The Strange Recital

"When Arnie Beers woke one morning to find a sign planted on his front lawn, he was amused. He chuckled as he pulled the sign's flimsy posts out of the ground and held it up for his wife to see from the picture window."

Sometimes, unknown beings do inexplicable things. Who? Why? What happens inside yourself when you have no answers?

"Chopped into triangles by the superstructure of the bridge, the sun strobed as he accelerated across the span. On and off the sun flashed; the sunlight splintered and exploded."

If you're driving with eyes closed, steered by a psychic, what's your story? Will love last? We may never know.

"Whenever I arrive, it's the wrong time. No one has to tell me. The right time is a few minutes earlier or later. Invariably I arrive at the wrong time in the wrong place. Wherever I am, it is the wrong place."

Whose voice is speaking? Is it yours? Mine? In the real world, can anything ever be just right?

"From the lamppost something was hanging. A shapeless dark bundle, swinging a little with the wind."

What is wrong with the people of Pikeville? Ed might be the only one who's alarmed. Should he speak up or stay quiet?

"Sophia parted the curtains of maroon velour and ducked into the room... She was greeted on the other side by Françoise, whose stout hand proffered a glass of hot tea... It was brewed from a blend of black leaves and mushrooms, picked under the light of the full moon by Françoise's gnarled fingers, somewhere outside Paris, or so it was said."

A young woman takes a life-changing journey. Where is this place? Is it really a place, or is it something else?

"In the beginning, sometimes I left messages in the street. Somebody is living in the Louvre, certain of the messages would say. Or in the National Gallery. Naturally they could only say that when I was in Paris or in London."

A woman's lone voice speaks to us from a house on a remote beach. Is she mad, or is she really the only person left on earth?

"The world's greatest magician did not like Cherbourg, and he did not like waiting. Huddled beneath his woolen overcoat, Perjos stared at the gray English Channel awaiting the blast that would announce the first boarding call for the S.S. Rotterdam."

It's 1922, the era of Houdini and Conan Doyle. Where are the boundaries between mind, body, and spirit? Sample a novel that asks "What is magic?"

"Luck has bad breath. That's what the Schwartzbear said, before they carried him out feet first. Billy was still on his feet the day he got out. He'd done hard time and more solitary than most and had no luck."

Prison life is cruel. Then you're out on the hard streets of the city. What's next? Can you let friendship change your world?

"I could see Dubček up there on the stage, lolling back in his chair, his cello leaning against one knee. It was not the posture one would expect from a professional musician. His cello gleamed white in the stage lights. Suddenly there was a shout from somewhere in the audience. 'Rubbish!'" Two witnesses to a wild melee at an odd orchestral performance tell their stories. What is the provenance of the cello... and its mysterious power?

"I watched pensive Johnathan push his shopping cart slowly. He was making his usual rounds past the corner where crack falls from the sky like snow."

A glimpse into an upside-down reality right here on our streets, co-existing in parallel with our cozy lives. Who bridges the gap?