it must be some sort of communication device and that the dog was actually some kind of alien. He watched the crazy dog until he was finished. The dog then quietly jumped back onto Troy’s bed and went back to sleep as if nothing had happened. Troy pretended to be sleeping when the dog got back into bed with him. Needless to say, Troy did not sleep very well that night. The next morning, he told his mother what the ugly dog had done the night before in the closet. Troy tried to explain it in a serious manner, but his mother kept laughing at him. She explained to him that he must have just had a bad dream and that it was impossible for a dog to actually be an alien. However, Troy knew it was not a dream. He was scared of his new friend and did not want to interact with him in the same way as he did before. His mother saw the difference, but attributed it to the dream and just blew it off Later that night, after all had gone to bed, the dog again went into the closet to communicate with his ship. Troy cowered under his covers again and feared for his life. When he was fmished, the dog hoped back up onto his bed again like nothing had happened. Troy was absolutely sure he was not dreaming this time. The next thy, he begged his mom to listen to his pleas, but she would not hear the voice of her imaginative little boy. Again, she blew off his crazy ideas of the alien dog to a bad dream. Time passed and the night fell. Troy became afraid to go to sleep with the alien dog. His mother tucked him in as usual and told him to have sweet dreams as she left the room. Almost as if it were on a schedule, an hour later the dog repeated his communication routine in the closet. However, this time the alien called his ship over to the house. It hovered outside Troy’s window and awaited the alien’s commands. Troy was terrified and could not move or speak. Unfortunately, the dog that he once loved for a pet was going to abduct him and take him for his own pet. The dog used a strange device to transform himself from the dog back into his natural shape. A small gray alien with a big head and large black bug eyes stood over the terrified Troy and examined him in his bed. The alien then used a strange device to paralyze Troy and froze him solid. He floated Troy up out of his bed and out of his window into the waiting ship. Troy was strapped down to a table of sorts and taken out into the night sky on the ship. The next morning, Troy’s mother and father were horrified when they saw that their son had mysteriously disappeared. They called the police and reported him missing. Unfortunately, Troy’ s parents never saw their son alive again. His mother was forever heartbroken over his disappearance. Every thy of the rest of her life she wondered if the little stray mutt, who also disappeared mysteriously on the same night, was really an alien as her son had tried to tell her.Who’s Real? Garton was a small farming village where eveiyone knew everyone else. It was not a very large community, but the people tended to get along and help each other out during bad times. The population of the entire community was less than 200. It was late October and every capable body was out working on the harvest. Victor Crowell was one of the community’s hardest workers. He was in his mid 40’s and was very strong. Unfortunately, the community could not afford any fancy tractors to harvest their wheat; so they used an old fashioned sickle. Victor was very efficient at harvesting wheat with his sickle and could out-gather many of the younger members. This morning was like any other during this time of year. Victor had gotten up at the crack of dawn and headed to the fields for another hard day’s work. His friend since youth, Bumey, arrived at the field a few minutes after him. Good old Bumey was about the same age as Victor and the two had played together as youths. The freshly sharpened sickle sliced through the light brown wheat with ease. Victor bundled up several bushels in no time at all. Then, when he was working near Bumey, his blade accidentally slipped out of his hand and chopped off his ffiend’s left pinky finger. However, instead of spurting blood all over the place, the inside of his finger revealed some rather complex circuitry. Bumey tried to cover his secret as quickly as possible. He grabbed his handkerchief out of his pocket and wrapped his bloodless wound. Victor was amazed that Bumey was not bleeding everywhere. He picked up the sliced finger and saw the machinery inside as he handed it back to Bumey. “Sorry buddy, let’s get you to a hospital as soon as possible.” Victor tried to act sony but was concerned by the weirdness of the wound. “That is, if you think we need to go. Normally, a wound this bad would require immediate medical attention, but I do not see much blood in this case. In fact, I have never seen electronics in someone’s hand.” Bumey was acting very strangely. He held his hand and acted as if it was a very painful wound. Victor was able to perceive that his friend seemed to be faking the pain. Bumey did not say anything else to him, hit just took off rumiing towards the farm tmck. He jumped in and sped off into the distance. Victor was left standing in the field with his sickle in his hand and a very strange feeling in his gut. He did not know what to think of the bizarre situation Could his friend for all of these years actually be a robot? How could this possibly be the case? If Bumey could fool his friend for such a long time, could some of the other community members also be robots? Victor wondered if he was real. He took out his pocketknife and made a small cut on the back of his hand.Blood began to ooze out of the slice and drip to the ground leaving little red dots on the wheat. “Well, I suppose I am real, or at least human,” Victor said with a low voice. He looked around to see if anyone else was working in the area and night have witnessed Bumey’s strange behavior. Randy was in the next field over chopping wheat with his sickle. Victor walked over to Randy and tried to think of a method to test his theory while on the way. “Randy, did you see what just happened with ole’ Bumey?” Randy stopped his swing and turned to greet Victor. “No, what do you mean? What happened?” “Well, it was kinda strange. I was cutting wheat next to him and my hands had got a bit sweaty and wet,” Victor pretended to swing the siclde as a demonstration. “Then, my sickle accidentally slipped a bit and sliced off his pinky, like this.” He swung the siclde slightly and let it slip out of his hands a bit too much so the blade nicked the leg of Randy. Victor quickly looked down to see the wound he had ‘accidentally’ created on Randy. His leg. just as Bumey’s finger, did not bleed either. A circuit board was revealed just under the skin of Randy’s leg. Victor’s mouth dropped open in amazement as he backed away from the Randy robot in fear. “Sony about that. It kinda slipped again. Say, what the heck are you anyway?” Randy did not answer Victor’s question but quicldy tried to cover the exposed electronics in his leg. He turned and ran off just as fast as Burney had. “Yeah, you better mn you dad bum robot!” Victor started screaming loudly at the fleeing machine. Victor was actually begimiing to become a bit worried. How many other people in the community were robots? Who is real here? Victor decided he had better arm himself as soon as possible. If the two robots got together and decided to retaliate against him and try to keep their secret quiet by killing him, he wanted to be ready. He quickly walked to his truck aid hopped in. He sped through the wheat field and down the road back to his house. Victor quickly got his shotgun out of the closet and found a box of shells for it. He loaded the old crack double barrel and stuffed the rest of the shells into his pockets just in case. Unfortunately, Victor’s wife had died several years ago of cancer and they had never had any kids. He had been living alone for a while and was not worried about any of his family members being robots. Victor reasoned that if he could find another human and show them that there were robots among the community that he could get some help. He decided that the best way to accomplish this was to go to the community church house and ring the bell to try to get all the members together in a meeting. This was somewhat dangerous since he did not know if the entire town was robots. If this was the case, he might be quickly overwhelmed, but he had to take the chance. He walked down the road a bit and stopped at the big bell on the pole outside of the small church building. He began to ring it furiously and continuously. Several women came out of the nearby houses and asked Victor what he was doing. He explained to them that he needed to have an emergency town meeting and that they should gather everyone together. Immediately, the women went out into the fields to collect their husbands and after a mere thirty minutes or so almost eveiyone was within shouting distance. “What is this all about, Victor?” one of the men shouted. Victor collected his nerves and spoke to the crowd, “We may have invaders that have infiltrated our community. I was in the field with Bumey cutting wheat when I accidentdly cut off his finger.” Several of the people gasped at the news. Others had a puzzled look on their faces as he continued his story. “He did not bleed a single drop of blood. He had some sort of electronics inside of him instead of flesh and bones.” Now many of the people started to shake their heads in disbelief “Have you been drinking Victor?” one of them shouted loudly. “No. Look I am telling you the truth. Randy is a robot too. I cut his leg and he had wires in him. I am telling you...” “Come on Victor, what kind of hoax is this?” another yelled. “I’ll prove it. Come here, Gary.” Gary looked a bit frightened at what might happen next. He slowly made his way to the front of the small crowd to get to the strangely acting Victor. “Now pay attention people,” he shouted above the crowd. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his pocketknife. Before Gary could resist, Victor flipped open the blade and cut a small slit into his palm. A trickle of blood spilled out as Gary yelped in pain. “What the heck has gotten into you Victor? Have you gone mad?” he screamed as he held his hand tightly to try to stop the bleeding. The crowd began to get very restless at Victor’s bizaffe behavior. “I don’t understand. You must be real,” Victor said quietly while backing away slightly from the angry crowd. “Of course I am real! What is your problem going around cutting people like that?” Gary fussed at Victor. “Wait! I am telling you all that Bumey and Randy were robots! Now you will all be tested or I am going to start shooting!” Victor waved the shotgun in the crowd’s direction showing his intent. They all fell silent and gave their full attention to the shotgun wielding crazy man. They could not believe that their friend was acting in such an abnormal manner, but they realized he might be serious if he was willing to commit murder to prove his point. Victor tossed his pocketknife to Gary. “I know you are human so you will be my tester,” Victor shouted to him. “Everyone get into a line!” he yelled at the community members as he waved the double barrel shotgun in their direction. Many whispers were exchanged among the people as they slowly formed a single file line. Victor got behind Gary with his shotgun pointed directly at him. “Let’s get started. A small cut on each of their hands will do.” Gary reluctantly took the knife and sliced a cut into the first man’s hand. He flinched as the blood triclded out of the opening. “0. K. you are real too, Next!” “Victor, when are you going to stop this madness?” Gary begged. “When we finish everyone,” he replied with a stone cold look on his face. Next in line was a young lady, one of the many farmer’s daughters living in town. Gary took her little hand and made a small incision with the pocketknife. To his surprise, circuitry was revealed inside her hand. He stepped back away from her and stared at the wound in disbelief “Great Scott! Victor is telling the tmth!” Gary yelled loudly. The girl robot covered her wound and took off mnning from the line. “Let her go! We need to test everyone before we do anything,” Victor hi.rked to everyone. Gary tested the next person in line and found he was a robot as well. Just as the others had done, he turned and ran out of sight. They went down the line and tested all of the people of the community. After it was over, only a small handful of real humans remained. Only a total of about 35 people huddled together were left, many of them crying about their loved ones being robots, all of them clutching their freshly cut hands. All of the robots had run off after having been discovered by the humans. Unfortunately, the community had lost a large amount of their population from the ordeal. However, fortunately, the robots never came back to the town again. All of the members living there had meetings once a month from that time forward to cut each other to test if they were still real. Nobody questioned Victor’s words ever again.


