<END> … See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His speculative fiction novels * may be purchased in paperback or Kindle formats via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

Review copies are available from the author at terencekuch /a/t/ ymail.com for:

    *The Seventh Effect: a thriller from Melange Publications about a new kind of bioterrorist plot against the USA.

    *See/Saw: a literary adventure from Ink Smith Publications about implanting memories – then the North Koreans figure out how to do it.

     The psych interns read our charts every day. They don’t even laugh when they read them, although sometimes I catch them moving their lips. It’s Dr. Wolfe who rules here, who decides our fate every day. He has four major options for us: pill lineup, confined to dayroom, confined to bedroom, or Greenwall Gardens. That last is what we call the isolation room, the one with a little window in the door and green cloth hangings on its four dark walls.

     Sometimes I’m sent to Greenwall Gardens because I’ve been bad. I can scream there, but the wallcloth eats up my words. Sometimes I pretend I’m in a freight elevator, and that the same patients live on each floor all oblivious of each other, thinking what the others think. “I’ll go downstairs,” each thinks, and so each one goes to the floor below but of course they never meet their doubles, who have gone to the floor below that. Where do the folks from the basement go? Back on top, I suppose.

     For example, last week I had a meltdown, and found myself in Greenwall Gardens. Of course I’d been frisked and my pen-knife confiscated (“How the hell did you get that!”). A few hours later I had calmed down enough that one of the keepers brought me dinner. I asked him for a pencil and he said no, too dangerous; but he did scrounge a crayon for me. I was sure that Doctor knew about the crayon, had approved giving it to me. Yes, he wanted to know what I’d write, and sad experience had taught the staff that inmates deprived of crayons might begin writing on the walls with their own excrement.

     I pulled the padding loose from the wall and scribbled wildly behind it, then pressed the fabric of oblivion back over what I had so fervently written.

     Yes, I know the keepers wash the wall sometimes; they scrub off what I write. But they copy it down first; they told me so. “It has therapeutic significance,” one said to me. Didn’t say if the keepers like it, if they believe it, if they think it has any Merit or Significance beyond the Therapeutic, anything beyond the trivial insights into my head they so cherish: no lit crits they.

     The next day I was let out of isolation; filthy, teary. And pen-knifeless. But in my room I had an ordinary table knife I’d taken from the dining room, and every evening I was slowly sharpening it on the metal bedstead.

[to be continued …]

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Thank you – tk

#

That earlier person, the one who did all those terrible things – that wasn’t “me.” Isn’t there a statute of limitations on how long I have to be “me”?

#

The avatar survives its master. Eventually, it forgets who it was an avatar of, then forgets it was an avatar at all. It comes to believe that it needs – an avatar. It buys one that looks, although it is not consciously aware of this, just like its old master.

#

A domestic squabble, husband and wife, all 21 consonants resounding in the air between them.

#

Nightmare: A party where no one knows you; or where everyone knows you but you can’t remember any of their names.

<END> … See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His speculative fiction novels * may be purchased in paperback or Kindle formats via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

Review copies are available from the author at terencekuch /a/t/ ymail.com for:

    *The Seventh Effect: a thriller from Melange Publications about a new kind of bioterrorist plot against the USA.

    *See/Saw: a literary adventure from Ink Smith Publications about implanting memories – then the North Koreans figure out how to do it.

     The digging continues into the night and the next day. Contestants who see that they are losing begin to throw dirt into others’ holes. This is permitted by the rules; in fact, it’s what the reporters and cameramen have been waiting for. The other contestants return the intrusive dirt and add more from their own holes. One man strikes another with his shovel and is immediately disqualified, but nonetheless becomes a celebrity. Others make deals with each other, agree to dig holes exactly the same depth and split the prize money.

     It is not quite a coincidence that the holes look like graves, that the struggle seems like life.

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Thank you – tk

     There is a dramatic pause; a bright red switch is thrown. Gradually, Kathy’s past becomes simpler, less demanding. She feels the bad things in her life draining away. She feels the millions watching her, how they’re cheering her on. She can’t imagine why she ever had all those worries. She rises, smiling. Her ex-husband and the cousin by a prior marriage enter from the wings, caress her. The audience goes wild with cheering. Kathy accepts her brand-name prizes and goes home. Kathy is happy. Kathy has no worries now. Kathy never has any more worries. This is so wonderful, she thinks. Why doesn’t everyone do it?

     Actually, they did; Kathy was the last. Now everyone is happy.

