Acroama

I really didn’t expect she would.  She did. … My pet fish, Marvin, isn’t someone I introduce people to until I think they’re ready. I wasn’t always this way. When I first got him and still had that naive glow in my eye, I was eager to show Marvin off to anyone who showed the slightest interest, or frankly, even those who showed no interest at all. I’ve since learned to wait.  Marvin is different from most fish. I found him on a voyage many years ago to the Marsupial Islands.  My crew and I were floating just beyond the shore. We had spent the day on the island and were now returning to our ship. Moonlight lit the beach turning the sand cold and blue. Food and water had become sparse. We had scoured much of the island, and still didn’t have enough supplies for our return journey. That’s when Marvin appeared.  My wool trousers were soaked and full of wet sand, weighing several pounds more than they did before I pushed our wooden dinghy into the waves. As soon as I clam...

I look too handsome for my books And scare my common friends with looks. The lover stunned by obvious goods  Will soon be lost in darker woods. The gaze that’s quick and can’t contain — The “care” drones on, I wish it gone. The traveler quits before the end And leaves me waiting at the bend Of rarely found gardens of good — Fated fruits misunderstood. Though kind and silent I will stay, “Please go with me,” I think to say. Seldom tasted best of all — The place where God and children call. I sit alone in company  With only me who waits to see. While in this quiet sacred grove I pluck a treasured yellowed rose; I smell the fragrance oh so sweet, Remove the shoes from off my feet. Wash in waters clean and clear, The gentle flow is all I hear. Though none but me awaits me here — I feel no doubt, no shame, no fear. For good remains the garden grove  For anyone to come behold.

[Picture of Earth taken during Storm season] After separating the mothers from their IC children, General Martin Rocha confined the IC’s and strapped them to the floor. The general conducted a series of experiments in an attempt to identify weaknesses and vulnerabilities in an IC.  General Rocha has confirmed that he not only oversaw, but became personally involved in the IC experiments. The following is an excerpt from a detailed anonymous report of the IC’s torture. Though these reports seemed to be originally meant for objective scientific observation, the writer trends gradually towards sensationalist morbidity. The records appear to be a single doctor's personal recollections from these daily experiments. The following passage was selected to convey the bizarrely sadistic nature of the experiments. — Editing Team ANONYMOUS: SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATION RECORD: Their delicious scaly skin is perfectly exposed now from having successfully removed their feathers and fur.  When we r...

Play this song softly with headphones while you read:  "Jacob and the Stone" by Emile Mosseri Tom lays quietly in his hospital bed. The cataracts took his sight completely over the last month or so. His stomach no longer accepts any water or food. His skin is frail as paper and his bones are light as air.  You’d think at a time like this Tom would be thinking about his adventurous past, or lost in the fears or hopes of his unknown future. And though Tom’s gut may have given up trying to get him to eat by now, it hadn’t quit giving him advice, and it says to him that he can’t venture too far in either direction or he may never come back.  Tom was blissfully lost in the now. Tom had been wandering here for a while now. You see, losing his sight opened up a whole new world to him. A world where sounds, smells and touch filled the void of his sight. For the past minute Tom has been listening to the shuffle of the sheets getting tucked around him. In the quiet of the room, the...

[Megan and Sarah’s farm on The Madonna] CAPTAIN REPORT: ANITA: STORM 29, 3621  Crew is 2 weeks from Earth. We have been traveling with the IC’s for the past twelve years. We come in peace.  Eden is habitable, and the crew is intent on helping launch an interplanetary exodus.  BLACKBOX DATA: STORM 41, 3621 Ship – Refueled (E.S.F. Satellite) Ship – Orbiting (Earth) [end of data] THE MADONNA ORBITED EARTH for the ensuing 20 days of Storm season. During this time, the crew was anxious to hear from base control. None of Anita’s reports registered as received by base control for the past 12 years, 20 weeks and 3 days (since their initial entry into the wormhole – before their arrival at Eden).  During this period of time, after the execution of Dr. Carson Withers and his family, the CW base control became a battlefield between the CW and NWO. The CW eventually bombed the base, killing many NWO and CW personnel alike. The destruction of the base corresponded with Ava’s firs...

Marini scooped up his keys and the extra ammunition in his nightstand drawer. He just got off the phone with Gorecci, the boss needed him to “paint some walls.” After getting the information on who, he ended the call with the tale-tale, “You got it boss,” as he hung up the phone.  It was 3AM and his wife next to him stirred when the phone rang.  “Got business tonight?” she said through a groggy voice.  “You got it, baby.” Marini said as he bent over to kiss her on the forehead.  She moaned pleasantly and turned over in the warm sheets, seconds away from returning to blissful sleep.  Marini stood in the closet and turned on the plastic chandelier that hung in the bathroom. He put on his brown suit and stashed a large cigar in the inside pocket along with his Beretta M9.  Marini had been at this for years now, and rose quickly in the ranks of the local mob. He felt it an honor. When Marini was a child, his father was killed by a mobster, the body thrown in a ...

Tim was alone. After a full year of high school, he had friends now. His junior year was shaping up to be a good one. But nonetheless, he was alone. He chose to be alone. There was a nice spot in the large high school that no one really knew about.  Tim observed during drama class one day, that the auditorium doors on the right side of the house only latched shut at the top of the door. These doors opened to a main hallway. If no one was walking by, he could slide his student ID along the top of the door, hold the latch down, and get inside the auditorium.  However, he didn’t settle for a comfortable chair in the house. It was too dark. She loved the dark.  He walked away from the stage, up the aisles past the red upholstered seats, and towards the main entrance doors at the top of the house.  The house doors opened to a vestibule between the auditorium doors and a set of four doors that opened to the main foyer of Tim’s High School. The doors to the foyer were alway...