Pure Speculation

By Jay MacLeod

Stories and poems by Jay MacLeod.

Contained herein:

A robot wife. A man who has lost the plot. A doggpleganger. An AC/DC concert. A kidnap victim. Zombies. Broke people. Ghosts. Space vampires. Call centre workers. Newlyweds. Bukowski.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jay MacLeod
• Release date: Dec 26, 2011
• ISBN: 9781466188822

Jay MacLeod

Jay MacLeod is from Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Book preview

Pure Speculation

Stories and Poems

by Jay MacLeod

Copyright 2011 Jay MacLeod

Smashwords Edition

Pure Speculation

Pure Speculation is a collection of stories and poems by Jay MacLeod.

It was written and published in 2011.

Jay MacLeod is the sole author of this work. It is copyright Jay MacLeod. All rights are reserved.

This particular edition was published at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author

Jay MacLeod can be reached by email:

[e-mail]

He would enjoy hearing feedback from you about this collection.

Jay also has a blog which he updates fairly often regarding his writing and publishing activities. It is called Rejects Harbour

Jay would like to thank you for reading Pure Speculation. He would also like to thank those who helped, directly or indirectly, while he was writing it. This includes family, friends and co-workers.

Jay's novel Dear Editor is also available through Smashwords.

Publication Note

Stories and poems in this collection have appeared in the following places:

Niteblade Fantasy and Horror

Death Head Grin

Flash Fiction Offensive

Sleep, Snort & Fuck

The Gloaming

Pellucid Lunacy: An Anthology of Psychological Horror

Hungur

Polluto

This Mutant Life

Liquid Imagination

Scissors and Spackle

Artifice

Star*Line

Table of Contents

Stories

Hometown Flash Trilogy

Eraser

Web_3.0

Adam Got Out

Sunday You Need Love

My Husband’s Nervous Breakdown in Five Minutes or Less

Minotaur

We Meet Again

Drifters in the Void

Notes From Nowhere

Ghosts of Brunswick Street

GODDAMN AC/DC DAY

Poems

William Carlos Williams with Cannibals

Nights of Boiling Oil

The Trick

Drifters in the Void

Josh and What He Came Back With

Latest Weapon

Final Transmission

Web 3.0

The Fragging of Captain Yorke

Public Witness Program

All Our Children

Bravo Company

At the Outset

Hank

To His Sweetie, Some Years On, With Gratitude

Ledge

Even Better Than the Real Thing

Afterwords

Hometown Flash Trilogy

1. UTC-4

Sometimes I check up on my hometown.

There are webcams trained on City Hall, the river, and the fake light house.

Wait a second.

They’ve placed a camera on the Old Train Station.

The OTS has been sitting abandoned and dilapidated for 30 years. I understand it is being turned into a liquor store. Soon you will be able to see people from my town buying booze twenty-four and seven.

A camera is now in the middle of Officer’s Square.

It is after three a.m. You can’t see the English Army Barracks. Nobody seems to have vandalized the statue of The Old Guy lately.

A truck just crossed the bridge from the South Side. No pedestrians are out. There are many call centres on the North Side, or there were when I lived there. I guess they must be closed for the night.

The slush is ankle-thick in front of City Hall.

It’s the middle of the week so nobody’s stumbling home from The Tannery except this one guy who did just now.

The new convention center is called Chancery Place.

It has been many years since I was back.

We have high hopes you will come and visit.

--

2. Notes from Home

The next time I am back it will be raining insects and mud.

The weather has been brutal here: red dust everywhere!

We will have to go camping. Do you know if they still have the UFO theme park?

The photographs of the coastal road are lovely. The sky is the perfect shade of blue. The driftwood looks perfectly natural sitting in the middle of the highway. Somebody should clear that away!

Yes, I received your email.

I am sorry to say I do not have an extra five grand. This is a real shame. If I did somehow have that amount, we could do lots of cool things. It would cover at least a couple of road trips to the States. We’d attend rock festivals, stay at motels, and eat at steak houses.

We could have one hell of a summer.

Again, it’s the hospital bills. I’m sure you understand. We need to hold onto our cash just in case the embassy requires us to leave in a hurry.

Don’t worry, we’re staying safe.

Please be sure to send pictures of the construction this year.

Hi to everyone and especially the guys in the kitchen.

--

3. Be In This Place

In his hometown the trees are miles high and the rivers routinely flood the banks.

College kids smoke cheroots on the train bridge. They play in jam bands and bathe in patchouli. Each year one or two graduates will choose to stay and start families. They are thanked for contributing to the tax base.

The workers live in duplexes they have built themselves. The bureaucrats wake up