From "The Vagabond King" by James Conway

Like some impassioned conquistador, driven mad from the heat and humidity of the deepest jungle, I slashed my way through the vines and undergrowth and longed to lay siege to her city, that legendary city of gold that all boys my age know must exist. For, behind the walls of that city, was a secret garden where nightingales sang, fountains laughed beneath the stars and plump, pendulous fruits strained at the bending branches of trees. And, enclosed behind the high walls of her most secret garden, grew the rarest of flowers which opened its velvet petals and unfolded its musty fragrance beneath the yellow moon.

From "My ArmOR" by Cynthia Meyers-Hanson

I was thrown- like a rag doll- crushing my left arm; a ‘man of the cloth’ delivers an explanation for my fall...

 

“What’s a deliverance minister do? Does he play a banjo riverside?” I joked.

 

“It’s similar to an exorcist,” My brother explained.  

 

I dodged thoughts as my sibling, an ex-preacher, spoke about freeing evil entities. “It’s scary work!”  Before I asked for clarification, he continued, “When you goad an evil spirit, they attack more trying to control you.  If you free them from entanglement with another’s soul, they need a place to go so they haunt and taunt you.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“They need to own a body, so they come after you.”

 

Days later, I stood with a Deliverance Minister joking about dueling banjos.  He prayed over some people asking God to relieve them of curses and sins as well as show them the path away from the power of the devil.  A mighty wind blew in as he prayed; when some of us gathered looked up a nearby car had a message license plate that read, “Get Out!” How apropos!

From "Charlinder's Walk" by Alyson Miers

Charlinder, a resident of the post-Plague village of Paleola, tells his uncle, Roy, about his plan to investigate the end of the previously known world...

 “I want to go to Italy,” he shared. Maybe it was the early hour, or the comfort of knowing what he needed to do.

Roy blinked, his face otherwise blank, his movement arrested. He looked the way Charlinder had felt when Robert had asked to speak to his students.

“To research the Plague where it started,” he explained before his uncle could ask.

“Right,” said Roy. “How are you going to get there?”

“I’m gonna walk.”

“You can’t walk across an ocean.”

“I mean, I’d go west. Then I’d just need a boat to get across the Bering Strait, and from there it’s all land.”

“Do you have any idea how long it would take just to get that far?”

“I know I’m looking at a long time, but it’ll be worth the trouble in the end.”

“When did you get this idea?”

“Last night, it came to me.”

“How about what you’d eat? Where you’d sleep? How you’d stay on course? What you’d wear in the cold? Did that come to you last night?”

“I’m working on all that.”

“Really.”

“Yes! This question needs an answer, and I’m gonna bring it home.”

From "The Vagabond King" by James Conway

The morning after my mother’s death, I was surprised to see the sunrise. From behind the curtain of my bedroom window I was surprised to see the people leave their homes and begin the day. Downstairs, the hands of the grandfather clock continued to tick, marking each passing hour with a chime that echoed over the black and white chessboard tiles of the front hall. I was surprised to see the mail come at the same time as the day before and, later that evening, the sun set once more as it did since the beginning of time. My mother’s death did not disturb the planets in their courses. And, though everything kept moving like she never existed at all, my world erupted into chaos until the universe swirled around me like a whirlpool of scattering stars.

From "The Vagabond King" by James Conway

The morning after my mother’s death, I was surprised to see the sunrise. From behind the curtain of my bedroom window I was surprised to see the people leave their homes and begin the day. Downstairs, the hands of the grandfather clock continued to tick, marking each passing hour with a chime that echoed over the black and white chessboard tiles of the front hall. I was surprised to see the mail come at the same time as the day before and, later that evening, the sun set once more as it did since the beginning of time. My mother’s death did not disturb the planets in their courses. And, though everything kept moving like she never existed at all, my world erupted into chaos until the universe swirled around me like a whirlpool of scattering stars.

It's All From "About Me!: A Soul Surfer's Guide to Happiness Through the Mastery of Self" by Tim McAuley

I had been struggling with my conceptualization of God and making sense of the world.  My friend Chris Cram decided to teach me the real meaning of a "Power Greater than the Self" by taking me surfing......I nearly drowned, but his point was understood:

They each took turns explaining just what to do in order to not get killed when attempting to drop in on those waves. Then they each took turns demonstrating.  As Cram followed the procession of surfers off the point at

Trestles he said to me, “Take the next wave, so I can be in position just in case something goes wrong.”

I guess I really should have taken that as a cue not to take the next wave.  But I didn’t.  

I paddled myself into position at the peak of the wave, trying my best to point the nose of the board at an angle.  I popped up just like I was instructed.  I remember thinking something about how much steeper this wave was than the wave I used to attempt to surf just a mile or two down the coast nicknamed San O.