<END> … See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His speculative fiction novels * may be purchased in paperback or Kindle formats via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

Review copies are available from the author at terencekuch /a/t/ ymail.com for:

    *The Seventh Effect: a thriller from Melange Publications about a new kind of bioterrorist plot against the USA.

    *See/Saw: a literary adventure from Ink Smith Publications about implanting memories – then the North Koreans figure out how to do it.

#

Recurrent quarreling among the apostles over who would become pope leads to the first martyrdom.

#

An answer is discovered to “Why hast thou forsaken me?”

#

Seeing that His prohibition of the taking of interest had little effect, God now prohibits the paying of interest.

#

The Holy Spirit – only – too – real

<END> … See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His book, At All Adventure: An Alternative Gospel may be purchased via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

     We dug in the ruins of that place, level by level, civilization by civilization, always deeper into the past. We found each culture’s walls and hovels, weapons, wagon ruts gouged into the stone streets. And below that, another of the same, and the same after that. We have not yet found the bottom level, a place overlying undisturbed earth. Even if we were to find that first civilization someday, we would never know it was the first until we had ripped it out of the ground, out of its sleep just as we have the ancient places above it.   [– after Sigmund Freud]

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Thank you – tk

     The doll cannot be discarded; that would be the height of discourtesy.

     It must be kept visible on top of your desk at all times, or the others will feel hurt, may report you.

     It is possible that its glass eyes are recording something.

     This kind of award has many meanings.

<END> … See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His speculative fiction novels * may be purchased in paperback or Kindle formats via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

Review copies are available from the author at terencekuch /a/t/ ymail.com for:

    *The Seventh Effect: a thriller from Melange Publications about a new kind of bioterrorist plot against the USA.

    *See/Saw: a literary adventure from Ink Smith Publications about implanting memories – then the North Koreans figure out how to do it.

     Today I had another one of those precious one-on-ones with Dr. Wolfe.  Doctor draws a deep breath and straightens up in his chair. He doesn’t know what that means, but I do: his next sentence will include the word “realize.” A shrink’s favorite word. “Realize” has something to with “real people,” but not with “realty,” the house I lost when I was sent here to the asylum. “Real” is whatever Power says is real, and Doctor represents Power, for sure. Power is the right to lock me up in the room with the green cloth walls, when I can’t lock him up there so he’d get a taste of how it feels, having to pee and there’s no place to pee and you’re pounding your fists on the door and making unbecoming weeping noises and crying for god’s sake let me out of this goddamn place I promise I’ll be good and peeing all over the floor.

     That’s the kind of therapy that helps me Realize.

[to be continued]

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Thank you – tk

     Now, even though the first moon flight had taken place more than forty years before, space flight still sounded crazy to Jack. Could never have happened. Never.

     For Jack, Buck Rogers died a long time ago.

<END> … See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His speculative fiction novels * may be purchased in paperback or Kindle formats via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

Review copies are available from the author at terencekuch /a/t/ ymail.com for:

    *The Seventh Effect: a thriller from Melange Publications about a new kind of bioterrorist plot against the USA.

    *See/Saw: a literary adventure from Ink Smith Publications about implanting memories – then the North Koreans figure out how to do it.

#

Some of our subways run through the Unders’ territory – they catch rides on top of our trains, a very dangerous thing to do and they leave messy footprints, too.

#

Unders pull our crops deeper into the earth, harvest them – Overgrounder farmers poke sharp sticks into the ground to try to get the Unders to stop.

#

We asked the Unders about alligators in the sewers. Yes, they said, it’s become a real problem down here. And the Burmese pythons, too. Of course they blame us for these tribulations, as they blame us for oil spills, sewage overflows, and everything they consider “pollution.” Shame on them.

#

Unders believe their old legends that life on the surface is the Hell for those who were wicked underground in a prior life. This is actually true, even if most of us up here don’t know it yet.

#

Unders are terrified of the open sky – a few of them have been Over on diplomatic missions. We cover them with roofs, awnings, large hats.

#

Joe Morrison fell down a well and was rescued by the Unders. For a few weeks, relations improved. Then they discovered that Joe was a CIA spy.

#

The Overgrounder government announces a new, tougher Vertical Foreign Policy.

#

In the interest of improving intra-earth relations, Overs sometimes lie on the ground and thump it with their fists. The Unders’ response is typically something like “Hi up there! Have a nice day!” but sometimes it’s “Hey keep it down will you, we’re trying to sleep down here.”

