"One scoop chocolate one scoop..." the blonde girl behind the counter moved almost mechanically as she expertly balanced four scoops of smooth ice cream on a giant waffle cone.
"And some sprinkles, please." The girl cast a tired glance in the direction of the little curly haired boy staring up at her expectantly. A smile made its way onto the girl's face as she dusted the last scoop with colorful sprinkles and handed it to the boy. His eyes lit up as he looked at the wonderful treat in his hands.
"Don't drop it," The warning came from over the...
She felt like she was drowning. All around her there was water. Freezing. Churning. Flowing. Pulling her and dragging her in multiple directions. She tried to fight against it. Tried hard to kick out with her legs, pull the surface towards her with her arms. But no matter how hard she tried she didn't move, not in the direction that she wanted. It was like the water was a womb and she was trapped inside, a helpless foetus, attached.
As the oxygen in her lungs ran out, and her chest tightened so that she felt like her torso was close...
The year was 1986 and Prince had just released his second motion picture, Under the Cherry Moon. It was a black and white movie and Prince spent much of it singing cool songs like KISS and GIRLS AND BOYS. He played a character named Christopher Tracy.
This is one thing that happened in 1986.
Other things that happened in 1986:
- A little girl in Columbus, Ohio walked down to neighbourhood 7-Eleven and bought a bag of Doritos.
- Some kid somewhere bought an old Chewbacca action figure for 10 cents at a garage sale.
- Only three e-mails were...
The people in the cafe continued talking as I stood to look at the door. Still not here. I glanced at my watch. Dash it all, I was going to be late to my meeting. He would not be getting dinner tonight, oh no. My husband wasn't one for standing me up, though...whatever. He's not here, and I have to go. I walked out of the cafe, jogging down the stairs and out. What I saw I will never forget. My husband's car and another one in flames down the street, an obvious car crash. My heart stopped then started...
The Earth hung there in the window, a massive disk of blue and white fixed against the uniform blackness of space. The sun's light illuminated the nearer half of the globe; through the clouds Jolene could see a glimpse of North America.
"What is this?!" she demanded, her fear magnified into true panic. "What is this, some kind of trick? Who are you? Answer me!"
"It is no trick," replied the computerized voice. "I am someone you know well, but I must not tell you now. There is not much time; you must do exactly as I say."
"What? Why...
Holly scrutinized the first sentence of her novel. It was odd how not reading it for months had given her a wildly new perspective. When she was writing it, she'd been too close to the material, she hadn't been objective, hadn't made herself consider the fact that she was wrong in anything that she did. There were mental grooves worn deep in her mind that only now were swept away like footprints in the snow.
It ... sucked.
The ecstasy of seeing her work in print was instantly deflated by how awful she judged it to be. A single sentence...
The results were in. Now all I had to do was decide whether to go and get them. They wouldn't tell me over the phone, despite my rather pathetic begging. It wasn't done, it wasn't their procedure. It had to be done face to face.
I doubted that good news would have to be done face to face. If it was good news surely they would have said, "It's good news, you don't have to worry any more, you don't have it."
Because that was easy. I would be delighted, of course, and the person on the other end of...
*Note: the story you are about to read was based on a true story
The earthquake hadn't worried us too much. I mean, come on, we were on vacation. Worries are far away when I am on vacation. My wife and I were sitting on the beach enjoying the beautiful evening together after the earthquake when I had a startling thought falsh through my mind. "Honey, don't tsunami's usually happen after earthquakes like that?" "Yeah." "Well, I suppose we'll leave if the water starts to disappear." Well, after a few minutes, that was what happened. The water disappeared. I could...
Contemptlation of the one. The flame at the center of life. Beginning and end. No beginning, no end.
It's my birfday.
The children huddled around the flame, discussing what was to be done. One suggested that the only possible route was violence, the violence of the oppressed masses against their oppressor. Another suggested that they might take more subtle means of gaining control of the classroom, gain partisans. The teacher came in, and they blew out the candle, acting as though nothing had happened.
Every child around the cake wished that it was his birthday, that he could be the...
Elisha, let me tell you, I love being out here. Hearing the ocean roar like it do, by golly, it's like the glorious music of the spheres.
Drowns out the screaming of our victims, too. Why they have to scream like that, Elisha? Don't they know we're just helping them reincarnate into the next evolution of the species? Damn ungrateful, ain't it.
Whats the matter, Elisha? You don't look so chipper all of a sudden. Are we out of fishing line? We need the lines to be thick and taut, so we can hang them upside down until the blood...