DESCRIPTION
What exactly is death? Is it the release of our spirits or just the recycle of energy? One person will soon discover the truth. [920 words]
AUTHOR'S OTHER TITLES (124) 58th And L (Poetry) Becoming a man [95 words] [Drama] A City Pineapple (Poetry) - [117 words] A Fair Brown Maiden (Poetry) - [155 words] [Erotic] A Father And Son Chat (Short Stories) Are racists born or are they made? [278 words] A Good Vision Demands Keen Insight (Essays) This is a part of a larger work entitled the New Union Standard. [1,302 words] [History] A Grand New Age2 (Novels) The final chapter of a middle reader novel I am about to submit. [1,531 words] [Fantasy] A Matter Of Faith (Novels) This is a small section of a piece I'm tossing about entittled "Calling all Angels". [408 words] [Fantasy] A New Iraq- Repost (Poetry) For the brave Iraqis who chose liberty over fear and voted in the first democratic election ever! [45 words] A Peaceful Sabbath (Short Stories) A reflection on modern times. [915 words] [Psychology] A Seattle Dawn (Poetry) - [41 words] A Sense Of Timing (Short Stories) - [564 words] A Shooting In Iraq---Part Two (Short Stories) The special opts his ranger squad conducted was illegal and may have resulted in the death of a teenaged girl. [400 words] [Crime] Abilene And Beyond (Short Stories) Further adventures of Bob Coltrane's war against the railroad in the Old West. [932 words] [Western] Algolagnic (Short Stories) What happens when you replace total pain with total pleasure? One woman is about to find out! [2,768 words] [Fantasy] Appomattox (Poetry) What is love can be domination too! [23 words] [Drama] At A Wto Rally (Short Stories) - [853 words] [Fantasy] At A Wto Rally 4 (Short Stories) Joe confront the internal workings of the consortium. [723 words] [Fantasy] At A Wto Rally (Part Three) (Short Stories) Joe gets his first lesson as to what is the consortium. [435 words] [Fantasy] B B C (Poetry) I just love the English accents.... [70 words] [Humor] Back Page News (Short Stories) The thoughts of a dying US soldier on the road to baghdad. [805 words] [Drama] Bird In The Hand (Short Stories) Gothic story of two men on a battlefield dealing with racism. [5,695 words] [Mystical] Blackout-Part One (Short Stories) A detective that suffers from alcoholic blackouts is hired to discover the affair of a client's wife... [1,140 words] [Mystery] Bloody Mary (Short Stories) Sometimes slumber parties games can get the best of you. [564 words] [Horror] Business Card (Short Stories) Madness can be in a simple telephone call. [723 words] [Thriller] Cascading (Poetry) - [57 words] Clean Things..Part 2 (Short Stories) Brenda is horribly murdered and the police think it's Ryan who did the deed. [570 words] [Crime] Clean Things...Part 3 (Short Stories) Ryan is surprised when the person he believe did the murder ends up murdered himself. [578 words] [Crime] Clean Things...Part One (Short Stories) Unchecked desire can lead a man to the dirty things in humanity. [463 words] [Crime] Clean Things...The Conclusion (Short Stories) There's one thing with being right...being dead wrong! [734 words] [Crime] Colloquium Part Two (Short Stories) Ryder arrives at Moon Base George W. Bush in the 21st century. [349 words] [Science Fiction] Colloquium...Part One (Short Stories) Inhabitants on a planet prepares to travel in time in order to save their own world [431 words] [Science Fiction] Colloquy (Poetry) - [37 words] Comatose (Poetry) - [92 words] Cool Moonlight Outside My Hospital Door (Poetry) Ponder life as death lingers [86 words] Droit Du Seigneur (Poetry) - [98 words] During A Nursing Home Visit (Poetry) A poem of reflection. [92 words] Egalitarianism (Short Stories) We must pay for the sins of our enculturation that tells us we own the world one way or another. [750 words] [Fantasy] Equivocation (Novels) The Sage of Scarbourgh is more powerful than Rye thought. [748 words] [Fantasy] Equivocation Part 2 (Novels) Rye and the sage confront each other. [822 words] [Fantasy] Fear Of Water (Short Stories) What's is in out drinking water anyways? [637 words] Fighter (Short Stories) In a moment of weakness one can find strength to endure. [561 words] [Drama] Forgive Us Of Our Debts So We Can Be Debt Free (Short Stories) A gunman owes a debt that he's come to town to pay in the old west. [1,241 words] [Western] Forgive Us Of Our Debts...Finale (Short Stories) This ends the first two chapters of the Novel I hope you enjoy it. [1,472 words] [Western] Forgive Us Of Our Debts...Part 3 (Short Stories) A company of US soldiers block Coltrane's way into Topeka but going around isn't an option. What's a man to do....? [1,274 words] [Western] Forgive Us Our Debts Part 5 (Novels) Confrontation between two of Coltrane's gang and Lincoln Washington. [1,022 words] [Western] Forgive Us Our Debts...Part2 (Short Stories) - [1,525 words] [Western] Form A Vision To Success (Essays) This is a speech I am going to give to Junior High Schoolers today 1/16/04 for Martin Luther King Jr day. [759 words] [Self-Help] Freedom Riders Of 1966 (Poetry) After a rally in a southern town in 1966 four SNCC kids are heading back to Vermont. [83 words] Gambling (Poetry) - [100 words] Gay Marriage Is Constitutional (Essays) - [807 words] Georgia Peaches (Novels) This is a portion of a novel I'm working on. [963 words] Global Part Four (Short Stories) Some clones are like bad pennies...they keep turning up even when you don't want them to! [610 words] [Science Fiction] Global Part One (Short Stories) It's in the near future and human organs are in great demand...to make money you have to get them anyway you can. [655 words] [Science Fiction] Global Part Three (Short Stories) Clones can bleed and have emotions and what's worst they can have babies..... [792 words] [Science Fiction] Global Part Two (Short Stories) One way around the problem of made organs and real organs is a line straight line! [585 words] [Science Fiction] Hanging With Jack Day (Poetry) Jack Day was a friend of mine who shot himself one afternoon....at times I think of him. [182 words] Heaven And Earth (Poetry) A poem about life and death. [75 words] Hell (Poetry) - [181 words] [Spiritual] If There Are Two (Poetry) - [59 words] Instincts (Short Stories) A young reformed gang member is trying to just survive the night and make it home. [3,398 words] Laborer (Poetry) - [86 words] Lady America (Poetry) - [146 words] Lead In Walls (Poetry) - [72 words] Love Ended A Long Time Past (Poetry) Another poem in my series of the usage of sunlight [97 words] Madness In The Dark (Short Stories) Insanity creeps up the spine of a shunned lover during a blackout in New York. [660 words] [Psychology] My Cat (Poetry) What exactly is a habit any ways? [135 words] Mystery (Novels) A Private eye and Catholic Priest attempt to find out what is really behind New Orleans. [888 words] [Mystery] Mystery Part2 (Novels) The seeds of voodoo grow in New Orleans. [605 words] [Crime] New Iraq (Poetry) Repost of a poem I did yesterday. [45 words] Not In My Name Part 1 (Short Stories) A spirit from the terrorist attack on the World Trade Towers must let go of the living in order to cross over with the dead. But he is held to the living by the revenge of love ones. [2,458 words] Not In My Name The Conclusion (Short Stories) He confronts the fireman in death that couldn't save him in life. The fireman hopes he can convince him to let go of the living and embrace heaven and finally peace! [1,402 words] [Fantasy] One More Highway Song (Short Stories) Racial hatred can burn both ways and be all consuming no matter what color your skin is! One eight year boy learns one night during the Newark Riots in 69 [3,735 words] [Drama] Pieces Of The Pie (Novels) This is the first three pages of a novel I am just about finished with...it is 189 pages in length and is targeting high school readers. [650 words] [Science Fiction] Place's End (Poetry) This is an old one I posted a while ago but thought I would re-write it and re-submit it. [137 words] Poltergeist Inc. Part One (Short Stories) One corporation has figured out how to defeat it's competitors...cut all energy cost and convert to seemingly endless energy....there's a catch...ghosts [683 words] [Science Fiction] Poltergeist Inc. Part Two (Short Stories) Hilliard Aerospace has a secret.... [390 words] [Science Fiction] Ripple Effect (Short Stories) A scientist has discovered time travel or maybe his own descent into insanity. [838 words] [Science Fiction] Scarborough Fair (Novels) This is a portion of one of the chapters of the novel Scarborough Fair. It is a place the people there aren't completely sure what it is. The chapter is entilted Brenda. I will submit it in portion to... [657 words] Scarborough Fair Part 2 (Novels) Further portion of the chapter Brenda. [701 words] Scarborough Fair Part 3 (Novels) Further portion of the chapter entitled Brenda. [888 words] Semantics (Short Stories) A police interview. [305 words] [Drama] Shooting In Iraq (Short Stories) - [466 words] [Crime] Should I Look Within (Poetry) For my mother. [125 words] [Spiritual] Silicone (Short Stories) (The centralized theme of the story is to ask the question in a marriage how much of it is companionship and how much of it is sexual? Is there a balance? On the psychological level, what is the balan... [3,012 words] [Psychology] Sirens (Short Stories) - [682 words] Space, The Final Finale -Repost- (Short Stories) What happens in space can be inside or outside the mind. [1,008 words] [Science Fiction] Stains (Poetry) - [120 words] Standing On A Monterey Pier (Poetry) - [59 words] Stephanie (Poetry) - [63 words] Tacoma (Poetry) A poem about the city I love and believe has potential. [111 words] Tangled Berry Bushes (Short Stories) In the style of Edgar Allen Poe. [1,892 