worse. One last thing. I can erase your memory of this or leave it intact. What do you want?"
Harry smiled. "Leave it. I wouldn't want to forget my extra motivation."
And with that the esteemed Reverend Harry Lochsteed, a little dizzy but altogether in one piece, found himself back in his office.
The first thing he did was buzz his secretary.
~ | ~
About the Author
Tim Tracer lives in Oregon. To his knowledge, he's never been abducted by aliens, but his wife often suspects otherwise. If you enjoyed this story, please consider buying his collection, Strange Tales , which includes 10 stories very much like this one . A free preview is below.
STRANGE TALES
Tim Tracer
Weird. Provocative. Bizarre. There are a lot of words that could be applied to the ten tales found in Tim Tracer's debut short story collection, but perhaps they could best be described as strange.
A young lawyer is asked to give his idol, a master magician in his day and now a corporate giant, the pink slip – and he discovers that the "Magic Man" has one more trick up his sleeve . . . A couple with a strained marriage encounters some unusual "Road Hazards" while driving the Oregon mountains and finds something that may just save their marriage – or end it forever . . . A young sorcerer is approached by two computer scientists from a software giant in a faraway land who need a little "Magic Code" on their programming team, but it's not quite the easy path to stardom he's been promised . . .
Dark and light, long and short, brooding and whimsical – there's a lot of variety to be found among these ten stories, but they have at least two things in common. They're delightfully entertaining. And they're very strange. If you're a reader looking for both, you'll find them in abundance in these tales.
STRANGE TALES by Tim Tracer
Smashwords Edition. Electronic edition published by Flying Raven Press, June 2011.
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction, in whole or in part in any form. This short story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
For more about Flying Raven Press, please visit our web site at http://www.flyingravenpress.com .
Table of Contents
The Magic Man
Three Views of the Wolf
Electing Daren Pharl
Swatting a Pest
Magic Code
First Contact with Bonnys Five
Make the Grave Deep
Road Hazards
In the Shadows of the Trees
Snowflakes in the Moonlight
The Magic Man
Five minutes into my day, my boss squeezed into my office, his breath reeking of garlic. If not for the expensive Valentino suit, he looked like he should have been behind the counter of a pawn shop: greasy, slicked-back hair, amber-tinted bifocals, and a layer of fat around his neck that was like the hose to a vacuum cleaner.
I had been with Biggs Enterprises four days, but it had taken me only one to despise Norman Gordal. It had nothing to do with his appearance. It had everything to do with him sticking me in a basement closet full of boxes of HR files when the rest of Legal was on the thirty-second floor.
"H. William Ivanlone," he said, reading the replacement nameplate I received that afternoon. When he spoke, there was a faint whistle between the words, so it came out H. seee William seee Ivanlone seee . "Well, you got what you wanted, Harvard. No first name on the nameplate, just that lonely little initial. Now that you've got that important business straightened out, maybe you can do a job for me."
Beneath the desk, my index fingers twitched, itching to give him a double bird. My real first name was Harvey, but ever since I told him I preferred my middle name because it was classier, he had taken to calling me Harvard after my alma matter. It
Harry smiled. "Leave it. I wouldn't want to forget my extra motivation."
And with that the esteemed Reverend Harry Lochsteed, a little dizzy but altogether in one piece, found himself back in his office.
The first thing he did was buzz his secretary.
~ | ~
About the Author
Tim Tracer lives in Oregon. To his knowledge, he's never been abducted by aliens, but his wife often suspects otherwise. If you enjoyed this story, please consider buying his collection, Strange Tales , which includes 10 stories very much like this one . A free preview is below.
STRANGE TALES
Tim Tracer
Weird. Provocative. Bizarre. There are a lot of words that could be applied to the ten tales found in Tim Tracer's debut short story collection, but perhaps they could best be described as strange.
A young lawyer is asked to give his idol, a master magician in his day and now a corporate giant, the pink slip – and he discovers that the "Magic Man" has one more trick up his sleeve . . . A couple with a strained marriage encounters some unusual "Road Hazards" while driving the Oregon mountains and finds something that may just save their marriage – or end it forever . . . A young sorcerer is approached by two computer scientists from a software giant in a faraway land who need a little "Magic Code" on their programming team, but it's not quite the easy path to stardom he's been promised . . .
Dark and light, long and short, brooding and whimsical – there's a lot of variety to be found among these ten stories, but they have at least two things in common. They're delightfully entertaining. And they're very strange. If you're a reader looking for both, you'll find them in abundance in these tales.
STRANGE TALES by Tim Tracer
Smashwords Edition. Electronic edition published by Flying Raven Press, June 2011.
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction, in whole or in part in any form. This short story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
For more about Flying Raven Press, please visit our web site at http://www.flyingravenpress.com .
Table of Contents
The Magic Man
Three Views of the Wolf
Electing Daren Pharl
Swatting a Pest
Magic Code
First Contact with Bonnys Five
Make the Grave Deep
Road Hazards
In the Shadows of the Trees
Snowflakes in the Moonlight
The Magic Man
Five minutes into my day, my boss squeezed into my office, his breath reeking of garlic. If not for the expensive Valentino suit, he looked like he should have been behind the counter of a pawn shop: greasy, slicked-back hair, amber-tinted bifocals, and a layer of fat around his neck that was like the hose to a vacuum cleaner.
I had been with Biggs Enterprises four days, but it had taken me only one to despise Norman Gordal. It had nothing to do with his appearance. It had everything to do with him sticking me in a basement closet full of boxes of HR files when the rest of Legal was on the thirty-second floor.
"H. William Ivanlone," he said, reading the replacement nameplate I received that afternoon. When he spoke, there was a faint whistle between the words, so it came out H. seee William seee Ivanlone seee . "Well, you got what you wanted, Harvard. No first name on the nameplate, just that lonely little initial. Now that you've got that important business straightened out, maybe you can do a job for me."
Beneath the desk, my index fingers twitched, itching to give him a double bird. My real first name was Harvey, but ever since I told him I preferred my middle name because it was classier, he had taken to calling me Harvard after my alma matter. It
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