Harry Whitewolf's Blog - Posts Tagged "reejecttiion-a-number-two"

What’s that? You’re itching so much in anticipation of our forthcoming book ReejecttIIon - a number two that you’re wondering if you might actually have fleas instead?
Well, don’t worry – our seriously comical book will be with you very soon, so if you don’t stop scratching at that point, you’ll know to buy some cream from your local pharmacist.

In the meanwhile, we’ve decided to cut a couple of the more sentimental pieces from the final draft of ReejecttIIon to make it as top notch as humanly possible, which means you get to read them here gratis! Here’s the first:


SHICHIRIGAHAMA

A short story by Daniel Clausen


He didn’t know how long he had been sitting there at the train station at Shichirigahama, or even that he was at Shichirigahama, one of the many small rustic train stations that dotted the Enoden line along
the Fujisawa coast. It seemed like it hadn’t been any time at all since he had left the Army two years ago. He had done two tours in Afghanistan and one in Iraq, and then he was out of the Army, and then he was working as an English teacher, and then one day he was just wandering around Fujisawa trying to figure things out. His body was weightless, nothing was real, and he wondered as he sat at the train station if he would simply sit there until his thoughts had settled, or if he would throw himself on the tracks and just be done with it all.

For a while teaching kids in Fujisawa had seemed alright, and then one day he was sitting in class and this older Japanese teacher told one of her kids to “shut up” in English. When he heard
it, his mind went blank and angry, and then he heard her say it again. It was strange, but somehow his nose started itching like he could feel smoke. He had told her not to tell the kids to shut up, that
she should never say that to a kid. He thought he had said it calmly.
The teacher had gotten angry, there had been a meeting called, and finally he had just walked off the job.

He thought he could escape, but there he was at some random train station.
He had gone back to his apartment and changed into jeans and a t-shirt. He had gone for a long walk along the coast of Fujisawa. He had watched the shoreline and had begun to feel better, and then worse, and finally better again. He saw the surfers out in the water trying to catch little waves on a Tuesday evening. There was a time in California when he thought that just about anything could be cured by the ocean. He wondered if the people in Shichirigahama surfed out their frustration. He wondered whether he could forget himself if he tried to surf the small waves.
Then he had made his way to this train station,
Shichirigahama, and now he was trying to figure out what to do.

He still had a lot of his Army money. He had enough. Enough for something. But enough for what? Every time he tried to wrap his mind around the question his body seemed so light he thought he might float up off the platform and wake up as someone completely different.

He felt for a moment that he should try to call his old
girlfriend, Beverly, from high school. He would ask her what she was doing and whether she was married. He was sure he could track her
down through Facebook. Then for a moment, he thought he would call one of his old friends who was still in the Army. He would be on leave right about now.

People got off the train and people got on. The first few times he would try his best to smile or nod, but after a few times of doing this, he lost his appetite for even this common courtesy and began
to simply stare into space.
Afghanistan, Iraq, Japan, and now his mind was turning blank and angry because some Japanese teacher had told a kid to shut up. Now he could smell smoke that didn’t exist, and here he
was thinking about the green Enoden train and how it would be nothing at all to throw himself in front of one.
The girl must have shown up sometime later, perhaps just as the sun was starting to go down. By this time, though he couldn’t be sure, he thought that he must have been sitting at the station for a
few hours.
At first, he didn’t even notice her. He couldn’t explain how she had managed to get to the train platform or if she was one of the passengers who had exited the train sometime before. She couldn’t
have been more than seventeen or eighteen years old. She wore an old baseball cap that she kept touching around the edges near her ears.
The old soldier, perhaps soon ex-teacher,
tried to pull himself together, to begin considering what his next move would be. Would he try to call his ex-girlfriend, would he try to find a new job, join the Army again? The badness would just keep on repeating itself forever without end: quit his job, bad relationship, Army, quit his job, and so on. That’s when he noticed that the girl’s cap was off and
that she was rubbing her ears. He noticed that her ears were much larger than normal ears, at least a half size larger than normal. She wore her hair long, perhaps as a way to cover them, and she kept
brushing her hair first over her ears and then away from them, and the process was so natural and compulsive that the man thought he
saw the rhythm of a song there. As he watched her natural stroke, first touching her ears, then brushing her hair over them, then combing it away, then considering the cap with her other hand, he
thought he could hear a melody playing.
The melody was soft and beautiful, classically played, and he wondered where this girl had suddenly appeared from and if any English teacher had ever told her to “shut up.” As he began to look
at the girl, something inside him said that long ago he had known her. That’s when he noticed her fingers. Long and slender, they were the ones holding the cap and stroking her hair and touching her ears. They must have been the most beautiful fingers he had
ever seen.
He watched her, and then he watched the train coming, and it didn’t even cross his mind that she would jump.
The last thing he remembered was reaching out for her. His arms seemed impossibly short and she was far away, and the train came and didn’t seem to stop, and then she was gone, and he woke up on
the bench of the train station with cold sweat running down his forehead and the smoke of a bomb crawling up his nostrils.
It was night now, and he seemed alone on the bench of the train station at Shichirigahama.
He checked the time and then checked the train schedule.
He looked around to make sure the girl wasn’t there.
Suddenly, the next step seemed clear. When the next train came he would get on it and let the rest figure itself out.

