"When Dewey Bustle found the shriveled monkey finger, he just didn’t know what to think. He asked his buddy Fern...."   Can love persist in the face of harsh circumstance? Maybe we are all like these, the small and the lost.

"Hob died at Naseby aged 16, his breast pierced by a Roundhead pike. As he fell he cried three times 'Beard, Beard, Beard,' but such was the din of battle that no one heard him."

Is this story about the unfathomable bond between boys and dogs? Or about the mysterious spiral of time? Let's just say it's our favorite kind of history lesson.

"We took the shuttle to the entrance of the theme park. My father said, Remember our car is in Squiggly section C. The day was thrilling...."

Family life in the suburbs... it can get very, very weird. Would the real "me" please stand up?

"The dream was unwelcome when it came. The bottom of a stone spiral staircase. Air filled with stone dust and settled incense..."

Cathedral, boneyard, locked box... is this a nightmare or something else? And why does it end with an 11-word haiku?

"It was shocking to see Thundrel toss up the ball and drive it over the net with unimaginable force. Unkempt greasy hair flew back from both of his massive heads which towered above the trees behind him."

From convoluted speculations about hidden realities arises a valiant hero who saves humanity from evil giants by wielding a... racket!

"I brought my father’s Belgian-made Browning semi-automatic .22 caliber rifle with me to junior high school...."

If you think you know the line between life and death, think again. A bullet can never point the way to wisdom... or can it?

"Every night for months, ever since Emma’s death, I’d taken the same walk through the park, but this time, I went another way."

Is this how you bring back love? Or is it something much more twisted? By the way, what is coulrophobia?

 

 

"Albert slumped forward on his chair in the waiting room at the doctor's office. The floor had just stopped melting."

What do you do if you meet a king? And how do you get to the Land of Perpetual Afternoon?

"I stand in white tennis shoes, as fresh sacrifice, outside double glass doors..."

 

Commerce or religion? Mundane or mystical? A glossy shrine as a gateway to a higher dimension... or not. Glimpse the true nature of... what?

 

"Amid fits of laughter and clouds of pot smoke, Dave and I would debate: Do thoughts have density? What is the weight of sadness, the volume of anger?"

Is this story a glimpse of a vast synchronistic web of invisible interconnections, or is it mostly a convoluted but loving tribute to John Lennon? You decide.