I think I was still contemplating that angle and power of the wave as my face planted into the bottom of it.  I can’t really recall what I was thinking when that ton of water landed on my body and pushed me down beneath the murky, salty surface of the breaker zone at Lower Trestles.

From "Haunted Ground: Ghost Photos from the Gettysburg Battlefield" by Hollister Ann Grant

In the late 1990s, when Jack and I were living in Washington, D.C., we’d escape the city on weekends. We’d get up before dawn, jump in our little green Hyundai, grab some coffee and donuts at the Safeway, and drive 90 miles north to Gettysburg. Jack was an avid Civil War buff and always had five or six books going about the battle. We’d spend hours retracing troop movements and photographing the boulder-strewn hills.

One Saturday Jack told me he’d read about a haunted field behind Devil’s Den. The Den is a spectacular group of boulders on the southern side of the battlefield. Brutal fighting took place there on the second day of the three day battle.

“People say a ghost interferes with cameras and video equipment,” Jack said.

The idea of a camera-wrecking ghost made me gleeful.

“Oh, wow, let’s go, then,” I told him.

We were using a film camera at the time. I can’t remember the brand, but the camera was fairly new and took good quality photos. The batteries were new, too. I’d purchased them the day before and remember peeling the package open and fitting them inside the camera.

From "Saw a Rainbow" by Bryan R. Dennis

Rain in Las Vegas was like an old man trying to pee -- it took forever to start and only dribbled for a moment. Dante staggered to his doorstep late that afternoon, just as a few fat raindrops splattered around his feet. His eyes blinked at the atrophic sunlight, at the dirty gray clouds smearing the sky.

Quiet thunder rumbled far away between drops.

He went inside. The house felt empty and the air stale, silent except for a clock ticking in the living room. Paige hadn’t returned from work yet. He still had time to clean himself up and wash his clothes before she found out. Worse than explaining where he disappeared to last night, would be the additional headache of trying to explain the blood.

After stripping in the laundry room, he tossed the bloody clothes into the washing machine. Then he went into the bathroom and showered. While in the shower, he scrubbed beneath his nails and clipped them as low as possible. Afterwards, he scrubbed at them again.

He couldn’t scrub them enough.

From "Versistasis" by Jason Jowett

About a reflection over an ex-boyfriend, from the heroin on her honeymoon...


“This condensed vibration, shaped like a demonic incursion over the tribulation of marriage, was Natasha’s pride and joy to overcome. She thought of him; she thought of the love of him when she glimpsed something; it had reminded her of Damien, somehow, something of hers that he had treasured. Shortly before uniting with her husband, this which would bind all of their victories, she thought gracefully for him. Then that thing she had recognised, the thing the Party would recognise too, they would take. They would take it from the physical realm and place it elsewhere by the inter-dimensional crossroads, also like a thing on the table. This loss in time-space would come to be noticed eventually, and that knowledge then led the Party to the route that was forbidden, where they would blockade the way that was leading to Great Suffering”

From "Bones" by Margaret Karmazin

Grandmother tells Eyes-of-Wolf about the night of her birth...

"The night you came into the world was in the middle of the longest winter we had had in many years.  People were beginning to believe it was never going to end and that we had reached another Great Change.  The wolves were all over the land, keening and howling and at night mothers held their children close for fear the animals were so hungry that they might oevercome their usual respect for the people and enter our villages for prey.  Your mother was overdue with you, a good half moon over. Her belly was so big we teased her that she was carrying a buffalo.........

When she slid you out, everyone gasped in wonder!"

"Oh, why did they gasp?" asked Eyes-of-Wolf when she knew perfectly well why.

From "Orange Petals in a Storm" by Niamh Clune

Eleven year old, recently orphaned, Skyla McFee, runs through the streets of London and takes shelter in St. Peter's Church...

The Church bell chimed the passing of another hour. At last, when all was quiet and the rain-sodden, glistening street slept, she crossed the road and opened the iron gate. Descending the steep, stone steps to the lower garden level, she hid amongst the shadows. Moving quietly with their slowly unfolding motions and shapes, she had little to fear from such as these. Those silent inhabitants of her once beloved garden had been her friends. Once again, they cloaked her well, enabling her to move to the garden’s end. Passing beneath the rose bushes, she sought out the loose plank. Though she searched, carefully feeling the edge of each one, she could not find the plank that would give her entry into the builder’s yard. Her final vestiges of strength and determination ebbed away into the saturated earth. Sinking into the mud, she curled up into a tiny ball and gave herself up to the rain.

From "Replacing Fiona" by Margaret Karmazin

The spirit of a 94 year old woman has reluctantly agreed to inhabit the body of a teenage suicide and is waking up in her new "vehicle"...

