"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.