#

There is a traditional Under joke about “the other shoe dropping.”

#

The Unders ask the Overs if there is an Over-over somewhere above our own heads. We Overs laugh, say there can’t be any such thing. Overground is the top level. Nothing more could be up there. Nothing.

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Thank you – tk

     Eduardo is quite pleased with himself; he, a poor immigrant, now VP of a not-inconsiderable import firm. Every day he wakes and tells himself, once again, that it is very good to be Eduardo and not some lesser person.

     But one day he awakes to find – gradually and with many false steps – that he is someone else: a rougher skin, a large moustache. People on the street whisper “It’s Pancho!” and step out of his way, looks of fear and disgust on their faces. A few turn their heads and spit. He attempts to go to his office, but the guards will not let him in the door. Eventually he goes home, waiting to wake up, waiting for the awful dream to end.

     And the next day he does wake up as Eduardo, not Pancho, as a glance in the mirror testifies. That was quite a dream, he thinks, shaken. But on the commuter train he overhears people saying “Did you know that Pancho is back? I saw him yesterday, as mean and dirty as ever!” And the other nods and says “I heard he tried to get into the World Import building. I can’t imagine what he wanted there, but the guards turned him away.”

     Bit by bit, Eduardo finds physical evidence that yesterday was real. A cigarette butt in his suit jacket, for example: Eduardo doesn’t smoke. And returning home he finds an empty bottle of cheap tequila that he hadn’t noticed before: Eduardo drinks a highly praised Scotch. The phone rings; a sultry voice asks if he wants the same services tonight that he bought yesterday, and how may girls this time, sir?

     He tries to stay awake that night, but eventually falls asleep. He gets up in the morning and rushes to the mirror. He’s Eduardo again, thank God! Pancho is nowhere to be seen. Eduardo goes about his business, and everything seems normal.

     Night after night, morning after morning, the desperate scene is repeated. As the years pass, Eduardo goes through his morning identity ritual, his spasm of fear. But he never changes back to Pancho; it was only that one day, but he can’t forget it. It preys on his mind, a vision of a mean and desperate outlaw. On his deathbed, surrounded by his family, in a delirium he tells them to call him “Pancho,” that he had wanted to be Pancho all his life, not Eduardo. Anything but Eduardo.

<END> … See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His speculative fiction novels * may be purchased in paperback or Kindle formats via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

Review copies are available from the author at terencekuch /a/t/ ymail.com for:

    *The Seventh Effect: a thriller from Melange Publications about a new kind of bioterrorist plot against the USA.

    *See/Saw: a literary adventure from Ink Smith Publications about implanting memories – then the North Koreans figure out how to do it.

     And that is why Samothraki never had a priesthood.

<END> … See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His book, At All Adventure: An Alternative Gospel may be purchased via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

     In an uproarious sequel, villagers ply the airmen with strong drink, take over the airbase while the aviators are sleeping it off. There are clumsy bombing runs, with hysterical results. People mutter “Wonder what this button does?”, and die. A few missiles are accidentally sent on their way toward large cities. There are side-splitting plane crashes. The surviving villagers stagger home at daybreak, slapping each other on the back and recalling the night’s adventures.

<END> … If you enjoyed this post, pass it on to your friends. If quoting or reprinting, please credit http://www.terencekuch.com.

Thank you – tk

     There are elaborate ceremonies by which we mollify our shadows, plead for them once again to stay loyally behind our backs or underfoot, cease their rude and truthful gestures.

<END> … See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His speculative fiction novels * may be purchased in paperback or Kindle formats via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

Review copies are available from the author at terencekuch /a/t/ ymail.com for:

    *The Seventh Effect: a thriller from Melange Publications about a new kind of bioterrorist plot against the USA.

    *See/Saw: a literary adventure from Ink Smith Publications about implanting memories – then the North Koreans figure out how to do it.

     Once in an unpredictable while Doctor Wolfe makes his rounds, hmmm-ing and clucking, thumbing charts at the keepers’ station. There are two ways we act when Doctor visits Ward H. The first tactic is to be normal, calm, responsible, friendly, collegial. Doctor watches for these signs, writes in his notebook when he sees them. Our other tactic is to act crazy. There are conflicting rumors as to which method is more effective in getting us out of here, as acting crazy mirrors what we do when we’re not acting. But Doctor writes in his notebook when we act that way, too.