The Sphere - short stories online

“IVIr. Douglass, I believe the best answer is the Civil War.” “That is correct, Jill,” Mr. Douglass stated while looking at his semi-attentive high school history class. Suddenly, the bell sounded and almost immediately the classroom came alive with movement. “Now remember, read pages 200-215 in your textbook for tomorrow and there is a quiz on Friday,” Mr. Douglass attempted to remind his class over their hustle and bustle to get out the door. The class moaned simultaneously at the mention of the quiz. Without delay, the room quickly emptied as the teenagers left for home for the thy. Jim Douglass had been teaching history for over 25 years. He loved it even though sometimes his classroom was somewhat less than enthusiastic about it. Slowly he put his things in his big black leather bag almost sad that the thy was over. Some days are better than others at Monticello High, but tothy Jim felt as though he had actually made a difference. After a quick stop at the bathroom, Jim shuffled out to the employee parking lot to his car and got in. The old rusty Toyota Corolla was on its last leg, but it got him around with a fair consistency. He headed to his house stopping by the grocery on the way home to pick up a few things. The grocer at the small country stop knew Jim by his first name and greeted him as he left following his nomial daily routine. Jim was set in his ways, a man of 53 years, and did not care too much for big cities. His country home was small and cozy. He lived alone having never married, although he almost did once in his youth. Jim’s car cmnched through the stones as he coasted into the gravel driveway of his familiar home. While nothing seemed as though it was out of place, Jim sensed that something was terribly wrong. He was unable to pinpoint anything specifically, but had an overwhelming unexplainable feeling. He quickly grabbed his single bag of groceries from the front passenger seat and opened his car door stepping out. While walking up to his front door, he clumsily fumbled his keys and they chinked down to his cement steps. The uneasy feeling grew as he walked in and sat down his bags. Looking around, he saw that nothing was out of place. A small red LED flashing on and off begged Jim to press the button on his answering machine, but he was not thinking that the feeling might be because of a message needing his attention. After settling down in his EZ chair and taking a deep breath, Jim finally noticed the little light blinking. “Well, looks like I have a message,” Jim said, struggling out of the rear end engulfing chair. Pressing the button finally let the machine speak after a shrill tone. “Jim, it is Nancy. I am at the General Hospital near Mom’s house,” his sister’s voice said while holding back tears. “Mom has had a stroke.” Jim sank back into his chair in disbelief as his sister’s words rang in his head. “She was in a coma all morning.” Nancy’s voice was quivering as she tried to stop sniffles that had surfaced. “She passed away just a few minutes ago.” Nancy burst out in tears on the tape. She composed herself just long enough to give a phone number where she could be reached and then continued to cry before hanging up and ending the message. Tears began to well up in Jim’s eyes as he stared into space. His father had died two years ago of cancer, but as far as he knew, his mother was still perfectly healthy. He had just made the two hour trip to his hometown last month to visit his mother. She seemed fine then. Jim could not believe she was gone. Memories of his mother flooded his mind as he slumped deeper in his chair and began to sob like a little boy. He grabbed the nearby phone and called the number his sister left after later coming out of his daze. A nurse answered his request and called Nancy to the telephone. “Oh Jim, I can’t believe she is gone,” Nancy sobbed. “Can you come to Mom’s house right now?” “Of course, I’ll get my things together and meet you there at 7pm.” The two were both crying by the time they had hung up. Jim called the school and arranged for a substitute to take over his class for a week. Then he packed a small suitcase and left for his mother’s house in Springfield. The trip seemed to drag on forever as his mother’s memoiy lingered in the air. Finally, he arrived at his boyhood home. His sister’s car was parked in the driveway. He strolled past it in a dazed hurry, almost knocking off the side mirror as his mind was elsewhere. His sister greeted him at the door and gave him a warm hug while beginning to openly weep. “When is the funeral?” Jim asked. “Saturday, at Golden Meadows Funeral Home.” The two sat and talked for hours about their late mother and all of their wonderful memories of her. Eventually, they both felt somewhat better about the sudden death and began to talk about what to do with her house. “I suppose we could sell it,” suggested Jim. “I mean, you have a family and your own house and don’t need this one. I have a job and a house that is over two hours drive from here so I don’t need it either. I don’t think Mom had a will or anything. Do you know if she had a will?” “I don’t think so, Jim. Not that I know of” “I am going to spend the day tomorrow looking through the house to see if I can find anything.” “Let’s get some rest it has been a rough day.” The two retired for the night in their old beds that they used to sleep in when they lived at home. The next day Jim began his search early through his mother’s paper’s and possessions looking for some kind of will. After spending the entire morning looking through a small filing cabinet and finding nothing but old bills and somewhat useless information, he expanded his search. Another two hours later he had gone through all of the closets of the house finding only items of marginal interest and not the will that he was looking for. He began thinking to himself that it was perhaps a longshot, but it may be in the attic. Jim climbed the steep ladder into the creaky old attic. There were lots of things up there, from old baby beds to Christmas decorations of all sorts. Most of the junk up there was essentially useless. After a quick initial search, Jim noticed an old trunk sitting in the corner of the attic that was covered in dust. It appeared to be a very old wooden trunk that Jim did not remember ever seeing in the attic before. It had a rusty old padlock on the hasp. Curious to know what the old trunk could possibly contain, Jim began a search for a key. No luck. No key could be found anywhere in the house. Eventually giving up the search, he found a crowbar. Then Jim popped off the old lock with ease. The trunk creaked and moaned like it was asking for oil as Jim slowly raised the lid. Many small treasures of old sat within: old newspaper clippings from the turn of the century, several pieces of old jewelry, a small stack of old magazines, an old Colt 1911 .45 auto with two magazines that was probably from WWII, and a small gray shoebox size metal box. The small box intrigued Jim and as he picked it up he noticed how light it was. He could not quite make out what kind of metal the box was made from. It had a luster that he had never seen before. He flipped the box over searching for an opening without luck. There were no visible seams on the strange rectangular box that he could see. In fact, the box was so strange that Jim decided he would keep it and perhaps later he could figure out what it was. After searching through the rest of the attic, Jim gave up, figuring that his mother had not left a will after all. However, he did take the strange box down the ladder with him just before he closed up the attic. His sister was on the phone talking with relatives bout the upcoming funeral. Jim placed the small metal box in front of her and gave her a puzzled look. Nancy picked up the box and looked it over. She returned the puzzled look to her brother. Next, Jim brought the box to his car and put it in his trunk as his sister continued the conversation on the phone. For the time being, Jim forgot about the strange box and focused on the funeral at hand. After the funeral was over, Jim returned to his house and to work. Trying to forget about the death he poured himself into his class. Several weeks later Jim found the box in his trunk while searching for some tools and brought it in his house to examine it further. He placed it on his kitchen table ascertaining what to do next. Again he searched the box far any openings — none, no seams — nothing. He began to press in finnly all over the box figuring it may have some sort of trap opening. Quite by accident, while holding it against his body and pressing all four corners on one side, Jim heard a ‘click’. He set the box on the table and noticed that a top had formed from a seemingly seamless area of the side. Jim pulled the top off slowly and stared at its contents. The box contained a red velvet-like insert that surrounded a shiny metallic ball in the center. It was about as big around as a softball was and was quite amazing in appearance. “Now what the heck is this thing?” Jim thought as he reached to touch the strange sphere. As soon as his hand got near the ball, it suddenly lifted out of its case and began to hover in mid-air near the table. Jim was astonished and backed up with his eyes gaping and mouth open in amazement. “Great Scott!” Jim shouted staring in fear at the floating device. He did not know what to do next. The ball continued to float about a foot from the table surface with no attachments or strings holding it up. Jim thought about calling the police but decided not to because they would think he was crazy. Suddenly, Jim’s T. V. turned on for no apparent reason with the sound blasting loudly. Then his microwave turned on all by itself Jim was getting scared now and wondered how to turn the bizarre sphere off. He reached for the strange object and as he did, his hand began to tingle. He recoiled away from it immediately. Looking at his hand to see if it had been shocked revealed that it was in perfect condition. In fact, it was in better than perfect condition. His hand looked approximately 20 years younger. Several small scars that were on his hand from his youth were completely healed. Jim was shocked by the fact that his hand looked as it did. He slowly reached for the floating ball again. The silver sphere allowed Jim to catch it momentarily. A tingly feeling spread over his entire body as he slowly pulled it closer to himself This amazing object defied description. A closer inspection revealed that the sphere had thousands of tiny ever-changing patterns of silver on its surface. After allowing it to float over his hand for a while, Jim put the ball back in its case and closed the top. He wondered how the heck that thing had gotten into his mother’s attic. Suddenly Jim caught his reflection in the mirror across the room. He jumped in astonishment because it seemed to be a stranger long forgotten staring back at him. Jim had been transformed into his youthful self of age 23. “Uh-Oh!” Jim thought, “Nobody is going to recognize me at work now.” He walked up to the mirror in disbelief Jim tore off his clothes and discovered it was true. The change was complete and total. He really was changed into a much younger version of himself “This could be a slight problem, but the benefits definitely outweigh the problems,” he thought grasping the reality of what happened. Try as he might, Jim could not figure out the ball’s origin. There were no markings on the strange box anywhere. Jim thought, “Nobody will believe what happened to me. I certainly can’t attempt to teach a class like this.” He picked up the phone and called in sick arranging once again for a substitute to take his place for a few days. He had to figure out what to do next. His sister had seen the box — perhaps he could confide what had happened to him to her. He dialed his sister’s number and she answered. Jim tried to explain who he was, but unfortunately his sister did not recognize his voice. She became angry at the apparent prank caller and eventually hung up afier arguing with him for a while. Jim knew he had to see her in person to convince her of the bizarre change. He packed his things and grabbed the little gray box on the way to his car. He threw his things in the trunk and pulled out of his driveway. However, as he was leaving, he noticed a solid white van with no markings or windows start its engine. It had