"Dalton and Murph" a short story by Craig Zimmerman

It was nearly noon and Dalton and Murph occupied two old chairs that faced the main street of their crumpling town.

A disinterested fly buzzed above their heads while the two old friends consumed bottles of warm beer.

Dalton made a crude remark about a woman who was walking on the opposite side of the street, but Murph just shrugged, he was in an ugly mood and even an attractive woman couldn't pull him out of it. 

Murph had spent his entire life in the same small town doing one job or another.

Now that he was in his fifties, he felt dissatisfied and uneasy.

The children from his two ex-wives were scattered around the country and he never heard from them.

Murph took a last swig from his bottle of beer and aimed the bottle towards a trash can, but the bottle missed and shattered in the street. Dalton raised an eyebrow, but wisely said nothing.

Several moments later, the sheriff cruised down the street and Murph waved to him cheerfully but raised his middle finger when the sheriff had passed.

The two friends were about to call it a day when a car filled with parents and kids stopped on the street in front of them.

"Do you know how to get to bat cavern?" a young woman asked. 

Murph pointed down the road. You go ten miles and then take a right." 

Dalton watched the car depart and shook his head. "That doesn't go anywhere Murph"

"I know" Murph said as he took another drink of warm beer.

"The Weeping Car" a short story by Craig Zimmerman

Sarah Hayes was trying to study when she became aware of a sound coming from the salvage yard that she had been assigned to guard by the security agency.

Grabbing a flashlight, Sarah warily left the office. The sound which resembled a crying woman was coming from the center of the wrecking yard.

Sarah carefully walked through the maze of damaged cars and tried to make sense of the strange noise. No one other than herself was supposed to be at the yard at this time of night.

The crying sound became louder as Sarah approached the center of the yard and she was shocked to find a teen-age girl sobbing next to one of the newly arrived wrecks.

"Uh Miss, you aren't allowed to be here." Sarah gently told the distraught girl.

The young woman looked at her with glowing blue eyes. "I can't leave...not ever. My boyfriend was driving too fast, and we ran into a tree."

Sarah nodded and stayed by the girl until the sun came up and she slowly faded away.

 

"A Winter Day" a short story by Craig Zimmerman

The day after Christmas, Suzie and I were watching an old movie that had several scenes that took place in the snow and Suzie couldn't get over it.

"My Grandpa told me about snow. He said you could build things and have snowball fights and it was so much fun."

I took a look at the outside digital thermometer, it read 133 degrees. "That was a long time ago Suzie."

"Grandpa said that sometimes they would get so much snow that school would be cancelled, and they could spend the whole day sliding down a big hill."

Suzie was so excited about the idea of snow that I didn't have the heart to remind her of the changes to the climate that had occurred in the last thirty years.

When the movie was over, we played a game of cards, but in the middle of the game, Suzie became excited about something that was happening outside.

"It's snowing!" Suzie shouted.

I looked out the window and sure enough white flakes were coming down, but the temperature was still over 120 degrees.

Before I could stop her, Suzie opened the insulated door and ran outside.

The soot from a nearby burning forest landed softly around her.

 

"The Haven" a short story by Craig Zimmerman

 Commander Deena Larson rubbed her eyes and tried to concentrate on the unending stream of data from her ship's main computer. After a year in deep space, Deena was exhausted and desperately needed a place to rest. Fortunately, it appeared that her ship's long-range sensors had detected a possible new world.

After several weeks of uneventful travel, Deena's spacecraft arrived at the new planet, and a probe was launched to study the surface.

The atmosphere of the planet was rich in oxygen and there was a wide variety of plant and animal life. Deena studied the wildlife for several days and noted the odd fact that most of the species lived in trees and only a few dwelled on the surface.

There were also numerous bodies of water distributed around the planet and Deena smiled at the thought of laying on an alien beach light years from her home in California.

Deena navigated her spacecraft's shuttle towards what appeared to be an inland sea and had the strange feeling that she was on her way home. The surface of the planet was somewhat warm due to double suns, but the air was glorious, and she immediately felt refreshed.

