J. R. Kruze
ABOUT ME
ABOUT ME
STORY BY J. R. Kruze
Toward a New Dawn
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An Epic Road Trip and Fantastical Semi-MemoirLiving life is nothing that any moron or better couldn"t accomplish, even without setting one"s mind to it. The trick is to do something with that life. Or live several at once, so that one could at least be a success in one of them. Herbert, having endured his mid-life crisis with all the aplomb possibly available to him, now was set on making a new life for himself. This is his book. Such a book has parallels with our own. That is life for you - it sneaks up on you and drops some odd segue or link into some other person"s scene and then just nips away, as if it was mainlining pixie dust or some super-quantum Dune drug. Blue eyes and all. You see, Herbert does live more than one life at once. Shackled to the mundane world of the Midwest warehouse laborer, he yet lives in worlds of extreme science, wild fantasy environments and incredibly sensuous surroundings. For Herbert reads books, surfs the Internet and has an overactive imagination. But let"s meet our hero... - - - -Excerpt:Driving down Interstate 40 after leaving LA was a bit of a non-scene. Desert and highway didn"t change that much after Barstow. Modern highways are built to be safe and wide in America. Deserts were designed by God to be hostile and unforgiving for any who broke down out there. Highways had the occasional road-side phone and also Patrol coming along. Deserts had cacti, dust and not much else. Herbert. That"s me. There"s about 5 or 6 variations of that name, but only one I would answer to. Comes from being raised in a family of 10. You had to pick an identity and stick with it, or drown in the uncertain melange of other lives around you. This is my life, at least as I recall it. 40+ years old and leaving the known for the formerly known in order to make some sense of my life. Not that I was confused. But what I had been doing didn"t make sense anymore, so I was now driving from LA, away from the nonsensical, toward the sensible. Barstow itself hadn"t changed much since I had been there some 20 years ago. I had gone to Vegas to get married and found that Barstow was an interesting rest stop. I was the only one with a license,and so was the elected driver. We took off late after work - two couples in one car, both seeking an instant marriage and abbreviated honeymoon on the way back. We had essentially 48 hours to pull the whole thing off. So, with the late start and nerves keeping me up the night before, lack of sleep started taking its toll after midnight. Pulled over by a trooper, who noticed the car was weaving. So we stopped in Barstow for a couple of hours - they went in and had some food, I slept (but first my wife-to-be and I "made out" in the front seat, just short of having sex - which was forbidden as part of the Center. A rise in the highway brought my attention back to the current, swerving the heavy loaded rental truck to stay between the lines. Topping the slight rise, I saw only the black parallel bars of highway stretching again into the darkening desert, the sun behind me along with a tail wind, pushing me ever home and away from Center forever. Center had been something which promised answers to all my many questions about how the universe operated. They said that you just had to follow their exact path and keep studying the books and lectures of their founder. One day, in an ever-increasing but gentle gradient, you would know Truth and this hope kept you going - along with the required annual celebrations you were required to attend where the official PR was read out by executives...
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New Voices Vol 002
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Two Months of Published Short Stories in One Collected VolumeFeaturing original works by S. H. Marpel and J. R. KruzeThis anthology contains:By S. H. Marpel: Ghost Hunters When Fireballs Collide Why Vampires Suck At Haunting The Haunted Ghost Ghost Exterminators Inc. Two Ghost"s Salvation 01-04By J. R. Kruze The AutistsExcerpt from "When Fireballs Collide": AND THERE CAME ANOTHER ONE. BAM!Right against the car we were crouched behind. We were stuck behind a red subcompact, a recent American model. Here at the Los Angeles Observatory parking lot. The night was clear, a very rare occurrence, very unusual for this city of smoke and fog. The stars above mirroring the endless street and building lights that marched out to their California coast. But a clear sky didn"t help our situation any.Getting pummeled by red-orange fireballs behind this car couldn’t last forever. Especially since they smell of sulfur like a whole case of rotten eggs being broken at once.Big, really huge fireballs had been coming at us for something like 15 minutes. Heat and stench. Coming one right after the last one.The red car was shaking like it would never stop. It was going to need a paint job after this. If they could stand the smell to get it into the shop.Jude and Sal were there with me. Hunkered down like I was. At least I was in my blue jeans and work boots, gray sweatshirt. Sal was in her regular tailored beige suit with gold pinstripes, low-heeled dress shoes. An outfit more ideal for turning heads on Rodeo Drive instead of crouching on dirty asphalt and gravel in a remote parking lot. Jude was at least better off in her black jeans and a tailored black leather jacket, with her clunky black Timberland boots. (OK, she likes black. And looks good in it.)Admiring these two beauties wasn’t helping to get us out of this.“Hey, can’t we just teleport out of here?” I asked, behind my sweatshirt sleeve covering my nose..“If we were able to concentrate. Not when they are coming a few seconds apart,” said Sal.“And it’s all I can do just to keep this car in one piece,” said Jude.“Wait, that explains how there was suddenly this car appearing on an empty parking lot.” I replied.“Just keep it quiet, so I can keep on keeping it there, in between those fireballs and us,” said Jude.“With that noise, I’m surprised we can think at all,” I added.“Wait. That’s it! It’s how we are thinking...” Sal said.At that, Sal suddenly stood straight up and walked out away from the red car.She shouted out, “Hey - you. Fireball Guy. Yeah, that’s you. Is that all you got? Really?”And the fireballs started coming right at her - all in a row and streaming right at her, twice as many than were coming at us before.But Sal just stood there.And the fireballs passed right through her. She flinched at the first ones, but after a few of them she just stood there. Straight, tall, defiant. And started laughing. Complete glee.I thought she’d lost it. But her actions gave Jude enough time to disappear the car and get us out of there.The scene shimmered, like usual. Fireballs, parking lot, all it just disappeared...
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