Divergent Lives of No Consequence: Short Stories
The stories in this collection are divided into four categories--
Youth : Service : Solitude : A Fitting End
- The Boy: A young man, lost in thoughts and in his small part of the world, he is only just becoming aware that he may always be an outcast, a loser amongst a wide array of people that peaked in high school. So, in a night of reflection, fear, and hope the young man looks to his future as a way out of where he is now. The life that we want is in our choices. His reality is his to make.
- The Veteran: A former soldier, a man that only ever wanted to be a soldier, must face a life after the military and find another way to make it all happen for him. But letting go of the only life that he ever wanted and a life that he loved is not easy, and he never wanted to know a life after his military service ended. But all journeys have unexpected turns. In the soldier's mind, he deserves more. Today he will change several lives, but he might just save a soul.
- The Insomniac's Lullaby: How long can a person exist on no sleep? Our subject is an insomniac and, of late, a hermit. What's real and what's not has a thinner line every moment. So, when the body and mind start following divergent paths, and realities seem broken; we have the reality that only exists in our fractured mind. The Insomniac has reached his low and just wants a way out. Sometimes finding what we want is far too much.
- They Call Them Death: A Utopia sounds like a better future for everyone, but, then again, it may not be the future that is perfect for everyone. It's 2082 and over the past 50 years, the World Leader's League (WLL) has created a world that was rid of crime, homelessness, and war. Violence disappeared as well. It is an unthought of world made pristine by the few with the courage to make it exist! How was it done? And were the results worth the route taken?