Thinking Sideways
Short Stories Both Real and Imaginary
by
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"If you must know everything, and it seems that you must, we are invoking the spirits of our dead ancestors to come down tonight and advise us about our problems and concerns. Everyone who is here must take part or the ancestors will not appear. The dancers are not drunk, they are possessed by those spirits whom we entreated to come to join us. The horses allow the dancers to do things that their mere bodies could not support. Now, go eat and drink. Pick a horse and dance. Put on a mask first so that the spirits will recognize you as being a kindred spirit and not just a mere human. How could we refuse? We were just a few among many. We would dishonor our hosts if we resisted. The eyes of the assembled Indonesians were on us as we began to rise slowly from our seats on the ground. The eyes followed us as we went to the table and grasped some leaves and coconut vessels. The eyes tracked us as we ate and drank slowly. The heads nodded in approval as we began to writhe in time to the gamelans' plaintive melodies. The lips murmured as we selected a hobby horse and began trotting and galloping. The mouths gasped when we fell to the ground, our eyes glazed, our lips murmuring and our arms raised to the Moon-God."
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About the Book
The short stories in this book are a mixture of both fact and fiction. Some are based upon my real-life experiences with a touch of fantasy mixed in to add some flavor. Some come solely from my hyperactive imagination. It's up to you, the reader, to separate reality from the world of make-believe. Does it really matter?
About the Author
Donald Smith is a retired high school principal and university instructor. He holds BA, MA, and PhD degrees in education. He has been married to his wife, Joy, for sixty-five years. They have two children, Kathy and Michael, five grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. He volunteers as a long-term care ombudsman with the Agency on Aging and works part-time as a standardized patient in local medical schools. He has traveled to fifty-two countries since 1970 as a teacher, tour guide, and voyeur. He is the author of six previous books. He has experienced far more than he understands. This is my first attempt at writing short stories. I've been told that it might be the most difficult of genres. The entire premise of what one wants to relate must be compressed into something brief enough to be classified as being "short." Plot and characters must be developed without excessive or flowery prose. It's, also, my first attempt at fiction. Five of my other six books were non-fiction and the other one was poetry. I call the following stories fiction, but, in reality, they are a mixture of both fact and fiction. Some are purely fiction. And, some are mostly fact with an embellishment of fiction added for texture. It's incumbent upon the reader to determine which one is which. It shouldn't matter. Some stories are based loosely upon my career in education. Some are based upon those random slices of the lives that all of us experience. A third group defies categorization.