"The Car and the Girl" a short story by Craig Zimmerman

Jake Crawford was walking into his high school when he noticed a pristine 1975 Chevy Camaro pull into the parking lot. Jake gazed with envy at the beautiful car and was surprised to see Milly Prentiss emerge from the Camaro. 

Milly was in a couple of Jake's classes, but he didn't recall ever talking to her. During lunch, Jake looked for Milly and found her eating by herself at one of the tables.

"Do you mind if I sit with you" Jake asked as he approached Milly's table. Milly smiled and motioned for him to sit. Jake studied Milly for a moment. She had dark brown hair, light green eyes, and a nice smile. He found it strange that he hadn't noticed how pretty she was before.

Jake tried to think of something to say that didn't involve the car and then remembered his card tricks. He pulled a deck from his pocket and started with the simplest trick he knew and by the end of lunch they were having a blast.

After school let out, Milly gave Jake a ride home in her car and he found out that Milly and her father had restored the old car during the Summer in the hopes of selling it and using the money to pay for her college next year. Jake couldn't imagine selling such a perfect machine.

As their friendship grew, Milly began picking up Jake in the mornings as well as taking him home after school. Jake felt like royalty riding in the Camaro and laughed at the kids who were still walking to school.

One morning, Milly showed up at Jake's house without the car. "Where's the Camaro?" he blurted out as Milly stepped onto his porch. Milly looked sad. "My father got a good offer, and the new owner took it home right away. Did the car mean that much to you Jake?"

Jake looked into Milly's light green eyes and felt sorry that he had thoughtlessly hurt her. "I'll admit that it was fun pretending to be one of the cool kids for a change, but you are what matters to me." and with that he took Milly's hand and together they walked to school.

"Driftwood" a short story by Craig Zimmerman

Mark Halstead's sailboat "Starfish" was set adrift after nearly being destroyed by a freak storm about one thousand miles southwest of  Ireland. Communications, navigation, and propulsion were all gone and Jim spent most of his time scanning  the horizon for a passing ship. 

Fortunately, he had enough fresh water and food to last a while, but time was running out. Twenty days after the storm, Mark was elated to spot a small island in the distance.

A steady current pulled the crippled ship to the outskirts of the island. Mark tossed the anchor over the side and then rowed his dinghy to the shore.

As soon as he set foot on the beach, a young woman rushed across the sand and embraced him. "Richard, you've come home" she said through her tears. Mark was about to correct her but decided to wait until he found out what was going on.

The young woman whose name turned out to be Barbara, led Mark to small cottage about a half-mile inland. Barbara chattered non-stop while Mark looked for a phone or some sort of radio. He soon learned that a storm had wrecked the island's radio tower.

Barbara made a large dinner and while they were eating Mark learned that Barbara was the only permanent resident of the island. Mark also noticed a slight change in Barbara's demeanor and he wondered what had happened to the actual "Richard."

As Barabara was cleaning the table her tone became even more accusatory and Mark knew he had to get out of there. When Barbara took the table scraps out to her livestock, Mark sprinted out the door and headed for the beach.

He speedily rowed his dinghy out to the Starfish and pulled up the anchor. The sailboat caught ahold of the outgoing current and headed out to sea.

In the distance, he could see Barbara with a rifle angrily kicking the sand.

"Raymond" a short story by Craig Zimmerman

Eleventh grade English teacher Abby Bennett took a moment from formulating her lesson plan to glance at one of her favorite students. As usual, Raymond Tenneson was staring out the window lost in a dream world.

According to IQ tests, Raymond was utterly brilliant, but aside from physics and math, he struggled with his schoolwork. Abby tried to help him, but Raymond was always preoccupied, and she had no way of penetrating the thoughts that were running through his super brain.

As the school year came to a close, Raymond seemed to relax a little and actually participated in class. On the last day of school, Raymond approached Abby's desk.

"I've really enjoyed your class" Raymond said hesitantly

"Well, I've really enjoyed having you Raymond" Abby said with a smile.

Raymond opened his backpack and took out a strange- looking device that was about the size of a laptop.  "I'm going on a long trip, and I just wanted to say goodbye" Raymond murmured as he pushed some buttons on the device and slowly began to disappear.

An instant later, Raymond materialized at his destination, 25 light years from Earth and began his new life.

