350 pages

English

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

More Stories and More , livre ebook

Outskirts Press - Derryl G. Berry

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

350 pages

English

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

The variety of Derryl G. Berry’s imaginative short stories and intriguing essays make for delightful and entertaining reading in short spurts or extended time. Read a few short works while waiting for the bus, like “The Key to Her Heart” and “Wood Chucking” and “Pretty Like Mommy” or “Late for Lunch”. Or take more time for a longer work before bedtime, like “The Thanksgiving I Almost Exploded” or “You Don’t Know Fear” or “Chasing Shadows, Chasing Us” or “Saved by the Cell”.

You might enjoy to matching opinions with Derryl and some of his essays. Try “The Blue Tree” or “How Did We Get to Be Different?” or “Consider the Kingfisher” or “Educate Against Crapspeak” or “Freedom to be Fools”. But beware, some might keep you awake thinking. Do you believe time travel is possible? Read Derryl’s opinion in “Time Travel Is Not Possible”.

You could find that some of Derryl’s poems will pluck your own heartstrings. Maybe “She Passed by Him” or “Butterfly Madam” or “I Will Leave You in the Echoes” or “You Kept Me Awake Last Night” or “Today I Drank the Wine”. A few might just make you chuckle or say, “Hmm, well yeah, maybe.” One or two of Derryl’s Flash 55 Fiction might do the same.

Sujets

Essays

EDUCATION

América

General officer

Poetry

General

American

Informations

Publié par	Outskirts Press
Date de parution	13 janvier 2023
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781977261274
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

This is a work of îction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a îctitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

The opinions expressed in this manuscript are solely the opinions of the author and do not represent the opinions or thoughts of the publisher. The author has represented and warranted full ownership and/or legal right to publish all the materials in this book.

This book may not be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in whole or in part by any means, including graphic, electronic, or mechanical without the express written consent of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Outskirts Press, Inc. http://www.outskirtspress.com

ISBN: 978-1-9772-5994-3

Cover Image by Derryl G. Berry

Outskirts Press and the “OP” logo are trademarks belonging to Outskirts Press, Inc.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

TableofConTenTs

Short Stories, Scenes, and Sketches �� 1 You Don’t Know Fear ��3 There’s Always a Catch �� 12 Bad Pitch �� 19 Saved by the Cell ��22 The End Is Near, Yet Again�� 30 The Ring ��34 The Morning Walk ��39 Goodbye, Titch ��44 Lots of Fish and Bread ��53 The New Boy ��55 Why Men Have Nipples ��59 You Think You Got It So Bad? ��64 Synchronicity of Time and Space ��66 Camping, the Disastrous Family Activity ��70 Culvert Crawling �� 75 Late for Brunch �� 80 The Ghost of the Dong Dong �� 82 Chez Maurice�� 86 The Thanksgiving I Almost Exploded �� 89 I Didn’t Know Angels Cry ��96 Touching Bottom �� 101 Waltzing Over the River��103 At McRitchie Again ��106 Chasing Shadows, Chasing Us ��109 Clichés ��117 A Short, Happy Life �� 119 Two Tribes, One God �� 121 Sight-free Hiker �� 125 Sidewalk Art �� 132

The Key to Her Heart �� 134 The Waiting Room �� 136 Another Winery�� 138 You Can Have Me, Love ��140 At the Fair �� 142 The Organic Corpse��144 At This, Too �� 147 He Kills Tiny People��148 The Screamer �� 149 Wood Chucking�� 150 Pretty Like Mommy �� 152 The First Pietà �� 154 Purgatory�� 156 Ghost Pepper�� 159

Essays �� 161 The Blue Tree �� 163 The Course of Civilization Directed by Madmen?�� 165 Dispassionate Nature��168 Freedom to be Fools�� 170 Holes Do Not Exist�� 173 Homeopathy Analyzed�� 177 How Did We Get to Be Different?��180 Just an Image ��189 Probable Life Elsewhere in the Universe ��190 Rituals �� 191 Can You Prove a Negative? �� 195 Not a Brain in a Vat�� 197 Life Eats Life ��198 The Thirteenth Indian �� 199 Bad Grammar�� 202 I Am Not Part of the Room �� 204 Do Pinto Beans Have Brains? �� 206 A Nation of Immigrants �� 208 Ancient Astronauts��Maybe ��210

