https://short-stories.vercel.app Hi, I'm adam holwerda. Welcome to this ever-evolving home for my stories. en 2020-10-17 https://short-stories.vercel.app/story/a-keflin-of-a-different-color 2020-04-27 Welcome to Gnarflax. Do you have your boarding pass? Is your implant loaded with enough units? Might we take you the cabaret, where beautiful Lupkins will remove their Lupcovers and show you their Lupudders? One swipe of the fore-appendage, and your units will transfer you wherever you want to go. Do you have the proper documentation to be in a place like this? https://short-stories.vercel.app/story/an-evening-of-blue 2020-04-27 One early autumn night, after a spectacular sunset and a gloomy but all-encompassing deep blue dusk, a man in his eighties opened the door of his old house to welcome another, younger, fellow. “Professor Winters,” this younger man said, extending a hand. The older man shook it, grip strong. He smiled down thick spectacles in recognition of the boy he’d taught years before. https://short-stories.vercel.app/story/animal 2020-06-10 Across the lecture hall from Eric, the young woman rolled her pencil back and forth on the desk, tracing circles in the air with her tongue. Her eyes flicked to the professor (was he watching? no) and then back to Eric. She winked, and waited. Eric did nothing. The girl lifted a nostril and crossed her legs, returning her attention to the lecture. https://short-stories.vercel.app/story/balloons 2020-04-27 The floating started on the way back from the casino. The kid from out of town was driving him home. Andy, or Amos, something like that. Clayton couldn’t remember. Had he given Andy a twenty? More? Marissa said he was always tipping too much, and now he was here, at night in Nevada, a half-hour south of Carson City. “You all right, man?” The kid was looking at him, concerned. https://short-stories.vercel.app/story/bertrand-bone-nose-masseuse 2020-04-27 Bertrand Bone, Nose Masseuse Among relaxation connoisseurs bored with acupuncture, a good nose masseuse is a delicacy. But until recently, nobody knew about the field. If you wanted to succeed in nose masseusery your marketing had to be superb. Bertrand happened to be both a nose masseuse and skilled at marketing. https://short-stories.vercel.app/story/brians-elephant 2020-04-27 Brian’s Elephant The elephant had stood in little Brian Shears’s living room for as long as he could remember. It looked ancient, with faded gray skin covered in wrinkles, gouges and dirt. It always stood in the same spot, swatting its butt with its ratty tail and every so often stamped its feet. Brian’s brother Tony explained about the elephant when he was eight. https://short-stories.vercel.app/story/cannibal 2020-04-27 Above all else, Gambol disdained bogeys who made their living off the fear of children. In Bulgaria, he sighed with disgust as a sack-toting bogey limped out of the forest near a sparsely-populated village. It sang to itself softly and lamented the death of its maker, Baba Yaga. Too many of them had traits he didn’t need. This one was just another child-scaring bogey. https://short-stories.vercel.app/story/claytons-secret-notebook 2020-04-27 There’s a story I want to tell you about a man I knew once. Something happened to him, and his name was Clayton. Never mind who I am for a minute, this is about him. You know those stories people tell at parties? Fancy parties, where all the guests are wearing ties? The story, it’s always practiced. Embellished. Repeated. Every party the same story. https://short-stories.vercel.app/story/cockroach-a 2020-04-27 Raymond winced with each floor creak. “Sorry, sorry,” he whispered to himself, hoping the woman in the other room was awake. If she was, she wouldn’t come alive with fright, her default reaction in their encounters. “Oh! you scared me,” when he returned from hours blundering around the city, or “Oh! I didn’t know you were here,” when he hadn’t left the apartment for days. https://short-stories.vercel.app/story/donald-dewberry-tells-the-truth 2020-04-27 There’s no feeling like a broken heart. But then, no feeling is like any other. The truth is, all anyone wants is to complain. All anyone wants is to be mistreated, pushed away. To have an excuse to be left alone. All I ever wanted was a chance. https://short-stories.vercel.app/story/eleven-minutes 2020-04-27 The man who sat down across from Eddie Carter with eleven minutes to go was very obviously not his girlfriend. “Anna’s gonna be running a little late, Eddo,” he said, straightening his coat. “She had some trouble picking out the right shoes and all the taxis were filled up. https://short-stories.vercel.app/story/exploding-heads-of-mesmerson-county 2020-04-27 The old man sat on the porch of the old house and rocked in his chair. One of the townspeople strolled by, a teenage boy named Bobby Steepleton that Arthur happened to recognize. Bobby had with him a bat and a glove, and glanced in Arthur's direction as he passed. On his way to the big game against the Richmond boys, who were supposedly bigger and better and... https://short-stories.vercel.app/story/eye-test 2020-04-27 Each morning these days is its own special jolt of happy lightning. Today is no exception. Today, Bobby Ray will announce a project he’s been working on for years. Bobby Ray's job is extraordinary, he’s a revolutionary, and the work he does is necessary. He smiles big in the mirror, saying the words to himself. “Extraordinary, revolutionary, necessary.” His teeth sparkle. https://short-stories.vercel.app/story/five-trillion-faces-of-television 2020-04-27 Television had arms and legs and a flat bright face capable of putting out any combination of three hundred seven thousand, two hundred pixels. Each pixel had the potential to be any of sixteen million, five-hundred eighty-one thousand, three hundred seventy-five colors, sixty times a second.