Valley of Tranquility
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"FREE PREVIEW": EXCERPT FROM "ARM EATING DRAGON" FROM VALLEY OF TRANQUILITY
Dismounting from his [cornpicker, Matt] went to the front of it where the cornstalks had jammed up the works. Although the mechanism was plugged with stalks, that did not prevent the snapping rollers from traveling freely. The stalks were bunched around the rollers and that prevented them [the stalks] from entering. [Matt] reached for the stalks, as he had hundreds of times without mishap. Grabbing hold of the offending stalks, he gave them a jerk, but he did not get his gloved right hand away fast enough and it got caught in the rollers, which travel twelve feet per second. As hard as Matt pulled from the rollers, he could not get his hand loose. Finally the rollers pulled his hand deeper into the mechanism and his fingers became badly mangled.
He worked and worked to free himself from the moving parts, but he was unable to do so. He broke into a cold sweat . . . . His hand continued to be badly chewed up by the cornpicker and he began to bleed profusely.
No one from the road could see the predicament that he was in. His cornpicker was turned in such a way as to shield him from the road. He knew that unless he freed himself, he ran the risk of bleeding to death . . . .
At one point, he went into a swoon and almost passed out. In this partially delirious state, he imagined that a fire-breathing dragon had sunk his long, sharp teeth into his forearm. But he managed to pull himself out of the trance-like state and was able to rationally assess the situation he was in.
Now the lower end of Matt's forearm was pulled into the rollers and he bled more abundantly. He realized that the situation was getting worse and was not going to get better. He decided that the only course open to him was to cut off his forearm. He never thought he would be trapped in such a situation, but then neither had all of the other farmers who found themselves in similar predicaments.
[Matt] had read in farm journals and newspapers about people who had been forced to cut off a limb to extricate themselves from machinery in which they had become entrapped and he thought at the time what a horrible feeling that must be. Now he knew first hand.
. . .
It was time to stop dreaming and get busy before it was too late. [Matt's] jackknife was in the right pocket of his overalls. He worked slowly with his left hand to get the jackknife out. He had to be careful not to drop it on the ground, because if he did he would not be able to reach it. Once he had the knife out, he opened it with his teeth and was ready for action.
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About the Book
Valley of Tranquility is a collection of short stories that takes place in an idyllic spot located in the northern Great Plains, but most of the plots could occur almost anywhere. Tales range from the challenges presented to pioneer farmers to the trials and tribulations of modern living. Some stories are fantasy, but the bulk of them deal with hard reality. There are a couple of murder narratives, a college football game played in a driving rain that produces surprising results, a hunting trip that goes awry, a “bonus short story” featuring Anne Frank, the Jewish girl of World War II diary fame, and other exciting yarns. Described by one critic as a page-turner from beginning to end, most of the stories take twists and turns that will keep the reader guessing as to what is coming next. Regardless of the reader’s taste in literature, there is something here for everyone. Listed below is the table of contents for the book: VALLEY OF TRANQUILITY Prologue Chapter One: The Lay of the Land Chapter Two: Ten Plagues of Egypt Chapter Three: Night of Irony Chapter Four: The Bicycle Chapter Five: Ol’ Prof’s Pipe Shoppe Chapter Six: Denizens of Ithaca Chapter Seven: The Great Pheasant Hunt Chapter Eight: The Four Gospells Chapter Nine: Sonny’s Revenge Chapter Ten: Arm Eating Dragon Chapter Eleven: That Old Time Religion Chapter Twelve: Steinbeck Reincarnate Chapter Thirteen: Katrina’s Pickaninny Epilogue BONUS SHORT STORY Final Solution
About the Author
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Born in South Dakota, Carl M. Frank holds a PhD from Ball State University and taught U. S. History for thirty years at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, where he is professor emeritus. He received a BA from Yankton College and the master’s degree from Northern State University. Although his history articles and book reviews have appeared in scholarly journals and he wrote a brief memoir of his undergraduate college days, this is his first work of fiction to be published. He is retired and lives in Mesa, Arizona, with his wife, Gloria.