Deena was disappointed to find the beaches of the inland sea covered with rocks, but she managed to find a section that was close to what she remembered from home. Taking off her flight suit, Deena basked in the warm sunshine and eventually fell asleep.

An odd tickling sensation awoke Deena from a sound sleep, and she was horrified to find that she was covered with long biting red worms. Deena frantically brushed the worms off and ran for the shuttle. The worms seemed to be everywhere, and she finally understood why most of the planet's animal species lived in the trees.

Back aboard her ship, Deena tried to get some sleep, but she had a nightmare about the worms and was happy to leave the new planet behind when she resumed her voyage the following day.

"Time Warp Prom Date" a short story by Craig Zimmerman

It was really funny how the whole thing happened. Jenny Porter was trying to find a date to the prom when this guy showed up from out of nowhere.

The guy said his name was Brian Meadows and that he came from the year 1978. Jenny thought the story was a little strange, but Brian was kind of cute and had a cool muscle car from the 1960s.

After a little persuasion, Brian agreed to take Jenny to the prom on the condition that she pay for everything. According to Brian, he only had a few dollars that he brought from 1978.

The time travel story that Brian kept gabbing about was starting to get annoying.

Another problem was finding Brian a place to live until the night of the prom. (According to Brian his house was no longer where it was supposed to be.) Fortunately, Jenny's parents had a guest house that he could use for a few days.

On the night of the prom, Brian showed up at her house like a normal date and Julie had to admit that he was really cool about posing for photos and all that business. Her mom had some questions, but Julie told her that his family just moved to the area.

Jenny was surprised to find out that Brian was a really good dancer, and she loved the jealous looks from her friends, but as the night wore on, he started acting weirder than usual.

In the middle of a slow dance, Brian told her that he had a feeling that it was time for him to go back and he rushed out of the ballroom.

Jenny followed him out to the parking lot and watched with fascination as Brian and his car disappeared in a cloud of mist.

Jenny was happy that Brian was headed back to his own time, but she wished he could have waited until the end of the prom.

"Feeding Time" a short story by Craig Zimmerman

As a young wife and mother, Melody Danvers got in the habit of collecting the leftovers from dinner and depositing them outside in the yard.

In the morning, the scraps were all gone. Occasionally, Melody would hear some faint growling sounds at night, but it did not occur to her that leaving food outside in a rural area may be dangerous. 

Several years went by and the husband and the boys had long since departed. The solitary meals that Melody prepared for herself didn't produce the number of leftovers that her family dinners had and so she gradually stopped the old custom of putting scraps in the yard.

One night, after a lonely dinner of a burger and fries, Melody decided to go to bed early. A loud splintering noise awakened her from a sound sleep.

As Melody struggled to find her glasses, she could hear heavy steps coming up the staircase. Finding her glasses, she immediately dialed 911 on her cell phone, but the steps had already stopped at her bedroom door.

A blow of tremendous force knocked the door off its hinges and a massive beast filled the entry. Unable to look at the hideous creature coming towards her, Melody looked at the clock on a bedside table and realized it was about the time that she put dinner leftovers in the yard.

"Julie's Valentine" a short story by Craig Zimmerman

The last time that Julie Mason had received a valentine was in the sixth grade, so she was greatly surprised to find a red envelope with her name taped to her locker.

For most of the morning, Julie thought about who might give her a valentine card. Karl from the soccer team had smiled at her a couple of times and David from the chess club seemed to like her.

Finally, she just gave up and opened the envelope. The card had a proton and an electron dancing with the caption: "I particularly like you" and was signed "Anthony."

The only Anthony that Julie knew was in her physics class which would explain the card. During lunch period, she found Anthony sitting alone and reading a thick book. Julie sat down across from him and put the red envelope on the table.

Anthony put down the thick book. "Did you like the card?" he asked anxiously. Julie couldn't help but smile. Anthony was cute in a mad scientist kind of way. "Yes, but why me?" she asked gently.

"Well, you like to read like I do, you're nice to everybody-including the jerks, and I think you're really pretty." Anthony's face turned a deep red at the last part of his answer.

Julie wasn't quite sure how to move forward in a situation like this but finally decided that having lunch with Anthony would be a good place to start.