Belief�� 215 Consider the Billions of Visible Stars �� 219 Consider a Cinema ��225 Critical Thinking ��227 Consider the Kingfisher �� 229 For a Rational Person to Believe ��232 Educate Against Crapspeak �� 234 All Is Illusion? �� 240 Ancient Cultures Worshiped the Sun as a God �� 244 Born a Theist? �� 246 Consciousness vs Soul�� 250 Does History Matter?��252 A History of Warfare ��256 I Think People Can Lead Fruitful Lives�� 262 A Theory Should Not Be Assumed �� 264 Time Travel Is Not Possible �� 266 Good Guys Are Gullible �� 270 Few Know the Rules��272 In General, Majority Rule ��275 Winner and Loser ��278 Inherent Incoherence �� 280 If We Earthlings Received Transmissions�� 282 A Truth Is Somewhat Relative �� 284 Humans, Violence and Greed Response �� 285

Flash 55 Fiction�� 289 Don’t Blame Me �� 291 Kissing the Frog �� 292 Not Even If You Asked �� 293 Only One Will Be Taken �� 294 Out of Tune ��295 Paired Images �� 296 The Boxer��297 Unpretty Women �� 298

Poems �� 299 A Strange Bird Flew to My Open Window ��301 Un Pájaro Extraño Volvó a Mi Ventana Abierta �� 302 Butterly, Madam�� 303 Going On �� 304 Another Wasted Night �� 305 Halfway to Hallsville �� 306 I Will Leave You in the Echoes ��307 If I Were but Sea Foam �� 308 In Harmony We Sang �� 309 She Passed by Him��310 Poetry, Nonsense! �� 311 Sally, Sweet Baklava�� 314 That Night on the Sofa �� 315 Susan, I’m Flying Away�� 316 They Say That I Cast a Long Shadow �� 318 To Nancy with Hazel Eyes �� 319 Sweet Sandy Two-Step�� 320 Today, I Drank the Wine�� 321 We Are Become One ��322 My Little Brother ��323 You Kept Me Awake Last Night �� 324 Charisma ��325 When Your Lips Were Popsicle Red ��327 What Do You Do?�� 328 Would That We All Be Farmers �� 329 Hannah in Her Hammock �� 330 You’re Not Gonna Believe This �� 331

My Poems as Tribute to Ogden Nash �� 333 Crocodile or Alligator? ��335 The Dachshund ��336 The Rooster ��337

Haiku Verses�� 339

Short Stories, Scenes, and Sketches

YouDon’TKnowfear

rian really got concerned when they were lined up along a B blood-clotted stretch of ground in front of a pockmarked earthen wall next to a pit� They had been blindfolded, but he was still hoping that this was part of a sick joke� How far would these jokers take this? Then he realized that Max was in this, too, standing right next to him and had looked catatonic� Brian’s bowels had already turned to water, and he was stand-ing with his messy backside to the wall that he could feel with his hands tied behind his back� u

“So, you want to know what it’s like to know you are going to die, do you?” Max asked� “For two thousand bucks�” Brian asked, “How else am I going to write about it? My imagination stretches only so far� Of course, I would have to be assured that I was not really going to die, before I signed up for such a deal, but I would want to really experience the fear of certain, impending death� Afterward, when someone said to me, ‘You don’t know fear’, I could say from experience ‘by God I do�’” “Uh-huh,” said Max� Brian said, “I want to step up to the edge, to get close enough to look at that undiscovered country�” “Why don’t you go skydiving, and tell them to pack one of the chutes so that it won’t open? Then, you get to pick yours�”

3 ♦ ♦

DERRYL G. BERRY

“But I wouldn’tknowmine was not going to open, that would I? And if mine didnotthen I really would die, open, and my experience would be over, and I wouldn’t live to tell about it�” “What about Russian roulette? Except load five chambers� One chance out of six to survive�” “I know I could chicken out� I want to go through the com-plete procedure leading up to my death,knowing that I will die if the procedure is followed to the end,” Brian explained� “But if the deal was that you wouldnot die—per a con-tract—then you wouldknowthat you would not die, regard-less of how real it seemed�” Brian said, “But that would be your job, to make it seem so real that I wouldnotknow that I was not going to die after all� You can start next week, or the week after� I don’t care�” Max finally agreed� He went into an adjoining room for a few minutes and brought back the contract� Brian signed it, signing over all his worldly possessions to Max in the event of Brian’s death� That way, Max could have a real motive to kill him� The contract stated that if Brian backed out of the deal at any point, he would lose his money� It was then up to Max to come up with a scheme that would allow Brian to achieve that knowledge that he was seeking: what it is like to know you’re going to die without any chance of escape� They shook hands, and Brian bid Max goodnight and left the cabin� As he walked to his car in the dim light of a quarter moon in an overcast sky, he noticed a crouching figure coming around the car�Damn, a black bear,he thought� He started to turn and run back to the hut, but two arms grabbed him from behind, and a sack was pulled over his head� Before he could yell, a hand stuffed part of the sack in his mouth� He heard duct tape being pulled, then he felt it being wrapped across his mouth and the back of his head� Brian grunted and kicked� Surely inside the cabin Max would hear the commo-tion outside�

♦ ♦ 4