 

"Traffic Stop" a short story by Craig Zimmerman

State Trooper Russ Maxwell was parked in his usual spot on the old Sumner highway watching for speeders and trying to stay awake. So far, it had been a boring night with only one minor infraction.

Around 2:00 in the morning that all changed when a yellow Porsche blew past him at 120 miles an hour. Trooper Russ quickly turned on his cruiser's lights and siren and took chase of the speeding vehicle.

The Sumner highway wound through farms and ranches and the Porsche had no problem negotiating even difficult curves at high speed. Russ was doing his best to keep up, but his old police car was severely outclassed by the yellow Porsche.

Trooper Russ was about to give up the chase when the fleeing yellow car unexpectedly slowed down and pulled over onto the side of the road. Russ pulled over slightly behind the car and called in the license plate to dispatch.

Unfortunately, there was no information whatsoever about the speeding car and Russ suspected theft and an altered license plate. Russ exited his own vehicle and yelled at the other driver to come out with their hands in the air.

To his great surprise, a small teen-age girl stepped out of the Porsche with her hands up. Russ found it hard to believe that a teen girl could drive like a professional, but there was no one else in the yellow car.

The young girl somewhat resembled his own daughter and for an instant Russ let his guard down. In that brief moment, the teen girl transformed into something huge and monstrous and pulled Trooper Russ into the Porsche.

With a burning of tires, the yellow car accelerated onto the highway until it was just a blur on the horizon.

"Beer Can Mountain" a short story by Craig Zimmerman

Travis Parker had been pushing his VW van for many miles and the old nag finally gave up trying in a small town somewhere in Nebraska.

The local mechanic gave Travis a look of pity as he explained that it would cost about three hundred dollars to get the van running again. Unfortunately, Travis only had about fifteen bucks.

Feeling utterly defeated, Travis slumped on a sidewalk bench and tried to think of a way out of his latest disaster. Dozing slightly, Travis was awakened by a loud voice.

"Hey kid, you want to make some money?" said a grizzled old man in a Dodge truck. This was the only offer Travis had gotten all day and he was taking it.

The old man drove Travis to his farm outside of town and showed him an enormous pile of beer cans. "I'll pay you fifty dollars to bag the cans and take them to the recycling center and whatever the aluminum is worth you can keep." the old man said.

Bagging up the cans was not as easy as Travis had thought it would be. There were rats and mosquitoes and the noxious odor of stale beer, but the old man was pretty decent and fed him lunch and dinner.

The thousands of cans brought in over four hundred dollars at the recycling center and that plus the fifty dollars for cleaning up the mess was enough to get his van fixed.

Travis thought about getting a six-pack before leaving town, but he was pretty sure that he never wanted to see another beer can as long as he lived.

"The Junkyard Dog and Molly" a short story by Craig Zimmerman.

Max the junkyard dog didn't have many human friends. Most of the people who came to the Triple J salvage yard were afraid of him, but it was different with Molly.

Molly came to the yard at least once a week to work on one of the old wrecks in the back lot.

Max didn't quite understand what Molly was doing, but he loved listening to the sound of her soft voice and the dog treats she brought him.

After Molly left for the day, Max would continue his regular job of patrolling the yard for intruders.

On one particularly dark night, Max heard the barking of another dog somewhere in the lot. Max searched for hours, but every time it seemed as if he was getting close, the barking would come from another part of the yard.

Max finally realized that the dog was one of the strange ghost creatures that inhabited the Tripple J.

The old car that Molly had been working on finally came to life towards the end of summer. Molly opened the back door of the huge car and Max eagerly jumped in.

Molly drove the ancient Buick around the lot and Max was about as happy as he could be.

"Country Club" a short story by Craig Zimmerman

Jeff Hayes left the stack of dirty dishes that he was washing and peered into the banquet room of the Twin Lakes country club where he worked.

Megan Patterson's 17th birthday party was in full swing, and all of the high school royalty were there including the class president, the captain of the football team, and all of the cheerleaders.

Jeff had grown up with most of the kids at the party, but in middle school, cliques were formed and not everyone could be a member.

Jeff compared his wet and dirty work clothes to the party outfits of the revelers and felt ashamed. He would never be a part of that world no matter what he did.

As the evening drew to a close, something unexpected happened: the birthday girl herself came into the kitchen with a piece of cake for Jeff.

Megan only stayed for a short time, but in those few minutes, he almost felt like he belonged.