James Pyles's Blog, page 188
October 10, 2017
Nine Thousand Stories
“It doesn’t look the same but I’ve been away so long.” Latham stood on the deck of the barge as it slowly ambled north on the St John’s River. “You’ve traveled everywhere else in the world but never came home even once. Why?” Professional tourist Bill Collins met Latham by chance at a bar in Côte […]
October 9, 2017
I Wonder What Would Happen…
“Why we’re doing this again, Wyatt?” “We’ve done this countless times, Josue…take a real artifact and substitute a fake in order to maintain our timeline. If we let any evidence remain of alien visitors to ancient Earth, it would drastically change history and you and I might never exist.” Wyatt Ellison and Josue Hunter were […]
October 8, 2017
Nowhere Near Heaven
“Nah, I’ve just smoked heroin up til now, but I got schooled on shootin’ so I figure I’ll be okay.” “Jilly, you’re only nineteen and you don’t wanna be ruining your life like this. I swear Littleton is killing you.” “That why you cleared out last year Marv? You were about the only good thing […]
October 6, 2017
The Motive
“Are you sure you want to do this, Gene?” Gene Ingram was sitting in a rather uncomfortable office chair which had been placed in the temporal projection chamber, something that looked roughly like a hollowed out egg. At age 48, he had experienced his fair share of heartache and headache which was why he had […]
October 5, 2017
Why We Need to Disagree (at least occasionally)
I’ve been thinking a lot about disagreements recently. I’m no saint. I’ve participated in all kinds of arguments lately regarding folks I disagree with. I’ve disagreed with a Massachusetts elementary school librarian who took exception to the First Lady donating Dr. Seuss books to her school. I’ve disagreed with a former CBS Vice President who […]
October 4, 2017
How Lofty Are Dreams
They enjoyed the view from the deck of the yacht just like the other families who were visiting the summer resort that week. Jim held his little granddaughter in his arms and they admired the moon together. “Moon, Gampa! Moon!” “That’s right, Danielle. It’s the Moon. Someday maybe you can live up there.” “You’ll just […]
The First Tourist on the Moon
He looked up in the autumn sky at the full moon and took a deep breath. He loved it here on the lake, on his yacht, but the next adventure wasn’t here on Earth, but up there. They laughed at his grandiose plans, but they weren’t visionaries. He had shown them all, and now he […]
October 3, 2017
Vigil
Several vigils were held Monday night to honor the victims of the shooting. Communities came out in Reno, Las Vegas and at the campus of University of Nevada Las Vegas. Sandra Casey, a special education teacher in Manhattan Beach, California, was killed, the Manhattan Beach Unified School District said. “We lost a spectacular teacher who […]
Will We Ever Have The Answer?
It was the worst mass murder in U.S. history. The President and First Lady attended the memorial service. Too many of these events had occurred over the years. The murderer had a history of mental illness. The nation’s strict gun control laws were useless. Improvised bombs planted all over Chicago’s commuter corridors had been timed […]
October 2, 2017
Who Celebrates Murder?
Just as I did previously when registering moral outrage last week, I was tempted to write a short story fictionalizing the horrible events that occurred in Las Vegas less than 24 hours ago (as I write this), but I just couldn’t. Maybe in days to come I will, but it’s too soon for me emotionally. […]