words] [Crime] Tempered Tools (Poetry) Healing is always a miracle [30 words] [Spiritual] Tenements (Poetry) - [58 words] The Adventures Of Roco Clay (Novels) A man hunts the takers of his wife in the Sudan. [1,128 words] The Axe Man (Poetry) A professional on his way to work. [113 words] The Cascade Hills (Poetry) In Washington State, there is nothing more lovely than the Cascades in the dawn. Another installment of my sunlight collection. [67 words] The Christian Thing To Do (Novels) Lincoln Washington sits in ambush for two outlaws from Coltrane' s gang. [1,021 words] [Western] The Clearing (Short Stories) A simple ghost story that happens to be true. [783 words] [Horror] The Dawning Of A Seattle Morning (To Doc Bryon) (Poetry) I wrote this poem a bit ago but never liked it. With the passing of my friend Doc it seemed to all come together. [78 words] The Game (Short Stories) A contractor contracted to knock down the last vestment of baseball learns the power of the game. [1,838 words] The Hunter And It's Prey (Short Stories) - [446 words] The Manipulatory Factor (Novels) The only man that can save Known Earth struggles to save his sanity. This is a section of the chapter titled The Manipulatory Factor in book one of the DayStar Trilogy. I started writing this my first... [1,160 words] The Penalty Is Death (Short Stories) A Private Investigator is hired by a client to find out if his wife is having an affair. What he finds will change his life for good. [4,184 words] [Crime] The Phantom Group (Novels) Portion of one of the chapters. [2,308 words] The Quintessence Of Death (Poetry) - [96 words] The Reckoning Zone (Short Stories) A place we all must give a reckoning for the deeds you have done. [491 words] The Stairs Of Woman Hill (Phnom Srei) (Short Stories) It's time we brought home all our missing Americans from the Vietnam War. This story is for all who fought in that damn war! [1,208 words] The Stigma Of A Race (Poetry) - [79 words] The Strength Of Six Million (Short Stories) A young man is confronted with death but calls upon the strength of Six Million. [746 words] [Fantasy] The Trees On Mckinley Avenue (Poetry) - [153 words] The Union Chronicles (Novels) This is a portion of a chapter of a novel I wrote some time ago. I was re-reading it and thought it might be a nice read. [790 words] [Fantasy] The Voyage Of The Kyle Mayes (Poetry) This is a poem in 5 beat meter as a part of the poetry contest mentioned in the Advisor. [78 words] Title Less (Poetry) - [95 words] Union Chronicles (Novels) Just a little more of the story. I enjoy this section the most. [645 words] [Fantasy] Wal-Mart Wants To Rule The World (Essays) Someone left a message that this article was racist and I would like the site's opinion. [917 words] Wanning Colors (Poetry) - [102 words] Wanning Vivid Colors (Poetry) - [140 words] What Else Can Sunrise Do (Poetry) Driving to work I see the sunrise nearly everyday...it's a wonderful death and life expereince. [60 words] Where The Struggle Has Gone (Poetry) - [86 words] Who Are We (Poetry) I wrote this after my mother past away Are we spirits or just a portion of the universal constant...energy? [124 words] [Spiritual] Who Are We -Revise (Poetry) For my mother. [124 words] Wto Rally The Final (Short Stories) Joe has a rude awakening. [548 words] [Fantasy] Ze Zen Ta Continue (Novels) - [545 words] [Science Fiction] Ze Zen Ta (The Way Of The Thinking Fist) (Short Stories) First part of a potential novel. [692 words] [Science Fiction]
The Conductor E Rocco Caldwell
You ever felt death? I'm talking about real death not the corpse lying in some casket pumped up with fluid and crap. I mean real death like on the battlefield as your buddy's existence slipped from his body leaving just the shell. In the moments before he expired a current of power surges up your spine and you know before he does that he's dead. When that happens to you death becomes your friend. No, not your friend, your interlocutor. The middle man in a damn minstrel show with painted black face and large bowtie…the works. You spend the rest of your life running from him but he always finds you. What is worst you don't quite know what he wants. Until after a few times it happens. What happens you ask? Folks start dying around you like the time I was riding a bus sitting next to this old lady. One minute she's talking about her grandchildren and the next she's dead. I felt the surge of energy just before she closed her eyes. There was the fat guy on the subway eating a Philly Cheese and I'm just a foot from him when the energy surge froze me and he crumpled to the floor following screams. He was dead of a heart attack before he reached the floor. Death doesn't have a preference as to how one dies just as long as you die. He comes seductively or seditiously in your sleep or in the form of a bullet to the head. See I have become a conductor of sorts for mister death.
