My sincere condolences to the family. Here’s the full story.
Legend of the Sky People
Image: BBC.com
Gunter and his two sons, Phillip and Tang were tending the grazing sheep in the meadow a few kilometers from their village, as they had the past several weeks. Soon, it would be the season to take them in for the shearing, and while that would cause them much effort, it would be a pleasure to sleep indoors again.
They huddled close to the fire, cloaks pulled tightly around them.
“Lad, another ale if you please.” Gunter held out his mug to Phillip, his eldest, who had the flagon by his side.
“As you will, Papa.” Phillip, always cheerful (and the light buzz from the ale was adding to that), readily lifted the flagon and filled Gunter’s mug to the brim.
The trio could afford to relax a bit. The dogs were stationed around the flock and the sheep were at rest for the night. The hired hands would be back from the village by morning.
“Look, Papa!” Tang, two years Phillip’s junior, pointed up into the moonless night sky. The constellations were beautiful and brilliant, but something among them was disturbing their orderly progression.
The Child Came Home
Image: Children’s Advocacy Center of Grayson County, TX website
Julian was 35 years old when reality became too much for him. It wasn’t so much his dull job at the accounting firm, or his break up with Jill after seven years of living together. His parents think it must have been the disappointment, the loss of hope for the future that took his mind and spirit. He had such expectations at the beginning of November and now in December, they were crushed. So Julian’s parents watched as he sat on the floor of his old room with a coloring book and crayons. He was their little boy again.
This was a piece of flash fiction (less than 100 words in this case) I recently submitted to The Drabble. I received an email from them saying it didn’t meet their needs, so I figured why waste it? Yes, it is a commentary on how some people, at least according to the popular press, are so overwhelmed and dismayed by Donald Trump’s recent election win, that they seem to retreat into less “mature” behavior. I wasn’t poking fun at these individuals, but rather trying to communicate the tragedy involved in such decisions.
She Who Endures
Image: ABC.net.au / Rocky Roe
The plague struck swiftly, perhaps not by human standards, but certainly quickly enough to sicken three-quarters of the people of the Earth within fifteen years. At first the disease seemed very widespread and indiscriminate, but five years into the plague, the CDC’s Chief Epidemiologist, Dr. Sandra Fry, determined that it was most virulent in high population centers with a heavy industrial base.
The nation with the largest number of deaths by year five was China, which correlated very highly to their level of pollution and generally poor environmental standards.
However, as the plague progressed, the Euro-Asian continent fell, as did North and South America. By year ten, four billion people were dead. Disposal of the bodies in any civilized manner was impossible due to the shortage of manpower and resources, so they were bulldozed into mass graves.
In Search of the Time Traveler
Orson Welles and H.G. Wells in San Antonio, Texas, October 28, 1940
The Second Hunter and Ellison Time Travel Adventure and immediate sequel to Tracks Across Time.
“Seventy percent of all archaeology is done in the library. Research. Reading.”
“Thank you, Wyatt. I recognize the quote from the 1989 film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. One of Harrison Ford’s lines I believe.”
“Of course you recognize it, Josue. That’s why I said it. Only a Historian would have understood what I meant.”
“Which explains why we’re here, the library I mean.”
“Precisely. We’re here to find our mysterious Time Traveler.”
A Film Review of “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”
My two sons, my grandson, and I went to see the Star Wars movie Rogue One last night. We had to slog through snow-covered streets and icy parking lots, but we made it to the theater in one piece.
I’ve been anticipating this film for quite some time, and have heard that it’s one of the best, if not the best Star Wars films ever.
I enjoyed last year’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens very much, but after repeated viewings, came to realize it was just the first three Star Wars films rehashed. J.J. Abrams can’t seem to produce original content for either the Star Wars or Star Trek fanchises.
But Rogue One had a different director and an interesting premise, so I had high hopes.
The Old Elf Of Christmas
Warning: This is not a tale of heartwarming enchantment.
Seven-year-old Shelley thought it was a little strange that there was a Department Store Santa seated at the far end of the playground. It was Christmas Eve and so much snow had fallen that Daddy had to spend hours yesterday and today just shoveling it all off of the driveway.
After lunch, she begged Daddy to take her to the playground. She could see it from her backyard and there were other kids playing on the snow-covered swings, slides, and other equipment. Mommy had just put her little brother down for his nap and agreed Daddy should take Shelley out to play. She had a lot of cooking to do to get ready for the rest of the family to come over on Christmas, and wanted them both out of the way.
Daddy took a folding chair with him and sat at the edge of the playground with his cell phone surfing the web.
Shelley took off to play with the other kids, but now they were all gone. Instead, there was Santa sitting on a red chair smiling at her.
Saving Julie: A Time Travel Story
When Andy found the abandoned time machine, he immediately decided to save his sister’s life.
Ten years ago, Julie had been 15 and he had been 10. He adored his sister, which seemed pretty unusual because at his age, most boys hated their older sisters, but not Andy.
Mom had died when he was a baby and Dad did his best, but Dad’s idea of parenting was working hard at his job so he could pay the bills. He really didn’t know how to comfort him when he skinned his knee at age 3 or to praise him when he came home with two A’s and three B’s on his first grade report card.
Julie knew how, even though she was so young herself. Julie and Andy only had each other and for a long time, that was enough.
Tracks Across Time
Malcolm McDowell as H.G. Wells in the 1979 film “Time After Time
“The Temporal Event Indicator’s lighting up. Looks like we have another trip in our near future.”
“Or our far past, Josue.”
Wyatt Ellison walked over next to where his partner Josue Hunter was gazing down at the screen of the Indicator. It actually wasn’t a screen in a conventional sense. Both men were looking at a holographic projection inside a spherical depression about the size of a bowling ball (and they were among a very small group who still knew what a bowling ball was) set in a table top.
“The Sky Disc of Nebra, Hunter mused. “We can’t actually let these two morons find it.”
“That’s our job. Suppress revolutionary discoveries that would take the course of this time line on a different trajectory, Josue.”
Daedalus One
Image: Space.com
August 29, 2064, Cape Canaveral, Florida
“There it goes. All our hopes for the human race surviving on another planet.”
Chester Menkin put his arm around his wife Helen’s zaftig waist as they watched the launch of the Daedalus One probe together. It was quite literally a “hot August night” as the Orion rocket’s enormous engines erupted with man-made fire, so like the gift of Prometheus, thrusting the space craft away from the launch pad and the surface of our world.
“We’ll eventually go extinct here on Earth, Chester, but we send the best part of ourselves to the stars.”
Dr. and Dr. Menkin were a brilliant Genetics team and responsible for successfully encoding human DNA onto bacteria so “we” could be sent on the long interstellar voyage to the new planet.
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