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    Into the Strange
    Into the Strange
    Into the Strange
    Ebook52 pages42 minutes

    Into the Strange

    By Mike Ramon

    ()

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    About this ebook

    A collection of 20 flash fiction stories, ranging from science fiction and horror, to drama and humor.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMike Ramon
    Release dateSep 3, 2013
    ISBN9781301642885
    Into the Strange
    Author

    Mike Ramon

    Born and bred in the Midwest.

    Read more from Mike Ramon

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      Book preview

      Into the Strange - Mike Ramon

      INTO THE STRANGE:

      A Collection of Flash Fiction

      Mike Ramon

      Smashwords Edition

      © 2013 M. Ramon

      This work is published under a Creative Commons license (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0). To view this license:

      http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

      If you wish to contact the author you can send e-mail to:

      storywryter@hotmail.com

      Web addresses where you can find my work:

      http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/mramon

      http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/m_ramon

      http://www.wattpad.com/user/ZeroTheHero

      Table of Contents

      Always Smiling

      Survivors

      Through the Void

      Trouble with the Porter Family

      Lunch

      Observation

      Dust

      Doll

      Bus Station, 9 AM

      Untitled

      Wreckage

      November Morning

      A Good Worker

      Letters for the Dead

      Always a Mess

      Rimfire

      Death’s Day Off

      The Phone Booth

      Across the Great Blue Sea

      The Bad Thing at the End of the Road

      ALWAYS SMILING

      I see them every day now. I think of them as the Smile Zombies. They seem to enjoy each others’ company more than the company of us unenlightened folks. I guess they don’t want anyone around harshing their buzz. No wet blankets allowed, thank you. It gets to the point where you can’t stand to see their stupid smiling faces. If what they’ve got is happiness, I want no part of it. Me and my misery are doing just fine. It’s hard to believe that that damn gadget only hit the market six months ago. They said it was guaranteed to make all of your worries disappear.

      Why be sad when you can smile instead?

      Great slogan. When I saw the first Smile-A-Tron commercial I assumed it was a load of bunk, like that infomercial they used to run for the Cray-Zee Knife. In that infomercial some British guy would tell you how the knife could cut through a pineapple like it was cutting through butter. Preparing dinner would be so easy once you had that wacky knife, which could be yours for three easy payments of nine ninety-nine (shipping and handling not included). My cousin Fred gave me one of those things for Christmas one year; the damn thing couldn’t cut a strawberry in half, much less a pineapple.

      In the weeks leading up to the public release of the Smile-A-Tron the press couldn’t stop talking about it. They fawned over the new wonder gadget. They marveled at its slim, sleek design. It looked kind of like the old smartphones they used to have back in the Stone Age. They called it a retro look.

      Not all news outlets were crazy about it, though. Dan Rather let it be known that he thought the device would just give people a false sense of happiness, and rob us of the true joy and pleasures that come along with perseverance over pain and adversity. I’m talking about the flesh and blood Dan Rather on Network 5, not the hologram of his great-grandfather they have doing the nightly news on Network 2.

      Then the big day arrived, when the Smile-A-Tron could finally be purchased at your local Mega Mart for the low price of three hundred New Dollars, plus tax. And to tell you the truth, it was just like any other day for me. I went to work like I always do, and after work I went home. I didn’t see a single smiling moonface all day long. It took a few days before I started noticing the Smile Zombies. Just a few at first, usually travelling solo. After a couple of weeks I started seeing them more often, and in ever larger groups. Now it’s not

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