The jungle slept fitfully at night. It dreamt dreams of hunger and satiation, crawling around on its belly, running swiftly on its bare feet, and flying through the moist warm air blindly with only its sensitive hearing to guide it. Under the gibbous moon, the jungle hooted and cawed in its sleep. Ever so little by little the dome of sky would lighten over the sleeping jungle until the sun would burn a hole through the dr...
Chapter 7: A Walk in the ParkThe flashing arrows turned left, as expected, and when Cadmus and Lonesome turned the corner and saw the door of the hyper-vator flashing exactly where he expected it to be, he didn’t know whether to be amused or irritated. “They must think we’re half-blind fools or clueless children with these flashing arrows and doors,” he thought. He tapped “0” on the keyboard and before he knew it the hype...
Chapter 1: VoyageCadmus preferred flying this old fashioned solar sail ship, to one of the more modern hyper-drive ships, from his native moon’s orbit to Draco.763.3a, the only habitable moon orbiting Draco.763.3. He was well aware he could have made the trip in a couple of hours instead of the two hundred and seventy days, give or take, that this trip would take him, but he didn’t like flying faster than the speed of lig...
Sounds. Voices. Tingling. “I saw a twitch …” “… His eyelids are fluttering …” “How are we doing today Mr. Stavros? You gave us quite a scare, didn’t he Mrs. Stavros?” The young woman addressing him was dressed in a pale blue pajama holding a clipboard with pen poised to note something indicative. Off to the left side of his visual space was an older woman who seemed to stare intently at him. The younger woman was more att...
Charlie Jones attended a party of friends and acquaintances in one of the trendy studio apartments near Washington Square on the lower east side of Manhattan. Charlie brought some beer, one of the girls brought wine. Someone brought some hash and someone else brought some acid to get high on the music. One of the guys rolled a mixture of Cherry Blend pipe tobacco and hashish into a clumsy fat cigarette held together by sp...
I’m running through a lush field of yellow grass blades after a black cat under a blue sky. The cat jinks this way and that but I’m gaining on him. I’ve never run so fast in my life. It’s like I’m flying over the grasses and through the bushes. It’s like I’m synchronized with all motion and I’m lying still inside the motion while the universe is doing the running and the cat and I are one with it, but I am getting closer....
Chapter 6: Welcome WagonIt was strange, Evanor thought, that nobody came to visit to see whether she needed anything, not even her best friend Dorka. Not that she needed anything in particular, really. The delivery had not been so bad. There hadn’t been any complications where she was concerned. Lem seemed perfectly healthy. He took his fill of milk at her breasts, God bless him. He was quiet, she told herself. There was...
A short story excerpted from “The Rats and the Saps” Chapter 1: MotherI guess I’m older’n them hills on this god-forsaken planet. I don’t reckon I know how old those hills are. Come to think of it, I don’t rightly know how old I am neither. No matter. I usta turn a man’s eye. Now I ain’t much to look at. No matter. I’ve had a hard life. I don’t need no man’s pity and I ain’t ashamed of anything I ever done. Not even birth...
"Hashem Shaabani"(Raanana, February 11, 2016) I think I was six years oldWhen I held my father's hand in the sukAnd saw my first hanging,God is great.So was the heat of the sunThe dust and the gnats,Praised be He.I asked my dadWhy that man was dancing in the air,God is great.First he shushed meThen he saidThe man had waged a war against God,Praised be He.I asked my fatherWhat kind of man would do that,God is great.He whis...
by Mike Stone A short story taken from my third sci-fi novel, “Whirlpool.” The old man shuffled down the long white hallway in his pale blue paper slippers. Underneath his thin blue institutional bathrobe, he wore the brown striped pajamas that were his hospital uniform. Had he tried to escape by shuffling out of the hospital, they would certainly have caught him because they moved so quickly and he shuffled so slowly. He...
"Witness Well" (c) Mike Stone Raanana, February 3, 2019 Nothing in nature is hidden from us; It has no secrets. It is we who close our eyes Or look away And think it magic or unknowable, Unwilling to give up the comfort of our ignorance. When we walk in a forest lush With trees standing and fallen Beheld within the play of sun and shade We must not be daunted That we know not the names of sycamore or oak, Crocuses or m...
“What can I do for you?” “Well, Professor Palmer, I’ve been browsing the Internet and came across your work on false memories and external indicators differentiating false and true memories,” Axel answered the man sitting behind the oversized mahogany desk. “That was based on research and clinical experience with childhood traumas such as those of rape or incest victims,” the professor explained. Axel laughed, “That’s not...
"We Stand in Awe" (c) Mike Stone(inspired by “A BRAVE AND STARTLING TRUTH” by Maya AngelouRaanana, February 21, 2019) The universe is not the miracle,The flaming suns are but cold-blooded thingsNor is this Earth, an uncertain platformOf shifting surfaces underneath our feetAnd seas flooding our man-made worksOr disappearing in distant mirages,Nor the mountains growing to breathless heights.These are not miracles.It is we...
"A Walk in the Desert" (c) Mike Stone October 8, 2014 Tuvi Ornat put the old concert ticket he'd been using as a bookmark between the two pages he had been reading and laid the dog-eared paperback gently on the table beside his chair. He stood up and stretched his arms. "I'm going for a walk," Tuvi called upstairs but there was no response. He scribbled a short note and slid a small corner of it beneath her tea mug on t...
