The Guide
While hiking in the forest in Maine one day, remembering the words of Robert Frost, I took the road less traveled, and it did indeed make all the difference...for I became hopelessly lost! I plodded along mile after mile, cursing the beloved New...
Dead Things
It was in those days following the cosmic seeding of Earth with the virus which would bring the dead back to life that I sat in the _Restless Dead_ bar, drinking...what else?...a Zombie, that mixture of fruit juice, liquer, and various rums, a potent...
Amazing Journey
**Amazing Journey by ff\_b ("Sickness will surely take the mind...where minds don't usually go." -- The Who) Many cultures have regarded the visions which one may have under the influence of drugs or illness to provide a portal to...
Labyrinth
The winds of October had turned cold, and Mark pulled up the zipper on his hooded sweatshirt as leaves swirled and danced about his feet on his evening walk. Darkness fell so early these autumn nights, and the eighty degree days he had experienced only...
Public Enemy
**Public Enemy** by ff\_b Clyde the raccoon in life sported a pinstriped suit, and a diamond earring. He had lustrous dark hair just like his mother, and sported a jailhouse tattoo of his long-lost brother. From the beginning, Clyde...
A Journal of the Plague Year
It was during the time after the Coronavirus had mutated to the Carnival Virus that the discovery had been made that public protection was possible against the new threat only while wearing full clown regalia, so Ted trudged around the aisles of his...
Dances With Meat...
In a time long ago, a religious bovine zealot called _John the Brisket_ was holding court, telling his listeners to straighten up and fly right because the Big Cheese was sending his Number One Son. "Straighten the path," John would preach to his...
The Cup
Around 2,000 years ago, the founder of a major religion staggered down the Via Dolorosa, sorely oppressed by the ponderous weight of the wooden cross that he had been made to bear. Being scourged by a leaded whip and then led away to crucifixion...
The Artist
The Artist by ff\_b It was one of those unseasonably warm days in early January when the butterfly flitted onto my shoulder. Those sixty degree days must have caused it to emerge prematurely, I thought. Still it was strange, and I...
Liberation
In Bavaria in the early 18th century, a woodsman named Hans went forth into the forest one morning to hunt wild boar, leaving his wife Greta behind in their humble cabin as usual. The long-suffering woman watched her husband trudge ahead until the...
Pink Slime
_ **Pink Slime** _ Roger was consuming a hamburger for dinner when he heard on the evening news that much of the beef sold in supermarkets was supplemented by meat byproducts sterilized by ammonia, making an additive substance that was called,...
It's A Wrap!
Jeannie had recently discovered those vacuum-seal plastic storage bags, and was enthused about how they could save closet storage space by removing the air from bulky items such as sweaters and blankets, enabling their storage in the off-season in a...