been parked in front of his neighbor’s house and slowly pulled out some distance behind him. “That’s strange,” Jim thought, “I don’t remember my neighbor owning such a van.” The van followed him all the way to the interstate, but stayed a few hundred yards behind him. At first Jim did not pay much attention to the van, but after it continued to follow him for more than an hour he began to become worried. He decided to get off the interstate to get some gas even though he had almost a full tank. Perhaps he was only being paranoid and the van would continue down the interstate without him. He pulled off at the next exit looking in his rear view mirror to see what the van was going to do. Sure enough, the van followed him down the exit ramp. Now Jim was scared. “What could this person want from me?” he thought as the fears ran though his mind with lightning speed. He pulled into the first gas station and quickly jumped out of his car looking for the mysterious van. Slowly, the van passed in front of the station. Jim sighed with relief as he pumped $2.00 worth of gas into his tank. After paying for his gas and heading back to his car, he saw the van slowly passing back in front of the gas station. An icy shot of adrenaline coursed through Jim’s veins. He knew something was going on, but did not know what. He did not want to endanger his sister. If something was going to happen he did not want to involve her. He slipped back into his vehicle with a bit of confusion as to what to do next. He pulled back onto the interstate heading towards his sister’s house. At first he thought that he may have lost the strange white van, but not long after that, it again appeared in his rearview mirror. Jim knew he had to try and ditch the van. He floored his little Corolla and sped up. His vehicle began to shake and rattle as he slowly approached 90mph. Unfortunately, the van easily kept up with him. Perhaps he could lose them on some back roads with lots of curves. Jim took the next exit and, of course, the van followed suit. He did not know the area around this exit but had to try something. Jim quickly sped around the first left he could find. Then a quick right and another left. After several more turns, Jim was definitely lost. He turned onto a gravel road and sped down it as fast as he could go and still control his vehicle. Fortunately, the area was thick with woods and had very few houses. Soon the road came to a dead end and Jim started to turn his car around. “Surely I lost them,” he thought as he straightened out his front end facing out and turned the engine off “I’ll just wait here for a while until they give up.” Ten minutes later, to Jim’s hoffor, he saw the van coming down the rock road straight towards him. “UhOh!” Jim’s voice quivered. His only thought was to flee as fast as possible. He quickly got out of his car and instinctively locked it as he slammed the door and took off into the nearby thick woods. His now young and agile body flew through the trees with newfound youth. He slowed his pace and paused a moment to look back and attempt to see what was happening back at his car. He could barely make out through the dense trees two men jump out of the van. They were both dressed in black suits and had on dark sunglasses. Immediately, they attempted to open his car but found that Jim had locked it. One of the men reached under his jacket and pulled out a large automatic pistol. The gun cracked to life eating a gaping hole in his window. They quickly searched the interior of his car and moved to the trunk. Again the gun barked loudly, opening the trunk lock with ease. Without delay, the men grabbed the gray box and jumped back into their van. They quickly turned it around and spit rocks from underneath their tires as they left the area. “Well, at least I know what they wanted,” thought Jim, “and I am still alive.” Jim decided not to go back for his vehicle for fear that the men would return for him. He picked a direction and began walking straight until he found a road. He followed the road and fortunately found civilization eventually. Not wanting to go home because he knew they would be waiting for him there, he started life over again. This time he got married and had four children from his lovely young bride. He eventually outlived his sister by many years, although he was too afraid to contact her for the rest of his life. He never returned to his old life, but happily enjoyed his new one. He always wondered what happened to the strange ‘sphere’ he had found, but was never able to locate any information on it. Luckily for Jim, the men who took the sphere never paid a visit to his new home. Having lived almost another complete lifetime, Jim was a very wise man in his new town. He thanked God that he survived the ordeal and fortunately, he was one of the few people to be given a second chance at life.


The Ripple Effect - short stories online

Dr. Steve Duff was an inventor with a mission in mind. He was attempting to build a time machine and he was very close to getting it to actually work. He was extremely bright although slightly mad. Working on the project for a long time, he had long since worked out all of the mathematics. The calculations needed for time travel are seriously complex in nature. Not only does one need to compute the location in time, but also the location in space as well. After all, the Earth is rotating on its axis. It is also revolving around the sun. In addition, the Milky Way is rotating and flying away from the center of the universe at the same time. It took years for Dr. Duff to complete the computations. His machine worked great on paper. It was just a matter of time before he would be able to produce a working prototype. He had built the basic structure, a large stainless steel cylinder, and was working on all the complex electronics and power system for his nachine. After a few years, he had gotten it ready enough for its first live test. He called his test chimp, McKenzie, over and placed him into the steel machine. Dr. Duff closed the door and set the remote control unit for five minutes into the future. He stood back and activated the time machine with his fingers crossed. A large blue arch of electricity slowly began to circle the cylinder. It spun faster and faster and the image of the cylinder slowly began to fade from existence. After thirty seconds or so, it disappeared all together. Steve jumped for joy as he celebrated its apparent successful operation. Five minutes later the blue arch began to slowly materialize into existence again. After the arch stopped, Dr. Duff opened the large stainless door of the cylinder. McKenzie hopped out and into his arms. The machine had worked! Finally, after all those years of work Dr. Duff had successfully completed a working prototype. He quickly performed a similar test with himself as the subject and reappeared thirty minutes into the future. He stepped out of the cylinder with a great big smile on his face. The trip was almost instantaneous to him, but his watch read thirty minutes slow when he compared it to the clock on the lab wall. Finally, a lifetime of waiting would pay off and he could attempt to complete his original mission. Dr. Duff was a very strong believer in the Christian faith. Unfortunately, his views were slightly warped from the rest of the church. While his motives were good, he did not realize the far-reaching effects his plan would have if it were successfully completed. He believed that Christ should not have to die on the cross. He had started on his quest to build a time machine after vowing to save Christ from the humiliation of being crucified. This, however, would change the very nature of Christianity itself Dr. Duff, however, was determined to save Jesus and did not realize that the very reason God allowed his son to die on the cross was to save all of humanity from damnation. God knew that Dr. Duff would succeed in controlling time with his machine and had set a counter plan into motion to try to stop him from effectively destroying all of what Jesus had done for humankind. If he were to succeed in preventing the death of Jesus, it would cause a massive ripple in the very fabric of time and space and change all of the events that were affected by his death thereafter. Dr. Duff loaded several items, one being an automatic pistol, into his time machine and set the dial for the year 33 and the place of Calvary. The machine came to life arching electricity and faded out of time. Slowly it materialized and came to rest just outside of the city. Fortunately, nobody was around to witness the appearance of the strange object. Dr. Duff stepped out and noticed he had landed in a rather highly visible and open spot. He reset the coordinates for a small cave that he could see in the side of a nearby mountain. The machine disappeared again and reappeared near the cave. He quickly hid the machine in the bushes just inside the cave entrance and headed to the city. Dr. Duff had gotten a minor in Hebrew while in college and was able to understand the bulk of the conversations around him, though the dialect was somewhat different than he had known. He questioned many people of the whereabouts of Christ. Most of the people were looking at him as if he was from a far off land. His long white lab coat was particularly intriguing to many of them. Fortunately, Dr. Duff was able to barter some of the trinkets he had brought for some less conspicuous clothes. He gave a merchant a sheet of hologram stickers and a pack of bubble gum for the garments. The fact that he was there was already having an effect on what was to happen later. Eveiything he did in his search was magnified deep into the future. A small change far in the past causes a large change in the future. Nevertheless, Dr. Duff was not concerned with the effect his presence was having. His only mission was to save Jesus. Eventually, he was able to locate him. With his pistol hidden under his tunic, Dr. Duff followed Jesus around as if he were one of the twelve disciples. He never let him out of his sight for very long. Just as the Bible was written, the events of the final weeks of Jesus’ life were unfolding right in front of Dr. Duff s eyes. Judas obtained the silver pieces and told the Roman soldiers where they could find Jesus. That is when Dr. Duff then took action figuring if he stopped these soldiers from finding Christ, he would stop his death as well. He pulled out his pistol and pointed it at the leader of the small pack of Roman soldiers. He yelled ‘halt’ in Hebrew and the soldiers stopped even though they spoke Greek. Unfortunately for Dr. Duff, the soldiers had never seen a gun and did not know what it was. They were amazed that a Hebrew commoner would have the gall to stop them from their official business of the Emperor. He did not have a sword, so they did not fear him or his handheld metal device. They pulled their swords and immediately attacked him. Dr. Duff quickly fired his pistol several times at the leader. The 9mm bullets zipped through the soldier’s shield and punched through his ancient armor as well. Before the others realized that the noisy device had killed their leader, they had run their swords through the unruly Hebrew. The Roman soldier fell next to the cut up doctor and both of them quickly bled to death. The strange gun was taken to the Emperor as a precious weapon just after Jesus was crucified. This changed history some, but not excessively so. The Roman ruler quickly ran out of bullets while testing the gun and its abilities to penetrate the thickest of their armors. Then he gave it to one of his blacksmiths to see if he could make it work again. Of course, the gun was useless without any bullets and eventually was melted down to make more swords. The Roman soldier who was killed fortunately had already had all of the children he was going to have in his lifetime and nobody was eliminated from existence. The time machine is still well hidden in a cave and has not been discovered to this day. God was the one who made the soldiers attack Dr. Duff and therefore continue the events already set in motion. All of the changes he made while he was there were swallowed by the never-ending ravages of time. Only smallest of changes still exist that do not matter in God’s grand plan for all of mankind. However, if Dr. Duff had succeeded, we would certainly live in a very different world; a world without Jesus’ saving grace.




