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Category Archives: Short fiction
Excerpt from The Wonders of Cata: The Penultimate
Later that night I ran into Ms. Neon, or rather I should say I slid into her, and here is an account of that evening. After my time-out on the toilet, I found Big John waiting patiently for me in the hall outside the restroom the way a Saint Bernard might wait for an alpine [...]
Excerpt from The Wonders of Cata: Here or Hereafter
Navigating Cata’s labyrinthian city streets proved, as always, to be a challenge, so I arrived at the lecture hall a little bit late. But locating Big John’s class from the entrance way was easy. His voice positively boomed. I entered the half-bowl-shaped room and scanned the crowd for an empty seat. Seeing him for the [...]
Excerpt from The Wonders of Cata: Interlude At Honeydew
On my way to Big John’s Wednesday writing class I passed a place called Honeydew. It claimed to serve the best drink on the block, the Milk of Paradise, a concoction known to give one a rush. A couple of Catian co-workers were whispering about it while walking out of the lounge a few weeks [...]
Excerpt from The Wonders of Cata: Bullseye, Dakota
My lecture on past perfect was sliding into disaster. It wasn’t really a lecture, because as everyone knows ESL instructors do not lecture. I was presenting and introducing the Grammar of the Day, and as usual it was leading nowhere fast. After this introductory activity, as my years of experience led me to expect, the [...]
Excerpt from The Wonders of Cata: All Hands On Dick!
(Note to readers: This excerpt is the second half of last week’s post, “Dick’s Birthday Bash.”) The first thing I saw was the mast and then the sail. Somehow they made that cream-colored thing billow, whether by unseen ceiling fans or with tugs on invisible strings, I don’t know. The mast was huge, two long-armed [...]
Excerpt from The Wonders of Cata: Dick’s Birthday Bash
I knew what was coming. It wasn’t hard to figure out, and the realization made me slightly melancholy. My birthday is today and I’m thirty-three. My Catian coworkers are planning a surprise birthday party for me and here is how I know. Despite previous attempts to express interest in socializing after classes, and being vocally [...]
Excerpt from The Wonders of Cata: A Second Interview
I don’t know if she was responding to pressure (from whom? who had the balls to compel a nine?) or if it was a crude political ploy on her part, but there she was, Mistress Nine, sitting prim and proper for a second interview. The video display showed that it was dated about a week [...]
Excerpt from The Wonders of Cata: The Life of a Nine
I can only understand Cata through the prism of me. And if there is one thing I learned in Mr. Summer’s Media Studies class it’s the axiom: When a society just doesn’t have many problems, celebrity news dominates. In Cata, city of clean streets, economic justice, sacrosanct legal protections, and superior health from cradle to [...]
Holiday Spirit
This is a new short story set in the world of “Randolph’s One Bedroom”. Enjoy! ‘Steamy, frothy, creamy ‘nog—nothing beats it,’ Randolph thought as he settled into one of the deeply cushioned easy chairs opposite the registers. It was a Tuesday in December, he had the whole day off, and had decided to stop by [...]
Excerpt from The Wonders of Cata: Holy of Holies