The Fork In The Road - Collected Short Stories 5
About
THE SAMARRA DEAL – Christopher Chamberlain is a world famous novelist who dies at the age of 98, but Death makes the "Samarra Deal" with him, whereby he can live on if he fulfils certain conditions. Will he be able to satisfy the requirements?
THE DRY LAND – 2018 – The story follows the Harvey family over several generations from when Jock, returning from serving in the Army in Europe during World War One, forges a destiny for his family on Ellis Downs Station. By the beginnings of the 21st century the new descendants are coping with the Global Financial Crisis and drought. Three different forks in the road are examined: how the survivors cope or do not and what remains for the next generation.
BEYOND JUSTICE – Sebastian Baker was killed at 1:12 pm on a Wednesday when a truck ran a red light and left his lifeless body in the pedestrian crossing where the Walk sign was still green. But somehow he observed the events that happened after and knew what people were thinking. He puts his new found power to positive use by communicating with Detective Sergeant Hilary Swanson on her computer and bringing criminals to justice, or thwarting them before they commit the crime. Things take a personal turn when his grandmother is ripped off by a scammer for $10,000 and he decides to mete out justice from beyond to the villains in Mumbai.
SUBJECTIVE PERSPECTIVE – At the funeral of Michael Patrick O'Doherty several of his friends reflect on how he told the same stories over and over and was he going to bore the good Lord for the next 50 years the same as he had them for the last 50? Through the comments of the various people a picture is drawn of this man. Was his sin that bad when it was weighed against his generous nature?
A MEMORY EVERGREEN – This is not really a short story, but neither is it a biography. My father died when I was young and I have little recollection of him. With my mother often away working I spent the majority of the first 10 years of my life with my maternal grandparents. It seemed fitting that the last story in THE FORK IN THE ROAD – Volume 5 provides the reader with a picture of who I am, my forebears and how they influenced in no small way the man who has written these 30 stories.
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Cover Art created by Mark Thomas of Coverness.
These stories are fiction and the plots and characters figments of my imagination.
Any similarity to any person living or dead is purely coincidental.
The exceptions in this volume are:
THE SAMARRA DEAL with reference to W Somerset Maugham and John O'Hara.
A MEMORY EVERGREEN, which is about my own family.