Our forthcoming book ReejecttIIon has been hailed as “the greatest book ever written” by Johnny Fictitious of Reader’s Indigestion, and it’ll be available very soon! In the meantime, here’s the last of the pieces we’ve ended up cutting. As great as this short story by Daniel is, it was just too sentimental for it to fit in with the comical pages of ReejecttIIon. Enjoy!


IDLE TUESDAY
by Daniel Clausen

Her breath comes heavy and labored. It’s the summer of 2011, but I feel like a ghost inhabiting a future self. Or maybe this is my future self mimicking a person that no longer exists.

I’m playing an old arcade version of the football game Blitz in the lobby of a movie theater in Edgewater, Florida. The same one I played eleven years ago when I was a high school student. My mom has to settle herself down on the bench next to the game to catch her breath.

She has COPD and in another two years she will have trouble just walking into the movie theater. Soon we’re out of the lobby and in the theater. It’s 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday in the afternoon and we are the only ones there. We are watching a movie that is out of time. It’s the new Planet of the Apes movie, which is really based on number four of the old Planet of the Apes movies. I try to explain this all to my mom and I think she does a good job of pretending she understands. In the back of my mind, I notice that she’s still having trouble catching her breath.

Later that day, I’m reading Feeding the Ghost by Fred D’Aguiar, one of my old novels from college I had in storage. A week later I give it away. Little by little I’m learning to let go. Before I do, though, I write a little nothing review of it on goodreads.com something to mark the passage of time. The only thing I can think to say about the book is that it’s poetic.

My mom and I are driving through Oak Hill now, a little town just south of Edgewater. Actually, I’m driving and she’s talking. My mom tells me that the town is so small that if I blink I might miss it. This too strikes me as poetic. The town is small and beautiful and she asks me to take her there again someday.

This is how the summer of 2011 goes. A nothing summer really. I quit my job, play old arcade games, read books from my college years, and vaguely I sense that my mom might not have much time left.

Now two years in the future, I know this to be true.

One idle Tuesday with my mom. If I hadn’t looked closely, I might have missed it.

You'll be able to grab a free Kindle copy of ReejecttIIon - a number two soon, but in the meantime you might like this from the book:

