Volume 2
of Short Happy Stories is now available.
Fifty compact stories.
Unpredictable.
Perfect for a day’s in-between moments.
Order here, or inquire at a bookshop.
Short Happy Stories, Volume 2 was published by Manaatti Books, and is available in Paperback and eBook formats.
Antarctic
Apparition
“Look,” I say, “I could apologize or I could say it is what it is. And look: it is what it is.”
I listen for an expression of acceptance. I’m still listening. “Are you there?”
Our connection has been lost or terminated. She’s on another continent. Maybe she’ll call back in a moment. I wait. Probably I should have just apologized. But an apology seems pretty worthless next to the magnitude of my mistake.
Another minute begins to pass. Maybe she’s in shock. Maybe she hates me. But what can I do that would actually make a difference?
Considering my mistake, I probably shouldn’t be able to enjoy anything for a while—but since my time down here is almost certainly almost over, shouldn’t I at least try to make the most of it? Feeling bad, I put on a scarf and a jacket and another jacket and another jacket and another jacket and a wool hat, and lift the hood of the third jacket over the wool hat, and move through four doors, out into the brilliant Antarctic night, into the company of the aurora australis.
Enormous green and purple lights gently shift across the sky. A beauty that wouldn’t exist without the darkness…
Months ago, when I got off the airplane and took my first steps on the frozen continent, the world was brighter than I’d ever seen it: shocking bright white and shocking bright blue. I’d applied to work in Antarctica because my life in the city—life in general—had started to feel meaningless. Things were all over the place, everywhere I looked, and noises were coming from all directions, too often from unseen sources… And what was the point of it all?
But, at the same time, I suspected that life really isn’t meaningless. Increasingly I suspected that the standard human world was kind of designed to distract me from what’s actually important. And what is actually important? I wanted to find out.
The story continues! Find out what happens in Short Happy Stories, Volume 2 !
Cow in City
The cow steps out of the shop, wearing a brand-new red scarf. Initially she was on the fence about the red, and even leaning toward the blue—but she has no doubt that she made the correct choice: the red is, quite simply, more fun. Wait till they see this back at the pasture!
It’s nice—or at least interesting—to be here, in the city, and just go wherever her hooves take her. She was supposed to take the train back right after completing her assignment—but when was she last here? And when will she be here again? Going back to the pasture before taking advantage of at least some of the pleasures of the city seems ludicrous. Ludicrous, and disrespectful to the city and the people who people it.
This is a cow who refuses to take things for granted—because she has no idea how soon she’ll be dinner. So she’ll enjoy this trip. Maybe her free-spiritedness will get her into trouble—it certainly has in the past—but life is too short to not disobey orders that seem stupid.
This is a cow who won’t be cowed.
As the clops of her hooves on the sidewalk float through the air […]
Where will this cow go? Find out in Short Happy Stories, Volume 2 !