The Protector - short stories online

The Boss once again sent his orders to his faithful servant for eternity. An ethereal paper scroll slowly materialized in the mighty angel’s hands. The commands of God slowly appeared on the assignment in a beautiful gold print. Corbin read the words just as soon as they appeared, anxious to do the Lord’s bidding. “Excellent! It is another protection assignment. Those are my favorite types,” he said with a deep excited voice while flexing his massive wings. Corbin loved being an angel for the Lord. He had long lost count of the number of missions he had completed for the Almighty after 2500 or so. Existing outside of time and space had great advantages. For one thing, he would never grow old and his glorified body would never become saggy. In addition, his assignments could be at any location on Earth and at any point in time. With the variety of different missions he was presented with, he never grew old of serving his master. This mission would allow him to visit Gemiany during World War II. He was assigned to protect an American soldier at a particular spot in time and space. The enemy was also aware of what this soldier would do after the war and had targeted his demonic forces to that point in time as well. If the soldier died in the war, his great grandchildren would not be born. One great grandson in particular would be an influential prophet in the earth’s future that would lead thousands of souls to salvation during the tribulation. Corbin’s assignment was to protect the young American soldier at all costs against the attacks of the enemy. The important soldier’s name was Robert Ventre. Corbin liked to get a head start on the enemy and get a feel for the person that he would be protecting. Usually, he would go at least a week ahead of the critical turning point and follow his human, watching his actions. This gave him important tactical information about how the person might react in the situation they would soon be put in. Corbin strapped his massive double-edged sword to his back. The highly polished sword was exquisitely decorated with beautiful gems and was over seven feet long. Of course, Corbin himself stood some twelve feet tall with super strength and a massive wingspan. With his royal weapon in place, he turned and stepped through the multi-dimensional portal of heaven. He spread his wings and soared through time itself Almost instantaneously, he appeared above a battlefield in Germany in the heat of a great battle. He soared down and gently landed near a deep trench that was filled with brave American soldiers. He easily pinpointed Robert from the crowd because he could see his soul directly. While he was walking over to his assignment, several bullets zipped straight through Corbin since he was unaffected by the physical world. Robert was loading his rifle at the bottom of the trench. Long rows of soldiers were firing up at the ground level and had the German force on the other side of the battlefield retreating. Once he had finished loading it he stood up and carefully took aim at a German soldier’s head poking out of the enemy trench. Corbin could tell that Robert was completely exhausted. Unfortunately, this caused his aim to be off and he was not hitting much. Still, the shots hit close enough kicking up a spray of dirt and frightened the German to the next trench back. After several more hours of constant fighting, the gunfire slowed down and finally came to a stop. The Americans had successfully pushed the enemy significantly back. Their leaders granted a well-deserved break to the Americans that were on this battlefield. Robert slumped down with the muddy trench wall to his back and rested. Corbin took this time of safety to scope the area in search of any demons that may have arrived before him. He took flight and circled the area. Fortunately, it was all clear. As usual, the enemy, being disorganized and self destructive, had not planned their attack well. Corbin flew back to Robert’s trench and sat down beside him while he rested. Looking at his quadra-dimensional God watch, Corbin figured that he had six days, two hours, and thirty- seven minutes before the critical time node split would be there. Corbin knew the enemy would probably send a unit of demons to attack within a few hours before the time came. He sat silently with a regal look on his face and watched over Robert while he slept. Many of the troops were sleeping at the time. They were all exhausted from the long battle that they had finally won. Fortunately, Corbin did not ever need to sleep, so he stayed watch to make sure Robert got well rested. Later, orders came via a Lieutenant to the troops. They were to band together with several other groups and take control over a known German base in a few days. The American men were rounded up and gathered into a force of hundreds. They all met at the base of a large hill near the German fortress. Robert was well rested and ready to take the enemy and whatever they were throw at him. All of the men were gung-ho and ready to win the important battle for their country. Corbin knew the node split was rapidly approaching when he noticed several of the smaller variety of demons poking around on top of the hill. He slid his massive sword out of its sheath and sharpened it to a razor’s edge in preparation for the upcoming fight. The demons noticed the massive angel and his mighty sword and disappeared over the hill to warn their leader. Finally, the last group of the American soldiers had arrived and the Major briefed them all on how the attack was to take place. It would begin in a few hours at the break of dawn. When he finished his speech, all the men knew what their mission was and took their positions all around the hill. Corbin spread his powerful wings with his sword in hand and lified himself into the air. He quickly flew over the hill after them but was surprised at the number of demons lying in wait for him. There were several dozen of various sizes and one rather large demon who was obviously the leader. Usually, the enemy does not send so many demons that are so well organized, but this sub-dimensional battle apparently would be particularly important. If the enemy won, thousands of souls would burn in hell forever since the prophet would never be born. The prize was great and Satan must have decided it was important enough to send an overwhelming force of his minions to ensure Robert’s certain death. Corbin had a moment of doubt, not knowing if he could possibly defeat this many demons. Then, almost instantly, his fihith in the Lord’s decision to send him on the mission reassured him that he could do it. Fireballs began to fly through the sub-dimensional space in attempts to knock the mighty Corbin out of the air. The demon leader knew that such a powerful angel would cut deep into his ranks before he could be stopped, so he wanted to kill him as soon as possible. Corbin flew into the midst of the demons and began swinging his sword at the nasty demons. They quickly surrounded him flinging fireballs at him and attempting to jump onto his back. The heavy bladed sword cut deep into many of the demons. They were quickly dropping left and right, some with no heads, others disemboweled. Corbin was able to block many of the fireballs with his sword, but some impacted his holy body causing serious burns in several places. Still, Corbin kept fighting with a never-ending sense of urgency. He knew he could not lose such an important battle. If he lost, the demons would ensure that Robert would have a cloudy mind and would be easily killed by the Germans. Corbin was cutting and slicing his way towards the demon leader. He knew the leader was controlling many of the smaller minions. His death would cause chaos and most of the demons would simply flee from the battle without his control. Eventually, Corbin made it to the large and powerful demon leader. It swung it’s giant flaming siclde attempting to cut off one of Corbin’s wings. Ching! Corbin’s sword swung swiftly and stopped the deadly siclde’s decent just in time. The giant angel quickly swung his sword again and sliced its blade deep into the demon’s shoulder. It screamed in terror as the word of God tore into its evil flesh. Next, the master demon launched a huge fireball into the center of Corbin’s chest in retaliation, sending him flying back several yards and down to the ground clutching his horrible wound. The demon leader slowly approached the downed angel planning on finishing him off for good. Corbin used his sword as a crutch to help himself to his feet just before the demon approached. He mustered up some inner strength and swung the giant sword directly at the demon’s head. Putting up his sickle to block the attack, the demon leader was surprised to see the mighty angel’s sword cut straight through his weapon of evil and lop off his head. Almost immediately the hail of constant fireballs stopped and the remaining demons scattered in all directions. Corbin thought, “What a great battle! Praise God! Victory!” He fell to his knees with most of his energy having been sapped. He began to pray to the Lord for healing. A warm ow from heaven surrounded Corbin’s massive body. He was healed completely of all his wounds from the battle and he jumped up in renewed strength. Quickly, he flew into the air and began to look for Robert. The battle for the base had already begun. Corbin looked at his watch; only 5 minutes until the critical node split. He rushed to Robert who was at the time charging over the enemy held hill. Bullets zipped around him as the Germans tried to pick off the advancing Americans. He quickly jumped in front of Robert and ran along just ahead of him. Then Corbin saw what was going to happen. A soldier in the German bunker had several demons all around him whispering into his mind. The German loaded his weapon and took aim at the center of Robert’s chest. He slowly squeezed the trigger and his rifle cracked to life. Corbin quickly stopped time itself just before the bullet made impact with the center of Robert’s chest. The bullet was frozen in mid-air having been stopped in time. Corbin grabbed the bullet and moved it over a few feet to the right. The demons saw what the angel had done and began cursing him from the bunker. Corbin rushed over to the demons that were in the enemy camp and quickly slew them. He started up time and the critical node split appeared. The correct dimensional path was taken because of Corbin’s intervention. God’s plan worked! Corbin had successfully completed another mission for his Savior. All of heaven rejoiced as the thousands of souls that were saved as a result appeared in eternity. Robert’s great grandson was born in time and space and was a great spiritual warrior in his life leading thousands of souls to God, thus saving them from eternal damnation.


