Five short stories written in the first person. Solitaire.
Fences: a glimpse at insanity, and the line you cross to get there.
Alone: another glimpse, but from a different angle.
Smokestone: Smokestone finds himself on the run from the government. He doesn't know what he's done, or seen, but he knows they want him alive. It just doesn't always happen that way.
Pillow Fight: a brief monologue from war.
Pipe Dreams: Pipe Dreams are what Ben finds himself having as he races through a concrete tunnel from one coast to another(Tucson to Atlanta). He knows a secret only a few others share. He also knows about one even fewer know about.
Excerpt
... When Highway 190 popped up a some minutes later, I stopped at the intersection and looked behind me. No one. No one following me, nor any other traffic. It had been like that since getting on the highway. Something wasn't right. Where were the police? Where were the road blocks; the helicopters? I had killed three men. Where was the man-hunt?! I looked west and absorbed the sunset. The sun was an hour away from the mountains, the clouds beginning to turn pink. It would be getting chilly soon. I turned on the 190 the only way I could, East. Twenty minutes had passed when I made the turn to Darwin. I needed petrol. It was a long way across Death Valley. After I had filled the tank and paid the attendant, I put on two layers of shirts under my jacket, stuffing the pistol in the back of my pants before getting back on my motorcycle. A man in a business suit stepped out from behind the gas station. This man, too, had a flat-top. I looked in the windows of the building. The station attendant had conveniently disappeared. I quickly put on my helmet, not bothering to cinch it down, and started the bike. The man in the suit started running towards me, shouting that I "hold up". I gunned the throttle and released the clutch. The back tire squealed, then caught. I raced out the gas station driveway pushing the front end down. I looked back at the station after getting on the road. The man in the suit was running back behind the building. A moment later a car was vibrating in my mirrors. I took the first right, pulling onto a dirt road. ...
... I couldn't tell what I was flying, there was only a few feet of white cone in front of me. But it did feel as though I was flying it; fast and close to the water. I adjusted the screen, then slowly, gently, moved the joystick around. I veered left a little, then right. I nosed up, then back down. I played and played, the songs repeating through the speakers and filling the room with a drum beat that kept me in the Zone.
I did a first roll. Flying was different than Cycle Sin. You couldn't ride upside down in Cycle Sin. This was great. I did a barrel roll, twisting more than three times.
The speaker behind my head crackled. "Veer to the right, Smokestone. When you reach the coast, get up over land as soon as possible and follow your course marker."
Aye aye, Captain. "Yes sir." I veered right.
Moments later the coast appeared. I eased the Needle over it and was racing on the beach, hurdling rocks and skirting cliffs. The voice broke in again.
"A little further inland, Smokestone. Follow the course marker. Up and over the cliff, if you will."
I jerked the nose up and hopped on top the cliff, sliding the Needle right until I was on course. The terrain was rougher here. Over water and the beach was pretty much level flight. There was more to miss here; trees, poles, buildings, hills. I got busy. I glanced at the altimeter. I could climb another three hundred feet. That would clear me of trees and most buildings. But I stayed where I was, zipping through the terrain like a madman. ...
Forced to put the schooner Heimdall into dry-dock for repairs and modifications, the crew chooses to holiday in Southern Utah so they can rendezvous with the Professor, a brilliant confidant from Rabat. What he shares at the summit stuns the crew and
A new client talks attorney Stan Turner into acting as his executor and trustee of his estate if he should die. Stan reluctantly accepts, but when the client is murdered before the ink is dry on the paperwork, Stan realizes he has been set up and mus