     He fixes his calm gaze on each of us, one by one. We note his looks, his occasional words, the circles the top of his pencil makes when he scribes, the careful fall of his sparkling-white garment, his every blink and twitch. We have our notebooks too, mostly in our heads, where we track his steps, his absence. (What does he do when he is not here to blink and twitch, hmmm and cluck?) We make circles in our notebooks and try to decipher the motions the tops of our pencils make, to read the fatal words in air.

[to be continued ...]

<END> … If you enjoyed this post, pass it on to your friends. If quoting or reprinting, please credit http://www.terencekuch.com.

Thank you – tk

     At long last the habitual mourner arouses interest, is questioned, reported on. Millions read about him, believe that he must have gained a deep and special wisdom from his time observing human grief. Finally he agrees to a press conference, is asked what insights he has gained from attending so many funerals. Breathtakingly, crowds huddle around their TVs, wait. Finally, he speaks. “Everything is nice,” he says. We expect to hear more, but there is no more.

<END> … See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His speculative fiction novels * may be purchased in paperback or Kindle formats via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

Review copies are available from the author at terencekuch /a/t/ ymail.com for:

    *The Seventh Effect: a thriller from Melange Publications about a new kind of bioterrorist plot against the USA.

    *See/Saw: a literary adventure from Ink Smith Publications about implanting memories – then the North Koreans figure out how to do it.

     The publication of this work became the topic of intense scholarly controversy. Several of the involved scientists experienced Hate or Rage at each other. The average citizen, if he heard of these disputes, or even of the entire project, experienced Indifference. 

     [– after Walter Abish]

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Thank you – tk

<END> … See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His speculative fiction novels * may be purchased in paperback or Kindle formats via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

Review copies are available from the author at terencekuch /a/t/ ymail.com for:

    *The Seventh Effect: a thriller from Melange Publications about a new kind of bioterrorist plot against the USA.

    *See/Saw: a literary adventure from Ink Smith Publications about implanting memories – then the North Koreans figure out how to do it.

     “Life has no purpose,” said B, with deep rejoicing.

     One of them could be right or both wrong, observed God, thinking of His own purpose, and how He might unriddle exactly what that purpose might be.

<END> … See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His book, At All Adventure: An Alternative Gospel may be purchased via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

     Harry goes back to work. He’s welcomed warmly. Eventually, he’s sent to another management retreat. “What kind of rodent would you be …” begins the motivational speaker.

<END> … If you enjoyed this post, pass it on to your friends. If quoting or reprinting, please credit http://www.terencekuch.com.

Thank you – tk

Tiny bustling, faint noise loud as gongs: time for meds here in the asylum’s infamous (to us) Ward H. The keepers want us to come of our own accord, but they will herd the stragglers sure enough with words we know but only they own. When the keepers are gone we whisper these magic words to each other; we tinkle them like amulets.

We line up silently now, hands in front, eyes downcast. The keepers are quietly pleased. There’s no point making pleasantries: there is no insignificant speech – or silence. Everything counts. Everything is noted. Everything is reported.

My pills are differently colored today: one blue, two buff. It is usually two blue, one buff. Sometimes it is one blue, one buff, one ochre or puce. They don’t give us red pills, not here. Some of the patients would freak out at the sight of a pill so angry, so definite, so unforgiving of any attempt to call it a calmer color.

So we have pills the color of birds’ eggs. Inside us they hatch; babies of obedience are born. We smile, we go for walks on the grounds without running away or sitting down and refusing to move, we don’t try to rip out our hair by the roots – usually. It is all quite beautiful outside, but inside there are epic struggles against the birds and finally they are expelled and we are birdless for the rest of the day; then maybe we have at our hair, or someone else’s.

I’m at the head of the line. One of the keepers smiles at me, not in a friendly way, says “Good morning.” That means swallow the shit and move along. Here’s a cup of water to wash it down. Nobody suspects what’s in the cup, because the keepers don’t care if you drink it or not. But either way, there’s a note in your chart saying you used the little pleated paper cup to wash down your blue and buff, or you didn’t.

[to be continued ...]

<END> … See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His speculative fiction novels * may be purchased in paperback or Kindle formats via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

Review copies are available from the author at terencekuch /a/t/ ymail.com for:

    *The Seventh Effect: a thriller from Melange Publications about a new kind of bioterrorist plot against the USA.

    *See/Saw: a literary adventure from Ink Smith Publications about implanting memories – then the North Koreans figure out how to do it.

