Buses and Bears, Bullets and Stones

By Jonah Gibson

Buses & Bears, Bullets & Stones is a collection of 5 short stories—a mixed bag of off-beat fiction aimed directly at the adult funny bone. These stories are alternately funny, poignant, quirky, magical, and occasionally a little scary.

In Mourning Jimmy Crooks, inveterate stoner, Sonny Crooks, can't seem to escape his dad's legacy of mediocrity—not even in a million dollar motor home.

It's curious how some people, when they come into the possession of something nice and luxurious, feel compelled to show it to everyone they know...whether or not they are interested. In The Trouble with Bears, John Tinley longs for a sanguine escape from the office show and tell.

In Joy Rides, two young Vietnam vets seem to be at the mercy of a half-crazed uncle. They sort out their memories and their differences in a trailer park on Galveston Bay. Bullets fly. Whiskey is murdered.

Fashionable young housewife, Merle Stinson, needs to get her husband to stop cheating on her. Her masseuse, an oddly mystical Irish girl, wants to help. In Runes for the Heart, we learn that you have to be careful what you wish for.

And finally, in the flash fiction piece, Face Time, a young couple finds that when you set out to save the world, sometimes it's already too late.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jonah Gibson
• Release date: Oct 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301438372

Jonah Gibson

Jonah Gibson grew up in a one stoplight town in Western Ohio. Nestled among the soy bean and corn fields and overrun with turkey flocks, it had six churches, six taverns, and six gas stations. Jonah got his moral sensibilities in one of the churches, and developed his quirky lens for social observation in the taverns—all six of 'em. Then he gassed up and left town. There are those who think he had to leave town, but there is no real evidence to support this theory. Jonah currently resides on Florida's Treasure Coast with his wife and a retired racing greyhound named Bean. He writes funny books, posts funny blog entries, and tries generally to escape the 'slings and arrows of outrageous fortune' with as many naps as Bean will allow.

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Buses & Bears, Bullets & Stones

Stories by Jonah Gibson

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2011 - 2013 Jonah Gibson

All rights reserved.

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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents depicted are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

Table of Contents

MOURNING JIMMY CROOKS

THE TROUBLE WITH BEARS

JOY RIDES

RUNES FOR THE HEART

FACE TIME

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jimmy Crooks, five days dead and sober at last, lay screwed into a cherry wood casket in the cargo bay of his brother, Ray’s, luxury motor home. Directly above him Jimmy Jr., known to everyone as Sonny, sprawled on the sofa, his arms stretched out along the leather cushions. He peered through half-closed eyes at his aunt, Abby, who was reading a magazine in the chair across from him. Sonny was thinking she looked very good indeed in a short black sheath that showed a lot of leg.

Abby was Ray’s third wife, half Ray’s age and some dozen years older than Sonny. She was a compact woman, with a coppery tumble of hair that fell down her back to the place where her hips hinged to her spine. Her fashion sense, if not exactly disreputable, seemed always just a little too sexy for the occasion. Not that Sonny minded. The sight of her had been a welcome diversion at Jimmy’s funeral.

Right now Sonny was busy imagining what it would be like to be alone with her in the motor home. To smoke the fat joint he had rolled up in a piece of tin foil in his pocket and knock back a couple of Lone Stars. Then take her into the bedroom and peel her out of that black dress. Grab her by the ass and mash his mouth down on hers.

Abby looked up from her magazine and smiled at him. She’d be into it, Sonny thought. Being married to an old codger like Ray must leave her wanting. Everybody in the family figured she’d married Ray for the money. There wasn’t much else a woman like that could see in a washed up old truck dealer with two heart attacks already under his belt. Sonny closed his eyes and focused on sending her a signal, a mental picture of the two of them making love under the mirrored ceiling with the fan spinning slow circles over his back.

The CB radio crackled up front, snapping Sonny out of his daydream. It was Nana Rose calling from her white Cadillac. She and Sonny’s Aunt Ruby were following the bus from the memorial service in Waco up to Ray’s place in Arkansas where they were going to bury Jimmy.

Ray? the speaker crackled again.

Ray pulled the mike from its clip and held it to the side of his mouth. Yes, Mama.

It’s getting warm out. Jimmy ain’t gonna get too hot down there underneath the bus, is he?

No, Mama.