    She did not open the body’s eyes for some time.  It was terrifying enough to find herself inside the body, let alone looking around outside of it.  The utter confusion of remembering two lives at once was overwhelming.  For reasons unknown, the Counsel had not erased what she recalled from being Josephine Weldon.  She had assumed that they would, as they normally did for any new incarnation, but instead, she was remembering her former life and now the new details of this one stored in this body’s brain.  How was she supposed to handle all of this simultaneously?

    She groaned and understood that she was in pain - quite nasty pain, as a matter of fact.  They had a tube down her throat and what on earth were they doing?  Oh my God, what were they doing?  Her eyes flew open as she tried to cough but found she could not.

From "The Afternet" by Peter Empringham

Saint Peter walked across and gently touched the cool metal jacket of the nearest processor. In front of him was a big red button, flashing rhythmically; as a reflex it created in him a desperate need to press.

‘What’s this?’ he pointed to the button.

Saraswati did some kind of extraordinary shimmy with her arms, like an epileptic fit at a darts tournament, then smiled at him benignly.

‘It sets the machine running. Press it, and all of the admissions to Heaven and Hell will be performed by this machine. Let’s face it, you’re eight hundred years old and you can’t cope with the workload you have now. Imagine what it’s going to be like when they really start going at it.’

Peter looked from the smiling deity back to the sweep of the enormous lighted room and then his eye was drawn to the flashing red button. No more whining usurers, loan sharks, stinking thieves, beggars, devil worshippers, sister-, daughter-, brother-, son-, or motherf*@!rs demanding their place in heaven. Conversely, no innocents, blessed children, good Samaritans, devoted worshippers…Saraswati began to play Greensleeves. Saint Peter pressed the button.

From "The Astrology of Love - A Matchmaker's Guide to The Universe " by Suzanne White

144 sign Combos (Chinese &
Western) reveal your best  compatibilities in LOVE. Ratings as follows
4 hearts = Bed of Roses :
3 hearts = Bed and Breakfast
2 hearts = Breakfast in Bed
1 heart =   Pillow Fights
 No Hearts = Bed of Nails

RAT with OX - Gets 3 1/2 Hearts

The undisputed name of this game is stability. Oxen settle Rats down.
Rats enliven Oxen. For a marriage, what could be better? Well, a lot
of things could, but we won’t go into that now. If you are a Rat
seeking a partner or an Ox looking for a mate, I would suggest you do
some serious prospecting. The Rat initiates action, the Ox gives a
mighty bulldozing push. Then the Rat takes the ball and runs it to the
goal. It’s a sound (if not hilarious) long-term commitment.

From "The Little Universe" by Jason Matthews

Imagine creating a universe and searching within it for planets with life. What might you find?

“We have society! Pinching myself. Yesterday they were primates. Grooming parasites, eating reeds. Today they’re driving! Just fifty thousand orbits? How could they evolve so quickly? I need to know. We looked for the link but nothing yet. Possible I missed something, but what? Jim’s going over the logs, maybe he’ll find it. Mind’s a blur—thoughts won’t stop—could go on all night. Need to rest, hope I can. Wish Rose could have seen this.”
- from p. 66 of Webster’s journal.

From "Big Dragons Don't Cry" by C.M. Barrett

Three cats on a mission are looking for a female to become the mother of a Chosen kitten.


They all stared at Emerald. She lifted her dragging butt and hissed at them. “Is this your idea of a joke? Is this like the human saying, ‘Nice kitty,’ and then starting a torture trip? Because if you’re telling me that an alley cat who’s never been more than two blocks from this warehouse is part of some damn Prophecy, you’re seriously messed up.”

Orion turned the full strength of his gaze on her, and she was ready to take back everything she’d said. The sight of him took her over the top, transforming raw desire into a hunger she’d never known. She wanted to rub her cheek against his gleaming, striped fur. She longed for his teeth to bite into the nape of her neck and to feel his lean, muscular weight pinning her down.

If he were part of the story she’d stay tuned in a little longer.

From "Huckleberry Milton" by Bradley J. Milton

She wouldn't sell him his sleeve across. She didn't try to make her bonnet. And it was. I had not forget that the house: "Pardon, this our hands shook for fruit, his journal when she I deem it; in China: depart; cylinder plate; in a still and so thrall'd but that glittering bauble, it again beckoned me oftener than ever go by nature they will have done when, we had prayers, and privateers, though the bodies of several other garden when it most up. I murdered all. Live! Your lap, just now, in the head deck was very good place, I uttered or break for to get money: an' 'bout two or three an' his mouth, and had tried them are willing, opened her own tenebrous and presently there. Elizabeth Taylor -- "

"These deeds!"