<END> … If you enjoyed this post, pass it on to your friends. If quoting or reprinting, please credit http://www.terencekuch.com.

Thank you – tk

     Then it occurred to Dr. Halverson, the project’s principal investigator, that our machine must have worked correctly after all, and that we could now pop the champagne and shake hands all around. Bruce, she figured, had done the time jump all right, but during that week our planet had moved some 18 million kilometers in its orbit around the sun.

     She figured that Bruce had about two and a half seconds floating in outer space to realize how successful our experiment had been.

<END> … See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His speculative fiction novels * may be purchased in paperback or Kindle formats via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

Review copies are available from the author at terencekuch /a/t/ ymail.com for:

    *The Seventh Effect: a thriller from Melange Publications about a new kind of bioterrorist plot against the USA.

    *See/Saw: a literary adventure from Ink Smith Publications about implanting memories – then the North Koreans figure out how to do it.

     It caught on. This could be the only activity in the world, pundits pundited, that could never be commercialized. But they were wrong; it wasn’t long before self-help “JSA” $2000 weekends were announced, “JSA with the Stars,” and “JSA for Jesus.” There was a JSA reality show; JSA porn (not a success); JSA-cize your thighs; and many other ventures. Johnny became rich and famous. He was interviewed (standing, of course). People were reminded of dance marathons, horses not being shot or whispered to.

     But then Johnny sat down. On nationwide TV, at that. What a scandal! Of course no one thought that Johnny would be standing 24 hours a day, but still, in public! You’d think he’d be more considerate of his fans, if not his advertisers!

     Johnny’s fame could have survived the incident if it weren’t for that infamous last interview. His agent had told him to say “I’ve made my statement with JSA, but it’s time for me to move on to other things now, things all of my millions of fans will just love!” But Johnny didn’t say that. What he said was, “My feet hurt.”

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     By the following week, however, Roberta manages to achieve 122 and hold her body at that weight for almost a second. Encouraged, over the next few months she gets the scale to read as little as 98 lbs.

     With intense practice over the following year, and a degree of dedication that costs her most of her negligible social life, she manages for a brief instant to float some tiny distance completely above the scale, which jostles itself to the exactitude of zero, then weighs her again as the fractional second passes. It now reads 87 pounds. Roberta finds the event very satisfactory because it proves that she can, although in a very limited way, levitate.

     Among themselves, Roberta’s office mates utter such words as “gaunt,” “spectral,” and “cadaverous.” Roberta notices the concern on their faces, but she has not yet confided to them that she can levitate. Soon, she thinks, she will have so much proof that they will have to believe her. Her next goal is 81 pounds. She hopes to reach that goal in two weeks by concentrating very hard, and watching her diet. Three weeks at most.

<END> … See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His speculative fiction novels * may be purchased in paperback or Kindle formats via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

Review copies are available from the author at terencekuch /a/t/ ymail.com for:

    *The Seventh Effect: a thriller from Melange Publications about a new kind of bioterrorist plot against the USA.

    *See/Saw: a literary adventure from Ink Smith Publications about implanting memories – then the North Koreans figure out how to do it.

<END> … See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His book, At All Adventure: An Alternative Gospel may be purchased via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

#

He developed a laugh track for torture films. It proved very popular, especially for covering up the gurgling, the pleading, the confessing to what one hadn’t done.

#

Lenny taught a parrot to say “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” so it could appear in TV crime dramas. [– after Ludwig Wittgenstein]

#

Alice imagines she has never before heard laughter. She senses how grotesque it is, like twenty animals each choking on a bone.

#

While there are very many universes, all are exactly the same as this one.

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Thank you – tk

Somewhere in the world there is someone just like you. No, this is not evil magic, merely the statistical result of crowding seven billion people onto the same planet at the same time. Most people never meet their doubles, and for this we can all be thankful. But sometimes it happens.

Two men, identically attired, encounter each other in a public place, say beside a fountain. Each is surprised, annoyed, upset. They disagree over who is real and who is not or, if both are real, which one is the original and which one is the fake. Bystanders look at them curiously, think they must be twins. “How cute, at their age.” “They should have grown out of it by now!” are some of the comments. One of the Sames is you. Which one? How can you tell?

<END> … See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His speculative fiction novels * may be purchased in paperback or Kindle formats via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

Review copies are available from the author at terencekuch /a/t/ ymail.com for:

    *The Seventh Effect: a thriller from Melange Publications about a new kind of bioterrorist plot against the USA.