I am close to some sort of psychosis so I have to reach seclusion in the Green Mountains in order to save what sanity I have left. My folks own a cabin there near a small lake. If I stay there Death can't use me anymore become there won't be anyone around to die. I know eventually I will have to get supplies but I can work that out we I come to that bridge. So here I am riding my motorcycle through the autumn tinted woods of Vermont. It's chilly but not close to the cold I feel when sucking the very life out of a person. Vietnam changed me some for the bad and some for the good. I think I can live alone unlike most people…the Nam did that for me. As for entertainment I'll read the books and novels my father stacked on the shelves at the cabin. There are oil lamps and a big wood stove inside the cabin. The lake is filled with fish and the US army special force training taught me to live off the land. I'll be just fine.
At the cabin I get all the lamps lit and fire going. A couple of trout simmer in a pan on the stove. I have a pot of coffee beside the pan. The smell of coffee brings back memories of the times I spent with my parents at the cabin. Sometimes memories are so potent them bring tears to your eyes. I have a book, For Whom the Bell Tolls, in my hand as I sit down not far from the fire. Some guy name Hemingway wrote it. The story occurs in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. The opening is in a pine scented forest. The main character is Robert Jordan. Hey, that's my name. Robert Jordan and I was a demolition expert in the Nam just like this character in the book.
There's a knock on the cabin door. I turn to the door wondering who could be standing outside it. I know the answer deep down inside me so I open the door to the skinny black face man in his ridiculous outfit. His lips are painted white as are his eyes to give those features an exaggeration. He ambles inside and rushes up to the fire.
"When are you just going to accept it," he asks?
"I can't do it any longer. I won't do it any longer."
"What? What won't you do?"
"Allow you to kill people…"
"There is only the recycle of energy. No one ever dies in that sense. You are the conductor of energy. You push it to another void that's all. Unless you do this no one will die in New York. After awhile people are going to figure out no one in dying in New York City and than we will have a major mess on our hands." He smiles at me. "I can't allow that to happen. Get your coat there's a guy in Queens who smokes four packs a day and should have been recycled two days ago."
"No!"
"You don't get it do you?" he moves from the fire and retrieves the novel. "You've been doing this since the dawn of time. Same name same purpose! You are recycled too but maintain your purpose. It's a bit clumsy but effective. I have my job and you have your job!"
"Your job is killing people. You are mister death and I am just a man!"
He laughs so hard he wraps his arms around himself. "Like I said the way things are done is a little clumsy but effective. See I'm just a go between. The set up man you might say. You happen to be Mister Death!"
The grandfather clock chimes just before silence drops inside the cabin. I wonder for whom the chime is for but I already know.
READER'S REVIEWS (8) DISCLAIMER: STORYMANIA DOES NOT PROVIDE AND IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR REVIEWS. ALL REVIEWS ARE PROVIDED BY NON-ASSOCIATED VISITORS, REGARDLESS OF THE WAY THEY CALL THEMSELVES.
"I like this, but there are some typos and run-on sentences. The ending might be more effective if you made it: "Like I said, it's clumsy but effective. See, I'm just a go-between. You happen to be Mister Death." and then the grandfather clock part. Just a small change, and just my opinion. I'm enjoying your work!" -- Jenn H..
"Thanks, Jenn. I did go back and make corrections. I polished it a little too. It was in a very raw stage when I submitted it." -- e. rocco caldwell.
"Nice work. ;o)" -- Jenn H.
"This is some beautiful prose. have you ever been published? Cause I'd pay to read this" -- brotherman, bellingham, wa, USA.
"One short story in a Mag out of Oregon. I'll glady you enjoyed it!" -- e. rocco caldwell.
"Hello Rocco - thanks so much for taking the time to read and review my two stories - I really appreciate it. You have so many stories and I am slowly getting to read them all! The Conductor particularly appealed to me as death and the hereafter is of particular interest to me and I love to read other writers ideas of it. Best regards, Erasmus Flynt " -- Erasmus Flynt, UK.
"Thank you, erasmus. I truly enjoy your stuff " -- e. rocco caldwell.
"I enjoyed this story very much. I'm not sure why, but for some reason it gave me comfort. Don't ask because i don't know either, but i truly enjoyed it. I'd appreciatite if you read and commented some of my stuff. Thanks." -- Moses M. Constable.
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