The Machine - short stories online

“Boy, this thing really does give you quite a workout, man,” Carl’s friend Dan said as he pulled against the massive spring on the new Workmaster II prototype. Carl was an inventor and a sort of jack-of-all-trades. His latest and greatest invention was that of the Workmaster II workout machine. Carl was excited that it worked and that it worked very well based on his guinea pig’s reports. Finally, he had constructed a viable product that actually might have a demand. Though he had been disappointed before, Carl hoped he could make some money this time for all of his endless effort. He had spent several months developing and designing the machine. This one had hope though, unlike some of this past attempts, such as the toilet seat warmer and the electric tape dispenser. His friend Dan hopped off of the contraption with sweat pouring off of his brow. “Hey, when you get this thing off of he ground let me know, I might buy one myself!” Carl smiled from ear to ear after hearing such positive feedback from his buddy. “Glad you like it. I’ll send you the first production model free of charge.” “Great, thanks,” Dan replied, “Look, I have to be going, but you keep up the good work.” “Thanks, see you later.” Carl was left with a sense of accomplishment as he excitedly contacted his financing business partner and let him know it was finally complete. Carl set up a demonstration of the new contraption with him for the next thy. Fortunately, he was very impressed with Carl’s machine and signed a contract with him to mass-produce the invention. He felt lucky that he had caught his backer on a good thy. Carl walked out of the meeting with a check for ten thousand dollars and a contract that allotted him 20% all sales thereafter. Finally, Carl had hit the jackpot. He was elated as he strolled into his bank to cash his fat reward for a job well done. He deposited his check except for $500.00 cash so he could celebrate with a grand night on the town. Several months later, Carl was watching T. V. late one night. An infomercial came on for his invention, the Workmaster II. Carl watched with excitement as the skimpily clad models exercised on his machine. They had almost perfect bodies with large powerful muscles. Every few minutes a toll free number popped onto the screen telling viewers to send $99.95 in and they too could look like the models did. Carl was delighted to see his unit being sold on national T. V. even though it was rather late at night. Carl became excited as he realized that he might actually make a fair amount of money in the coming months. At almost $20.00 a unit for his profit, he would be raking in the money. The next month, Carl received a check for $20,000.00! His infomercial was on almost every night now and even some Sunday’s during the day. He could not wait to see the next check. Carl called his business partner to inquire how thing had been going at the factory. Fortunately, he explained to Carl that the units were selling like hotcakes. They were having trouble keeping production up to match the tremendous demand for his new machine. Needless to say, Carl was floored. He had never in his wildest dreams thught that one of his inventions would do so well in the marketplace. Over the next six months, Carl’s bank account swelled to over a million dollars. He invested most of the money wisely so if future inventions were a flop, he would be covered financially. With that much money to spare, Carl took some time off He had finally made the big time and could afford not to have to work for a while, although he never dreamed of retiring. Carl loved to invent too much for that. One day, Carl’s new cell phone rang while he was enjoying a round of golf with his old friend Dan. It was his business partner on the line and he was somewhat upset. “What is the problem?” Carl asked. “Well, it seems that we have had a complaint from a customer that may present a problem in the future. It turns out that the customer was injured by the Workmaster II he had just bought last month. The main power spring snapped at its juncture with the sliding joint causing it to slam full force into the customer’s forehead. Unfortunately, this crushed his skull with relative ease causing instant death. Now, we haven’t had any more complaints as of yet, hopefully this incident is isolated, but you might want to get some advice on how to proceed from here from your lawyer.” “My lawyer? What do you mean my lawyer? I don’t have a lawyer. I signed over the production rights to your company. It is not my fault that one you your customers died,” Carl argued sensing that he may be in trouble. “If you will refer to your contract under section two, paragraph four, line 3, it reads: The original designer retains all liability in any case of design flaws whether perceived or real and agrees to hold J. K. manufacturing harmless. Like I said, Carl, you better talk with your lawyer. Hopefully, this one will go away though.” “I will have my lawyer call you. Goodbye!” He quickly hung up on his business partner of the past. Carl was notably upset over the situation. The next day he brought his contract to a local lawyer and retained his services. He left copies of all the documents and a $1,000.00 retainer fee. The lawyer promised to read over the legalese and call Carl with an English translation of his actual limit of liability at the end of the week. Two days later Carl started getting calls from angry relatives of customers who had bought his machine. J. K. manufacturing had started to refer the calls directly to Carl. Before the day was out, Carl had referred nine more people to his lawyer about injuries resulting from broken power springs. Unfortunately, several of them were complaining about fatalities. Carl began to get extremely worried. He tried to think of how he could have overlooked such an obvious design flaw when creating his machine. Carl immediately called his lawyer and inquired about the situation. Basically, his lawyer said he was screwed legally. He also demanded more money to defend the multitude of cases that had presented themselves. Carl coughed up ten thousand more dollars for him to do research and gather evidence in his defense. Over the next three months, Carl was served with twenty-three separate lawsuits by the local sheriff A recall of the units had already been set into motion by J. K. manufacturing but it was too late for many of the poor customers. Carl lost all of his newfound fortune on the defending and settling of the suits. Unfortunately, he had to claim bankruptcy before it was all over. A few weeks later, a giant body builder whose girlfriend had been killed on the Workmaster II assassinated Carl. It is always good advice that one should completely read the fine print carefully before signing anything at all. Unfortunately, Carl did not heed such advice and he was ruined as a result


The Long Hike - short stories online

Jane Serell was an attractive young brunette police officer for the Los Angeles City Police Department. She was twenty-five years old and single; a very stubborn and strong young lady. She had always wanted to be a police officer ever since she was a little girl. After much proving she had finally shook the ‘rookie’ status with her fellow officers after having been on the force for over three years. She, unfortunately, had to work extra hard because she was a female. The other officers were reluctant to let her into their ‘boy’s club’ of sorts. But, Jane was tough and could hold her own in a fight, so she earned their acceptance. She loved the outdoors and especially the woods. Hiking was one of her favorite activities and she went as often as possible when she had some time off She normally hiked the trails near her house. Since it was somewhat dangerous to hike alone for fear of both mountain lions and the two-legged predators who like attractive young ladies, Jane always carried her personally owned Beretta 92FS 9mm. The pistol was perfect for her since she could easily handle the mild recoil and liked the 15 round capacity. She usually carried two spare magazines along with a medley of other items like a cell phone and other emergency provisions, just in case something should happen and she would become stranded. Jane had cunningly swapped shifis with her fellow officers and manipulated her schedule to allow her to have off four days in a row. She had planned an extra long hike with a two-thy campout in between. Finally, the thy arrived and Jane hit the woods walking along the familiar winding trails. However, she was not going to take her usual route on this trip. She veered off the path once she had gotten a mile or so into the forest. Her compass would keep her from getting lost as she explored the exciting new terrain. After an hour or so of walking, the brush became rather thick so she pulled out her machete and began cutting a new path. She got through about a hundred yards or so of the thick vines before discovering a rather well hidden natural cave etched in to the mountainside. Jane knew there might be a bear or mountain lion that had claimed the cave first so she drew her Beretta in one hand and her Maglight in the other. Her eyes slowly began to adjust to the darkness as she crawled into the narrow opening. The cave opened to a larger cavern once she was several feet into it. Jane gasped at the beauty of the natural formation. She could readily stand up completely since there was so much room. It appeared that the cave had not been disturbed in a very long time. There were no traces of modem civilization anywhere in sight. No beer bottles, no trash, no junk — nothing. The brown limestone walls did not contain any drawings either, at least, not yet. Jane continued deeper into the cave, stepping over large rocks and winding passages looking for a suitable location to set up camp for the night. Some of the passages got quite narrow and she had to slither through them. Unfortunately, she had lost her bearing long before realizing that she should mark her path so she would be able to get back to the entrance. Deciding to go back to the larger first cave at the begimiing, Jane turned around. She did not recognize any of the openings behind her and just chose one. Jane knew she would be all right even though she was apparently lost in the labyrinth. She had four days worth of food and water and an extra set of batteries for her flashlight. However, she did have an uneasy feeling in the back of her head about the current situation. She pressed on through tight passages and winding areas until the cave opened up into a small room. However, this one was very different from the other room at the entrance. It had some rather strange drawings on the wall. Jane wondered how or why someone would go this deep into the cave to make the drawings. She shined her Maglight along the wall to tiy to make out the weird pictures. Something was different about these images — strange little quirks that made the picture bizarre. One of the pictures contained three moons above a strange looking people. All the beings were