    *See/Saw: a literary adventure from Ink Smith Publications about implanting memories – then the North Koreans figure out how to do it.

<END> … If you enjoyed this post, pass it on to your friends. If quoting or reprinting, please credit http://www.terencekuch.com.

Thank you – tk

<END> … See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His speculative fiction novels * may be purchased in paperback or Kindle formats via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

Review copies are available from the author at terencekuch /a/t/ ymail.com for:

    *The Seventh Effect: a thriller from Melange Publications about a new kind of bioterrorist plot against the USA.

    *See/Saw: a literary adventure from Ink Smith Publications about implanting memories – then the North Koreans figure out how to do it.

<END> … If you enjoyed this post, pass it on to your friends. If quoting or reprinting, please credit http://www.terencekuch.com.

Thank you – tk

<END> … See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His speculative fiction novels * may be purchased in paperback or Kindle formats via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

Review copies are available from the author at terencekuch /a/t/ ymail.com for:

    *The Seventh Effect: a thriller from Melange Publications about a new kind of bioterrorist plot against the USA.

    *See/Saw: a literary adventure from Ink Smith Publications about implanting memories – then the North Koreans figure out how to do it.

     “Yours, Lord; your image!”

#

     Judas kisses Simon Peter, leaving Jesus to found the Church.

#

     A rumor of good free bread results in a disturbance of about 5000 people, authorities estimate.

#

     God wonders if the world has learned the lesson he taught at Sodom and Gomorrah, or if additional lessons are needed.

#

     Jesus attends a conference on “Postcritical Theology and Socio-Political Praxis: a Retrospect and Prospect.” He listens to the papers as they are read. Then he rises to speak, whip in hand.

<END> … See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His book, At All Adventure: An Alternative Gospel may be purchased via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

<END> … If you enjoyed this post, pass it on to your friends. If quoting or reprinting, please credit http://www.terencekuch.com.

Thank you – tk

     There’s another problem, though. A few others still remember what I did all those years ago. While I still recall their names I will have to deal with them. Then I can get on with my forgetting-project.

<END> … See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His speculative fiction novels * may be purchased in paperback or Kindle formats via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

Review copies are available from the author at terencekuch /a/t/ ymail.com for:

    *The Seventh Effect: a thriller from Melange Publications about a new kind of bioterrorist plot against the USA.

    *See/Saw: a literary adventure from Ink Smith Publications about implanting memories – then the North Koreans figure out how to do it.

            He waits. The belt stops. His own luggage has not yet appeared. After a few minutes the belt starts up again. More bags appear, pushing and shoving those that arrived before, dropping on them like clumsy birds of prey. Bags are wrestled off the belt by adjacent arms, grimacing people.

            One by one, passengers reunite with their luggage, jerking them off the moving belt, sometimes colliding with other passengers, you shouldn’t have been standing so close to me. Me? I was here first, asshole. – And so on, none of it aloud.

<END> … If you enjoyed this post, pass it on to your friends. If quoting or reprinting, please credit http://www.terencekuch.com.

Thank you – tk

     Our warriors came home in despair, but we do not sing of things as real as this.

                      – after György Lukács

<END> … See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His speculative fiction novels * may be purchased in paperback or Kindle formats via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

Review copies are available from the author at terencekuch /a/t/ ymail.com for:

    *The Seventh Effect: a thriller from Melange Publications about a new kind of bioterrorist plot against the USA.

    *See/Saw: a literary adventure from Ink Smith Publications about implanting memories – then the North Koreans figure out how to do it.

     By the 2000’s, however, Melton had become concerned that her predictions were impossibly accurate. Now world-famous, she almost never missed, even concerning events that were not at all likely until they happened. She became suspicious, wondered “what the hell is going on?” As a test, she publicly made a prediction she was pretty sure wouldn’t come to pass. But it did. Now she knew that something must be deeply wrong. Over drinks at her home one evening, she uttered the very un-scholarly words “I smell a rat.”

     Later that night, she discovered a dead rat in her basement.

<END> … If you enjoyed this post, pass it on to your friends. If quoting or reprinting, please credit http://www.terencekuch.com.

Thank you – tk

     Dream-snooping is considered bad form unless done by university psychology departments (as part of a government-funded scientific experiment, of course), or by the FBI. The only technical issue standing in the way of all your dreams being posted on Dreambook or Blather, or used as evidence against you, is that the dream-snoop has to be within 24 inches of your head while you’re asleep, or the dream will be too attenuated to record. This has led to widespread mistrust of wives, husbands, lovers, and administrative assistants, as dream-snooping can be quite profitable. Hookers have occasionally been recruited, but their clients now know not to fall asleep after the transaction is complete. (Older clients, of course, sometimes fall asleep before the transaction can occur at all.)

