Computer Leon’s robots embarked on what might be called a change of state. In the basement, where he worked on his gadgets, the robots somehow got into a rarely used subroutine algorithm Computer Leon had called SelfAssessmentCycle(), a class of objects he’d buried deep and assigned as private so as to keep this language inaccessible, […]
You’re scared by a stuffed, gray bear. The roll of its head when jostled is a little too human. Sometimes, when the light’s right (or wrong), you see lust in its reflective eyes. You attribute this to your own sensitivities, to your own habits, to the fact that you’re having difficulty sleeping at night, wondering […]
It is amazing what goes on in mirrors. Cruz felt for certain that when he moved left to the side of the mirror, his image persisted. But on the other side, the other Cruz, the Cruz that persisted in the world of the mirror, was making faces or giving him the middle finger. So Cruz […]
A Scientist, who studied such matters, discovered that Tomorrow never really came and that Tomorrow was merely “nothing” called “something.” His next step, as he told the Faculty, was to follow this discovery with an additional set of announcements on the subject of Yesterday. “Then how the hell do you explain these gray whiskers,” said […]
As a break from normal habit, I’m posting 2 stories today. The first is the version of Wooing Barbara that doesn’t work (or wouldn’t work for me). The second is a version that cuts a little closer to what I was looking for when the process of Wooing Barbara began. We don’t like to show […]
Maricela had bird bones. Her father said, “Look at her go. She landed on the Johnson’s roof, up there by the wind sock.” And she was only three. Maricela’s mother had to make Maricela’s clothes by hand. She stepped out of all her shoes. On the up side, no one had to worry about kites […]
The artist painted a man with yellow hair. She woke up at night and a man with yellow hair was seated at the edge of the bed. He said, “Paint me a woman, a woman with yellow hair. I’m lonely.” The next day the artist began on a woman with yellow hair. The canvas progressed […]
Where are the wisdom givers now, the gurus? Is their absence just proof that they are so large or so few? The speaker addressed a sizable crowd, both young and old. He followed the rows up to the lights. He spoke: We know that in societies that do not change, the aged are venerated, because […]
There is an image that extends from another (and a problem may be that in all images images extend). A robber, for example, has just leapt into the path of a man and a woman on the sidewalk. The robber says, “Give us your money.” He’s with three of his criminal pals, boys all, who, […]
There is an image of a girl looking at a man from behind. The man stands in front of her, staring ahead. He wears sunglasses. Maybe that’s a scar or a shadow on his cheek. This image attracts. What is the woman’s expression? Maybe she’s watching his back with surprise. He’s just said something like, […]
They called Computer Leon. Soon, wire and card lawn signs went up saying “We called Computer Leon.” “If it weren’t for Computer Leon, I’d have nothing but a thousand dollar paper weight on my desk,” a man said. “Computer Leon’s a real pro. He had my PC up and running in little more than an […]
A young boy no more than ten woke to the dark with the need to pee. In this world, peeing at night was not so easy a thing. His mother and father slept in the room at the far end of the hall, the bathroom in between, two picture windows that looked out onto the […]
Assuming that we are all not machines in 2050: In the year 2050 Leon paid full amount and clicked the circular lock into his head and tapped okay for five minutes of diagnostic ability. The left lower leg had been paining him for weeks since he’d slipped and with normal thinking he was at a […]
Assuming two characters and the existence of a bag: (a) He told her that the bag had to get to Europe. He smiled. She smiled. Like those smiles before sex or at the end of a wedding or when you finally notice you have hands. (b) She took the bag, bearing imperceptible value onto the […]