lined up in rows praying or bowing to a much larger being. The creatures were definitely not human but had some of the same basic features. A noticeable difference was the creature’s heads. They were much larger and had a weird ‘bug eye’ look to them with large black eyes. She also noticed that the brown limestone that was at the begimiing of the cave had been replaced by a more gray colored rock. Jane wondered at the strangeness of the room for a while then continued to search for the exit. She was definitely lost because the she did not recognize any of the formations. Eventually, Jane saw a dim light illuminating an area just ahead. Turning off her flashlight, she headed straight for the light. It seemed to be moonlight streaming in through a small opening. Jane looked at her watch and saw that it was only 4:00 PM. She had been lost for a while, but not long enough for it to be nighttime outside. She was barely able to slip her body through the tight opening — something she prided herself in knowing that most of the men on the force could not fit through such an opening. It seemed to be almost an overcast day with all of the reflected light that the three moons were throwing back to the nighttime alien world. Jane stared into the night sky at the three moons. “Where the heck am I?” she wondered, attempting to assess her surroundings. She was high up on a mountainside hundreds of feet above a tree line. The combination of the alien plants and the heavy moonlight sent chills up Jane’s spine. It was tmly an eerie sight to behold. She sat down for a minute to try to figure out what to do next and how she got where she was. “There has got to be an explanation for all of this,” she thought, “I must have hit my head in the cave and am dreaming this.” Jane pinched her arm to try to wake herself, but she knew she was not dreaming. She stared into the alien sky — all of the stars looked different. She could not find a single familiar constellation anywhere. The only possible explanation was that somewhere in the cave she had passed through a wonnhole in space-time and ended up in a cave on this alien world. Unfortunately, she did not even realize she had passed through it, since she had gotten lost. Jane’s mind wondered as she pondered the possibilities of what had occurred. She thought about going back into the cave to try to find her way back, but her adventuresome side wanted to go down the mountain and explore the area before going kme. She stood to her feet and began down the massive peak. After what seemed like forever, she reached the edge of the tree line. A most spectacular array of alien plants and trees greeted her. She held her Beretta at low-ready by her side just in case there were any hostile alien creatures about. Jane slowly crept into the midst of the alien trees. Most of them were of a bizarre variety that had three main branches coming off a center trunk at 120-degree angles. Then each branch had three sub-branches in the same fashion. Strange three spiked leaves covered the ends of each of the branches. Every once in a while, Jane heard a buzzing noise followed by a zip noise. At first, she did not know what the source was, but soon noticed the small flying creatures zipping around the trees and close to the ground. They moved so fast that it was hard for her to make out what they really looked like. However, they did not seem to mind that Jane was there, so she did not feel threatened by them. She continued down the mountain admiring all the strange flora and fauna as she went. With her pistol ready, Jane came upon a small village of mushroom shaped huts covered with strange diamond shaped leaves. Several creatures were moving around in the little village. It was the same creatures whose pictures were on the cave wall that came and greeted Jane with their spears in hand. One of the creatures began emitting a high pitched tone and dozens more of the creatures began to emerge from their huts. They were considerably shorter than Jane, only reaching her waist in height. Their bodies were a pale gray color with large black bug eyes. Jane backed up while pointing her gun at the aliens. There were many more creatures than she could possibly kill. She would mn out of bullets long before all of them would receive one. The creatures quickly surrounded Jane. She decided that she was going to wait to see what their first move would be. While it was probable that the loud pistol would frighten the aliens, it was also possible that the noise would cause them to attack. If they attacked her, they would almost certainly quickly overwhelm her. The aliens held her at spear point, as the village slowly became silent. A path opened up like a zipper in the a of aliens and a very large alien could be seen approaching. It looked similar to the smaller aliens but it was at least 2 V2 times larger. Several of the smaller aliens were carrying the larger creature on a strange platform. Once they got within fifteen feet of Jane they stopped and set the big one down. Unintelligible gibberish poured from what seemed to be a sideways mouth on the large alien. Then, all of the smaller aliens backed away from Jane and put their spears down. Several of the small beings brought a bowl of green glowing worm-like creatures and set them at Jane’s feet. The rather gross looking worms slithered in and out of each other in the alien bowl. It seemed as though they wanted to be friends and had made a peace offering to her. Jane pretended to accept the offer and knelt down next to the bowl. The creatures seemed pleased at her actions and began speaking to each other in a strange language. They prepared a grand feast and had a bizarre festival of sorts in honor of their newfound guest. Jane would not eat any of the weird food for fear of poisoning herself Instead, she pulled out a can of beef stew and ate that. She gave tastes of her stew to several of the aliens who seemed to like it. Hours passed and the three moons barely moved. Jane looked at her watch — 11:00 AN’l for earth time. She figured the day must be a lot longer on this planet. None of the aliens were getting tired, but Jane, having apparently stayed up all night, was exhausted. Finally feeling more comfortable with the little gray creatures, she found a soft spot in the leaves of one of the huts and fell fast asleep. The aliens watched her in amazement perplexed by her strange behavior. Jane woke up much later to see that the moons were still in the alien sky, although they were considerably lower. Her watch read 10:30 PM. She knew she needed to get back to the cave and find her way back as soon as possible. Jane tried to communicate to the beings that she had to leave, but they did not understand her. She walked out of the village and slowly headed up the alien mountainside. Somehow, the trek seemed longer on the way up, but eventually she was able to find the small entrance. Slipping through the hole, Jane clicked on her trusty flashlight. She began to look for the earth entrance by trying to take the most familiar looking path although she mostly guessed. Once again, Jane got quite lost in the winding labyrinth of endless rocky walls. Eventually she found the earth side entrance and made her way back to her home in California. Unfortunately, she did not mark the trail and was never able to find the strange cave again. She dared not tell anyone on the force of her bizarre adventure after finally gaining their trust. Even though, she continued to search for the cave for most of her career, she was never able to find it again. The Machine “Boy, this thing really does give you quite a workout, man,” Carl’s friend Dan said as he pulled against the massive spring on the new Workmaster II prototype. Carl was an inventor and a sort of jack-of-all-trades. His latest and greatest invention was that of the Workmaster II workout machine. Carl was excited that it worked and that it worked very well based on his guinea pig’s reports. Finally, he had constructed a viable product that actually might have a demand. Though he had been disappointed before, Carl hoped he could make some money this time for all of his endless effort. He had spent several months developing and designing the machine. This one had hope though, unlike some of this past attempts, such as the toilet seat warmer and the electric tape dispenser. His friend Dan hopped off of the contraption with sweat pouring off of his brow. “Hey, when you get this thing off of he ground let me know, I might buy one myself!” Carl smiled from ear to ear after hearing such positive feedback from his buddy. “Glad you like it. I’ll send you the first production model free of charge.” “Great, thanks,” Dan replied, “Look, I have to be going, but you keep up the good work.” “Thanks, see you later.” Carl was left with a sense of accomplishment as he excitedly contacted his financing business partner and let him know it was finally complete. Carl set up a demonstration of the new contraption with him for the next thy. Fortunately, he was very impressed with Carl’s machine and signed a contract with him to mass-produce the invention. He felt lucky that he had caught his backer on a good thy. Carl walked out of the meeting with a check for ten thousand dollars and a contract that allotted him 20% all sales thereafter. Finally, Carl had hit the jackpot. He was elated as he strolled into his bank to cash his fat reward for a job well done. He deposited his check except for $500.00 cash so he could celebrate with a grand night on the town. Several months later, Carl was watching T. V. late one night. An infomercial came on for his invention, the Workmaster II. Carl watched with excitement as the skimpily clad models exercised on his machine. They had almost perfect bodies with large powerful muscles. Every few minutes a toll free number popped onto the screen telling viewers to send $99.95 in and they too could look like the models did. Carl was delighted to see his unit being sold on national T. V. even though it was rather late at night. Carl became excited as he realized that he might actually make a fair amount of money in the coming months. At almost $20.00 a unit for his profit, he would be raking in the money. The next month, Carl received a check for $20,000.00! His infomercial was on almost every night now and even some Sunday’s during the day. He could not wait to see the next check. Carl called his business partner to inquire how thing had been going at the factory. Fortunately, he explained to Carl that the units were selling like hotcakes. They were having trouble keeping production up to match the tremendous demand for his new machine. Needless to say, Carl was floored. He had never in his wildest dreams thught that one of his inventions would do so well in the marketplace. Over the next six months, Carl’s bank account swelled to over a million dollars. He invested most of the money wisely so if future inventions were a flop, he would be covered financially. With that much money to spare, Carl took some time off He had finally made the big time and could afford not to have to work for a