I’VE NEVER HEARD THE LIKE

Harry liked that Jason liked Harry’s like of his friendship with Leo who also liked that Harry liked that Jason liked their friendship and liked that Jason liked the like, and the like. Luke liked Leo’s blog. Leo liked that Luke, like, liked his blog. Harry liked that Luke liked Leo’s blog and that Leo liked that Luke liked Leo’s blog. Rupert liked Leo’s blog and liked that Harry liked that Jason liked his friendship with Leo and liked Leo’s friendship with Harry and sent Harry a friend request. They became friends. Leo, Jason and Harry liked that Rupert was friends with Harry and Harry liked Rupert’s status of being 69% through a book called Capitalist Scum! Jason liked that Harry liked Rupert’s status. Rebecca liked that Harry and Rupert were friends and liked Leo’s blog and liked that Harry liked that Jason liked Harry’s like of his friendship with Leo. Rebecca added a status update to announce she had started reading Zebra Crossings On Mars and Harry, Luke and Jason liked it and Jason also liked that Harry liked it. Rupert didn’t like it. Why didn’t Rupert like it? Rupert liked that James liked Leo’s blog and Leo liked that James liked Leo’s blog and Harry liked that Leo liked that James liked his blog and liked that James liked Leo’s blog. Harry attempted a joke on Leo’s profile page. No response. James liked that Rupert and Harry were friends and that Harry liked that Jason liked Harry’s friendship with Leo and that Leo liked that Harry liked that Jason liked their friendship and that Jason liked the like and James also liked that Rupert liked Leo’s blog and Rupert’s new status of being 73% done with Capitalist Scum! Leo and Luke liked Rupert’s status and Leo liked James liking Rupert’s status. Harry and Rebecca also liked Rupert’s status and Rebecca added a status of her own: 10% done with Zebra Crossings On Mars. Harry liked Rebecca’s status and Rupert liked Harry’s like of Rebecca’s status. Leo liked that Harry liked Rebecca’s status and liked that Rupert liked Harry’s like. Jason liked that Leo liked that Harry liked Rebecca’s status and liked Rebecca’s status and liked Rupert’s like of Harry’s like of Rebecca’s status. Rupert liked Rebecca’s status. James liked that Leo liked that Harry liked Rebecca’s status and liked Rebecca’s status and liked Rupert’s like of Harry’s like. Luke liked Rebecca’s status and Rupert’s status and liked that Harry liked Rebecca’s status and liked Rupert’s like of Harry’s like and Leo’s like that Harry liked Rebecca’s status. Harry liked that Luke liked Rebecca’s status and Rupert’s status and Rupert liked Luke’s like of Rebecca’s status and Harry liked that Rupert liked Luke’s like.

If you missed Daniel Clausen's blog post, you won't know that we've just been interviewed by the lovely Cristel Orrand (author of The Amalgamist which I highly recommend), and it was a pretty fun interview to do, seeing as she got us to play the Newleyweds/Mr and Mrs game, with questions and answers like this:

Q. If Daniel got a book deal for 2M dollars, what would he do?

A. He would celebrate by forming a prog-rock-hillbilly-steampunk-funk-schwang band, with a chimpanzee on bass and Henry Winkler on fiddle, for a one-off performance on top of the Hollywood sign.

You can read the interview here: https://freerreds.wordpress.com/2016/...

And check out our book ReejecttIIon - a number two if you haven't already done so.



Cheers!

Here's another brand new interview me and Daniel did with the fantastic Whispering Stories:

http://whisperingstories.com/the-writ...

Daniel - What’s the matter Harry? Why are you boo-hooing like a toddler that’s just seen his favourite teddy bear go through a shredder? You shouldn’t be such a cry baby, you know.

Harry - It’s nothing, Daniel. Don’t you worry about me.

Daniel - Alright, I won’t. But do stop crying. I can’t hear the plot to The Dukes of Hazzard, and you’re getting tears and snot all over the T.V remote.

Harry - Isn’t that the same remote control that took us on a crazy trip into the television where we met Danny Zuko and The Fonz?

Daniel - Hm? Yeah, I think it is. Why do you ask? And why the hell have you started crying even more? Here, rip a page out of this poor-selling poetry book of yours and use it as a handkerchief. You’re dripping snot everywhere!

Harry - Boo-hoo-hoo...

Daniel - Whatever is the matter man?

Harry - It’s just that... You forgot.

Daniel - Forgot what? What are you drivelling on about?

Harry - It’s our anniversary! And you forgot!

Daniel - Anniversary? I don’t remember us getting hitched. And even if we did, we can’t be legally wed ‘cos I’m still married to that Albanian hooker who robbed me of all my money and ran away to Hawaii with some bloke called Disco Derek.

Harry - Don’t be daft! It’s not our wedding anniversary!

Daniel - What is it then? Our first kiss? I’ve told you a million times that I was drunk and that was just a one off thing.

Harry - No, no. It’s our anniversary of publishing our book ReejecttIIon – a number two.

Daniel - You mean the book where we get sucked into the T.V and waterski with Arthur Fonzerelli and try to keep up with Danny Zuko’s disco moves?

Harry - Exactly!

Daniel - Well, why didn’t you say so? And don’t worry Harry, I hadn’t really forgotten. In fact, I’ve just set up a giveaway on Kindle to celebrate ReejecttIIon being one year old.

Harry - You have?

Daniel - Yeah, it’s my present to you Harry.

Harry - Damn. I wanted a My Little Pony.



ReejecttIIon - a number two: FREE ON KINDLE FOR FIVE DAYS: 23RD – 27TH FEBRUARY


Amazon.com: http://a.co/2zot8qi

Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01CF3MK4I



You can also read the first Reejecttion for FREE here:

https://issuu.com/danielclausen/docs/...