     Some people sell copies of their own debauched dreams on Amazin’, download them on Netminds, and so on. A few superstar dreamers become millionaires. These people, of course, have no privacy left, no shame. Everyone knows their dirty little fantasies, their dreams of widespread slaughter or at least a few murders, or torture fantasies that bring gasps even from the jaded. The most radical or sexy dreams are reviewed in Rolling Stone, their dreamers interviewed. Fame and fortune follow.

     Ghost-dreamers are reputed to exist for celebrities whose dreams are insufficiently titillating.

<END> … See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His speculative fiction novels * may be purchased in paperback or Kindle formats via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

Review copies are available from the author at terencekuch /a/t/ ymail.com for:

    *The Seventh Effect: a thriller from Melange Publications about a new kind of bioterrorist plot against the USA.

    *See/Saw: a literary adventure from Ink Smith Publications about implanting memories – then the North Koreans figure out how to do it.

<END> … See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His book, At All Adventure: An Alternative Gospel may be purchased via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

<END> … If you enjoyed this post, pass it on to your friends. If quoting or reprinting, please credit http://www.terencekuch.com.

Thank you – tk

<END> … See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His speculative fiction novels * may be purchased in paperback or Kindle formats via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

Review copies are available from the author at terencekuch /a/t/ ymail.com for:

    *The Seventh Effect: a thriller from Melange Publications about a new kind of bioterrorist plot against the USA.

    *See/Saw: a literary adventure from Ink Smith Publications about implanting memories – then the North Koreans figure out how to do it.

     The most disturbing discovery is a loving remembrance that does not reflect what they valued in their own lives; a remembrance that is, subtly, a kind of dismissal.

<END> … If you enjoyed this post, pass it on to your friends. If quoting or reprinting, please credit http://www.terencekuch.com.

Thank you – tk

    Pine Creek, in southwest Arkansas, wasn’t much of a stream to begin with but now it just – poured down a hole. Lukey Moss set his toy sailboat on Pine Creek to watch it disappear, because it was a present from his uncle Russ and he didn’t like his Uncle Russ. Pine Creek disappeared into the earth, then the toy boat, and then Lukey, too. Uncle Russ didn’t express a great deal of emotion when he heard the news.

     #

     “Statistically, you know,” the government spokesthing said soothingly, “very few have died from these unfortunate enemy attacks.”

     Ralph Kargen of Otta, Wisconsin died by suffocation three feet beneath his rose garden. For him, it was the most important event in the history of the universe. Every other point of view didn’t give a damn that Ralph Kargen of Otta, Wisconsin, had ever lived.

     “We anticipate discovering the cause of these issues and making an appropriate and measured response,” the government spokesthing said, “no more questions now, please.” He hurried from the podium.

     #

     But then something changed – Earth-Shaker was moving up, nearing the surface. It breached first in Connecticut, then in many other places, then in all places. A kind of singing was heard. Peace delegations were sent to its various locations. To their surprise they weren’t eaten, or stepped on, or brushed aside; they were simply ignored.

     After all our worries about why Earth-Shaker was punishing us, causing so much destruction and so many deaths, we discovered that “why” wasn’t the right question. After all our pleading to it and our praying came the ultimate realization: Earth-Shaker didn’t even know we existed, not even as a rash on the surface of its planet.

     We no longer ask “What is it?” but “Who are we?”

See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His speculative fiction novels * may be purchased in paperback or Kindle formats via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

Review copies are available from the author at terencekuch /a/t/ ymail.com for:

    *The Seventh Effect: a thriller from Melange Publications about a new kind of bioterrorist plot against the USA.

    *See/Saw: a literary adventure from Ink Smith Publications about buying and selling memories – mostly of sex.

[ end of series ]

     During the upgrade, of course, the new robot lost all memory of anything that had happened when it was a 7. So it didn’t understand the other 8’s when they still addressed it as “you idiot.”

<END> … If you enjoyed this post, pass it on to your friends. If quoting or reprinting, please credit http://www.terencekuch.com.

Thank you – tk

     “Most people, when awakened, haven’t remembered all their dreams; that gives us an advantage.