while, although he never dreamed of retiring. Carl loved to invent too much for that. One day, Carl’s new cell phone rang while he was enjoying a round of golf with his old friend Dan. It was his business partner on the line and he was somewhat upset. “What is the problem?” Carl asked. “Well, it seems that we have had a complaint from a customer that may present a problem in the future. It turns out that the customer was injured by the Workmaster II he had just bought last month. The main power spring snapped at its juncture with the sliding joint causing it to slam full force into the customer’s forehead. Unfortunately, this crushed his skull with relative ease causing instant death. Now, we haven’t had any more complaints as of yet, hopefully this incident is isolated, but you might want to get some advice on how to proceed from here from your lawyer.” “My lawyer? What do you mean my lawyer? I don’t have a lawyer. I signed over the production rights to your company. It is not my fault that one you your customers died,” Carl argued sensing that he may be in trouble. “If you will refer to your contract under section two, paragraph four, line 3, it reads: The original designer retains all liability in any case of design flaws whether perceived or real and agrees to hold J. K. manufacturing harmless. Like I said, Carl, you better talk with your lawyer. Hopefully, this one will go away though.” “I will have my lawyer call you. Goodbye!” He quickly hung up on his business partner of the past. Carl was notably upset over the situation. The next day he brought his contract to a local lawyer and retained his services. He left copies of all the documents and a $1,000.00 retainer fee. The lawyer promised to read over the legalese and call Carl with an English translation of his actual limit of liability at the end of the week. Two days later Carl started getting calls from angry relatives of customers who had bought his machine. J. K. manufacturing had started to refer the calls directly to Carl. Before the day was out, Carl had referred nine more people to his lawyer about injuries resulting from broken power springs. Unfortunately, several of them were complaining about fatalities. Carl began to get extremely worried. He tried to think of how he could have overlooked such an obvious design flaw when creating his machine. Carl immediately called his lawyer and inquired about the situation. Basically, his lawyer said he was screwed legally. He also demanded more money to defend the multitude of cases that had presented themselves. Carl coughed up ten thousand more dollars for him to do research and gather evidence in his defense. Over the next three months, Carl was served with twenty-three separate lawsuits by the local sheriff A recall of the units had already been set into motion by J. K. manufacturing but it was too late for many of the poor customers. Carl lost all of his newfound fortune on the defending and settling of the suits. Unfortunately, he had to claim bankruptcy before it was all over. A few weeks later, a giant body builder whose girlfriend had been killed on the Workmaster II assassinated Carl. It is always good advice that one should completely read the fine print carefully before signing anything at all. Unfortunately, Carl did not heed such advice and he was ruined as a result.


The Hole - free short stories

Andy was a young man who had just turned thirteen last week. His mother had a small party for him with some of his friends over and a cake. Andy did not come from a rich fitmily, though he never went hungry. His father worked hard for the money that he brought home for his family. Andy and his fitmily lived in a small house out in the country. Often, Andy’s father would take him on his days off camping in the woods near his house. He looked forward to the camping trips with his son because they had so much fun together. Andy absolutely loved the woods. He would sometimes get his camping gear together and take hikes to explore the area even when his dad was not around. Although he knew the trails that ran throughout the area like the back of his hand since he spent most of his free time there, he was not yet allowed to spend the night out there without his father being present. His solo hikes and his hikes with his friends always had to end before dark. Next week was the beginning of the summer vacation and the end to all those books for a while. Andy and his best friend, Robert, had planned on taking their first camping trip alone in the woods — without Andy’s father. After months of begging his parents he finally convinced them to let him and Robert go alone. Andy’s father had trained him well and knew that Andy would be all right by himself for just one night. However, deep in his heart he was torn. He knew that Andy was getting old enough and responsible enough to handle himself unsupervised, but he was hurt that his son did not want him along on this trip. It seemed to him that Andy was just getting too old too fast. As the final bell rang dismissing school for the summer, a great roar of kids poured out of the buildings. Excitedly, Andy jumped on the bus for the last time that school year. Robert had already beat Andy to the bus and had saved him a seat. “Well it is about time we got done with this year, man. I did not think it was ever going to be over,” Andy shouted over the gleeful screams of the many kids on the bus. “I know what you mean; it seemed to drag on forever,” Robert answered. “Hey. my dad just bought me a new backpack for this weekend. It is awesome,” Andy blurted with excitement. “It has pockets all over the outside and it holds lots of stuff.” “Cool man, where did he get it?” inquired Robert with a touch of envy in his voice. “I think he got it at the Army surplus store in town. It looks like it is an Army style backpack.” Andy was ready to leave for the woods and had completely packed last night after his father presented him with the gift. “What time do you want to leave tomorrow, man?” Andy asked impatiently. “I figure if we leave for 2pm we will have enough daylight to set up camp and cut firewood.” “Sound’s good,” Andy replied. The two lived within a country block of each other and had been friends for as long as they could remember. After arriving home the two boys got together at Robert’s house and spent the rest of the afternoon packing and plamiing what they were going to do on the trip. Neither of the boys were able to sleep well that night due to the excitement. Finally, 2:00 came and Andy and Robert strapped on their boots and put on their camouflage camping clothes. “I can’t believe we are finally going without your dad here tagging along.” “Yeah, although he wasn’t ever that bad. I mean, I am kinda going to miss him this time.” “Are you kidding? We will have a blast without anyone else there” “I suppose so, but we can make it without him, right?” asked Andy with a hint of apprehension leaking from his voice. “Of course we can. We have camped in these woods more times than you can shake a stick at. We have it down pat — no problem, man.” Andy was reassured by Robert’s confidence in their ability, although deep inside he was just a bit scared. Andy strapped on his trusty survival knife. The knife, although only a piece of steel, gave Andy a feeling that he could handle any problems that might occur in the night. Nothing had ever happened on any previous camping trips to worry Andy, but without his dad there it would be somewhat different. “Now you be back here by lOam tomorrow,” Andy’s mother stated, her voice somewhat shaky and uncertain about the situation. Her baby was now old enough to camp on his own and she did not have the strength that her husband had about these things. “Please..., Please, if anything happens y’all come home tonight. I know you both know what you are doing, but I still wony about my baby.” “Come on mom, I am not a baby. I’ll be all right. It is not like I am going away forever. I’ll be back in the morning.” “I know honey. Just promise me you will be careful.” “I promise mom.” Andy gave his mom a warm hug. “See you tomorrow Ms. Bauman.” “0. K. Robert. You be careful, too.” Andy’s mom waived as the two gear laden boys disappeared down the road heading towards the woods at the dead end. Stopping at the beginning of the trail, the two young campers doused each other with bug repellant. The mosquitoes got big in the woods near Andy’s house. Without repellent they would be miserable all night in the summer heat being eaten alive. Happy to be free for the night, the two strolled down the trail while keeping a sharp eye out for snakes along the way. After hiking quite some distance, they finally arrived at the campsite and dropped the heavy gear they were canying. The site was well established and was nestled in a bend of a small creek. There was a little bench made of two Yshaped logs stuck in the ground with a small diameter limbless tree for a cross bar. The firepit was already dug in the center of the camp. Small clearings dotted the perimeter where the boys had set their tents on previous trips. The campsite was well maintained and not trashy. Andy had been taught by his father to leave the campsite cleaner than he found it if he could. A thin coat of yellow pollen covered the leaves that Andy brushed away from his tent clearing. A piney odor flowed through the woods riding on a cool breeze as the two quickly set up camp. Having set up their tents many times before, they were done in short order. “Well, let’s get firewood for the night,” Andy stated as he passed a small hand axe to Robert and pulled out his machete. They knew exactly what to look for: dry, dead, standing wood. “You go and look over there and I will start on this side of the camp,” said Andy stepping into the woods. Robert jumped off the bench and went the other way with the axe in hand. After an hour, the two had collected a small pile of wood that stood at least three feet high. It was plenty enough to make it through the night. “I think that is enough,” said Andy dropping his machete with sweat pouring off his brow. Robert looked at Andy with a doubtful glance. “We need more than that, man. We will bum that up halfway through the night!” “That IS enough!” argued Andy. “Look, lets just get a little more just in case. I hate looking for wood after dark.” “Yeah but there is no more around here, at least not anywhere near the site.” “Sure there is... You just didn’t look hard enough,” Robert argued his point. “All right. I guess you are right. It is kind of a pain in the butt to find wood after dark,” Andy reluctantly agreed, “Let’s look on the other side of the old barb wire fence.” “That is too far, besides it would be difficult to get the wood through that old, msty, tangled mess.” “NO — you insisted we get more wood. There is no more around here, so lets check over there,” Andy stated flnnly as he stood up and grabbed his machete. The boys had never gone to the other side of the old wire fence. It had long since been overgrown. The wire passed through the center of large trees at some points indicating that it had been wrapped around the tree when it was very young. Normally too far and too dangerous to cross for fear of a nasty puncture wound, the two headed in the direction of the fence with no father there to stop them. “We haven’t ever been able to cross this thing with your dad around, man.” “I know. I was just thinking about that. It is going to be fun exploring a new area.” The two approached the rusty tangle and scanned the line to see if they could find a good place to breech it. “We will cross there, where the pole is down,” Andy suggested. “I’ll hold it for you first, then you hold it for me,” Robert grabbed the top wire pulling it up and stepped in between two of the barbs pushing the middle wire down. Andy gazed past the fence into the thick unkempt woods behind and wondered for just a moment whether or not he was making the appropriate decision. After all, they only needed a bit of wood. After the battling thoughts in his mind had cleared, the adventuresome side of Andy took over and he stepped through the gaping hole in the fence. Almost immediately Andy recoiled in fear pulling his leg back with a quick jerk. He had almost stepped on a coiled up rattlesnake waiting for him just on the other side. “Whoa, look out!” he yelped to Robert who quicldy let go of the fence. The two boys looked at each other and simultaneously said, “That was close!” “Let’s cross further down.” “Yeah, let’s.” Moving out of the snake’ s immediate range, the boys crossed the fence about 20 feet down. “Look, there is a couple of dead trees we could use,” Andy pointed out after crossing. They proceeded to chop the small dead trees down and drag them t the side of the fence. “Let’s get a couple of more pieces and then we will throw it all over the fence and head back to camp.” “0. K.,” agreed Robert. “Let’s check over that hill.” Once they reached the top of the hill the two boys’ mouths dropped open wide and they stared in amazement at what they saw just on the other side. There was a giant hole in the ground at least 15 feet wide sloping down into the darkness. The edges were covered in brush and it was obvious that nobody had disturbed the hole in a very long time. “Wow! Check it out, man!” exclaimed Robert after picking up his jaw. “This is awesome!” After all the many trips into the woods over a lifetime of thirteen years, Andy had never come across such a sight. A powerful force quickly drew he boys to the edge of the hole. “We gotta go check it out man. We can’t just leave this alone,” begged Robert. Andy looked suspiciously at Robert, “What? You want to go down there?” “Yeah!” Robert shouted. “I dunno man, we don’t know what is down there,” Andy blurted. “Besides, what if we got lost?” Robert, sensing Andy really wanted to go too, tried again to convince him. “Come on, it will be fun!” Andy picked up a stick and threw it into the hole. Nothing happened for a moment, and then the stick could be heard sliding down a long slope deep inside. “Well, we need to go back and get our flashlights for sure.” “Yes! I knew you really wanted to go. Come on!” The two forgot completely about the wood piled up by the fence waiting to be chopped up and scrambled through the rusty barbwire like a couple of wet fish. “Bring your knife as well, Robert,” warned Andy expecting the worst. The two quickly grabbed only the essentials from their backpacks: water, a bit of food, flashlights, and a few other items. They left most of their gear at the site in anticipation of a quick return after exploring the interesting hole. Bubbling with excitement, they slid back through the rusty wires that for so long before had kept them from discovering the hole. They climbed the bill again and quickly slid down the other side clicking on their flashlights. Very little could be seen down in the hole since the sun was still up. Deep and dark, it seemed to just eat the light and not give a glimpse of what it contained in return. “We are going to have to go down if we want to see what is in there, y’know.” “Well Robert, Let’s go!” They started into the gaping hole squinting to adjust to the lack of light. The hole maintained it’s giant 15-foot diameter well into the darkness. It sloped down rapidly, but it was not steep enough to cause them to fall. Slowly their eyes adjusted and they were able to see better than before. The walls of the hole consisted of compressed earth with pieces of rock embedded within. It had a red clay-like appearance the deeper they went. Andy reached over and touched the wall and pulled off a chunk smashing it in between his fingers. It seemed like normal dirt but had some sort of slime-like substance holding it together. “What the heck made this kind of hole?” Andy wondered out loud. His voice echoed down the hole indicating that it was much deeper than they had at first thought. Slowly they crept down into the strange hole shining their lights before them into the darkness trying to make out what lied ahead. They turned and looked back the way they had came and were astonished to see the light of day so far up the steep slope. “Man, this thing is deep!” Robert exclaimed, “This is so cool!” “Maybe we should go back; we can’t even see the bottom.” “Aw come on,” Robert prodded, “It is probably right in front of us. It is just that our flashlights aren’t too good. Let’s keep going.” They pressed deeper into the mysterious hole of unknown origin. After walking down for quite some distance the floor began to slowly level off from its slope and begin a series of curves. Astonishingly, the hole kept its gaping size and did not get any smaller as one would expect. At this point, the boys could see no daylight at all. They were solely using their flashlights to provide the light they needed to see. Andy’s light caught a glimpse of something white poking out of the hard dirt floor just ahead of them. “Look, what the heck is that?” Andy asked while pointing at the object. “I don’t know. Let’s go see. It is too far away right now,” Robert answered. As they approached it seemed at first to be a white stick poking out of the ground, but to their horror they perceived it to be a bone once they got close. It was old and looked like it had been there for some time. They tried but could not figure out what animal it could have possibly have come from. “Maybe it is human.” Robert’s voice was cracking. “I doubt it. Don’t be silly. It was probably some poor animal that wandered into the hole and got lost. It couldn’t be human,” Andy replied with a hidden inner uncertainly. Robert nodded as he gulped and they kept going deeper into the unknown. Eventually, the hole came to a rather large room. The ceiling opened up and the vast room seemed to go on forever. Their flashlights quickly became useless as they just faded into the endless darkness. “Hey!” Andy shouted just to see how big the room was. It echoed with grandness. “This place is huge.” Suddenly, the boys froze with terror gripping their hearts. They could hear something walking in the same room. Their instincts quickly told them they were in trouble. Adrenaline coursed through their veins and chilled them to their bones. “What the heck was that?” Robert could barely get the words out. “I don’t know but we better get out of here now!” The two turned and began to run liii! force. They could hear something huge slumbering about and chasing them. The boys filled the room with screams as they ran aimlessly. With no walls to guide them they quickly lost their bearings in the darkness. For the moment the noise following them stopped. They slowed their frantic pace of rumiing with their flashlights shining in all directions. They stopped and turned desperately shining their lights behind them to see what was making the freighting noise. Nothing could be seen. “0. K. Be quiet... Shhh!” Andy said, straining to hear the recently stopped tenifying noise over his heavy breathing and pounding heart. The silence in the cave was deafening. “We need to find the entrance hole and get out now, man. Something is in here with us,” Robert panted. “We just can’t hear it now.” Then it started again in the darkness just beyond the flashlight’s reach. It was sort of a dragging sound with intemiittent giant earthshaking footsteps. Fear once again gripped their hearts. It felt like their chests were going to explode. They frantically attempted to shine their lights towards the noise. They could barely make out the silhouette of a giant creature. Their lights reflected off its eyes making them glow like a cat’s eyes in headlights. They were spaced apart by at least a foot, although it was difficult to tell how far away the creature was in the darkness. “That thing looks like it is at least 15 feet tail!” Andy cried in fear. Suddenly the creature let out the most horrible noise that sounded like a cross between a terrible lion and an angry monkey screaming. Andy and Robert looked at each other with their eyes wide in horror. Both of them were pale white with fear. It seemed like they both wanted to say something, but the words would not come out properly, only incoherent babbling. They turned and began running again — anywhere, just away from the noise. The boys easily outran the slow-moving creature finally mnning into the giant room’s wall. They quickly turned out their flashlights and listened for the noises. They could hear it far away from their present location but still echoing loudly in the large room with them. “Come on, let’s follow the wall by feeling it until we find the exit hole.” Making sure the creature stayed far away, they made their way around and finally found the entrance. Quickly, they jogged up the long seemingly endless tunnel. Upon exiting the hole, they found that night had already iàllen. “Somehow I don’t feel like camping tonight, man,” Robert blurted. “Me neither — lets pack up and head home,” Andy replied while trying to catch his breath. It was the fastest pack up and tent takedown they had ever done. They pulled out of the campsite after loading themselves with their gear and hit the trail heading home. “Look, do you think anyone will believe us if we tell them what happened?” Robert asked. “Of course not, man. They will think we are crazy.” “Well, what are we going to do?” “We are going to keep quiet about this,” Andy stated with sincerity. “But why? We need to tell our parents what happened.” “Are you crazy — we finally convinced them to let us go camping alone and you want to give them a crazy story and make them never trust us by ourselves again? Think about it, man.” “Yeah, you know you are right. We better keep quiet about this or we will never be able to do anything else alone,” Robert realized. “We are just gonna tell them you had a stomach ache.” Andy’s plan worked and their parents never found out the real reason they came home early on that trip. Andy and Robert vowed to go back to the hole one day when they were bigger and with better equipment. Their hearts were filled with wonder and fear as they grew up thinking about the mysterious hole and the strange creature. Until the thy they return, they will never know what was at the bottom of ‘the hole’.