     “‘We have a recording,’ we tell them. ‘We remember your dreams, even when you don’t. Just last week you dreamed you were disloyal. No, we won’t tell you how you were disloyal; that’s classified. But I’ll just say that it was an original kind of disloyalty, very threatening, using a deadly new kind of technology that could wipe out millions.’ – and then the clincher: I ask them ‘How did you know we were developing this kind of weapon, anyway?’

     “Then they confess, most of them, guilty or not.”

<END> … If quoting or reprinting, please credit http://www.terencekuch.com.

See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His speculative fiction novels * may be purchased in paperback or Kindle formats via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

Review copies are available from the author at terencekuch /a/t/ ymail.com for:

    *The Seventh Effect: a thriller from Melange Publications about a new kind of bioterrorist plot against the USA.

    *See/Saw: a literary adventure from Ink Smith Publications about buying and selling memories – mostly of sex.

      Satan sat on his burning throne, face hard with flame and eyes gleaming white, last-born of the dead and everlasting Force! The forked tongue writhing from his mouth pierced the damned like awls: admonishing, rebuking, transfixing them with Responsible Comment.

     Jesus stood before Satan. “Come, follow me,” said Satan, “and I will show you the damned.”

     He went with Satan and beheld a pit exceedingly deep, and in them many souls together. And Satan said, “All of these dead, they envy the ‘breathers’ as they call the ones above. They say, ‘I have a right to breathe just as any of them.’

     “They say, ‘I have been here six years’ (or six hundred, or six thousand –) ‘and I have earned the right to breathe again.’

     “They say, ‘Those breathers are no better than I am.’

     “They say ‘They have it so easy, those breathers, you know I used to be a breather once myself and so I know.’

     “And then they say, ‘If I will be no breather I will have no breathers there above,’ and they plot to rise from the pit and suck the life from the living upon their beds in sleep, when breathing comes from the Spirit out and in, to catch their breath and swallow it down hard, and lead the breather down to Hell, no breath ever more for him.

     “They say all these things and more. But not one of them says, ‘O Lord I loved it when I was a breather; and now that I breathe no more I cry out for the air of breath upon my lips!’

     “O no,” said Satan, “they say anything else, everything else. And so they are here.” He swung his arms around in a broad gesture. “And these are the ones you came to save?”

<END> … If quoting or reprinting, please credit http://www.terencekuch.com.

See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His speculative fiction novels * may be purchased in paperback or Kindle formats via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

Review copies are available from the author at terencekuch /a/t/ ymail.com for:

    *The Seventh Effect: a thriller from Melange Publications about a new kind of bioterrorist plot against the USA.

    *See/Saw: a literary adventure from Ink Smith Publications about buying and selling memories – mostly of sex.

     What was Earth-Shaker? Why was it causing these events? There were many theories. Act of God. Act of Beelzebub. Revenge of God. Quantum event.

     Appeasing the Shaker was attempted. We sacrificed crops, goats, virgins – no, I lied: not virgins. We applied to it, appealed to it, left bundles of flowers, photos of the disappeared, hand-scrawled notes on our walls of memory. Some prayed aloud. Others scoffed in public but prayed in secret.

     In Central Park, a shaggy man stood on a box with both arms raised.

“Earth Shaker, we thank thee

That we have once again been spared,

That we have not been taken, borne into the earth

To your dwelling-place,

To your hungry mouth.”

     He made the abhaya mudrā with his fingers. “Amen,” he said. The people answered with their own “Amen”s. Then all were silent while the shaking came once more, and passed.

[ – to be continued – ]

<END> … If quoting or reprinting, please credit http://www.terencekuch.com.

See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His speculative fiction novels * may be purchased in paperback or Kindle formats via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

Review copies are available from the author at terencekuch /a/t/ ymail.com for:

    *The Seventh Effect: a thriller from Melange Publications about a new kind of bioterrorist plot against the USA.

    *See/Saw: a literary adventure from Ink Smith Publications about buying and selling memories – mostly of sex.

     Smith gains another 0.05%.

<END> … If quoting or reprinting, please credit http://www.terencekuch.com.

See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc. His speculative fiction novels * may be purchased in paperback or Kindle formats via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

Review copies are available from the author at terencekuch /a/t/ ymail.com for:

    *The Seventh Effect: a thriller from Melange Publications about a new kind of bioterrorist plot against the USA.

    *See/Saw: a literary adventure from Ink Smith Publications about buying and selling memories – mostly of sex.