The Fountain of Truth

By Jeremy Bursey

Christmas is a joyous time of year, full of festivities and storytelling, and what better time is there to tell a good fable than Christmas? That's right, none! So find your favorite chair, gather the kiddies on the floor, and download "The Fountain of Truth" today. It has three exciting holiday stories in one!

Stories like these:

"The Fountain of Truth": On Christmas Eve, at the Kingdom Affair restaurant, something miraculous has happened. Families who are normally secretive with each other are spilling their guts out at the dinner table, to everyone's surprise, and these diners are waking up to a shocking truth that their lives aren't perfect. What are they sharing? How are they reacting? And who's responsible for this mess?

"Christmas Log": A radio station sponsors a million-dollar contest on Christmas Day and chooses four distinctly different individuals to participate. No details are given until the day of the contest, but each contestant must abide by the same rules, and each contestant must commit to the contest until he is able to complete the task he is given. Even though they are blind to the specifics, the contestants go in willingly, as a million dollars is on the line. But, once they are in place, they are given the shocking truth of what it takes to win the prize, and they must figure out how to handle their new reality without going insane.

"St. Nick's Gym": The "true" origin story of Santa Claus, and how he became the figure we all know and love today. You may never look at Santa the same way again...unless this is exactly the story you've always believed in. But it's probably not, so time for an education!

Yes, these fables cover themes about truth, wisdom, and purpose. In a fun way, not a "fun" way. Download it today, even if it's not Christmas (but especially if it is Christmas)!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jeremy Bursey
• Release date: Dec 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310344398

Jeremy Bursey

Jeremy Bursey is the author of many short stories, essays, and poems, along with a modest number of novels and screenplays, each covering topics and genres that differ from what he had written previously. He hopes to bring many of these into the ebook generation over the course of the next few years. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Central Florida and currently works at a local college as a writing tutor. He appreciates feedback for anything he offers to the public.

Book preview

The Fountain of Truth

Two Christmas fables

and an alternative origin story about Santa Claus

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Jeremy Bursey

Copyright © 2015-2018 by Jeremy Bursey

All rights reserved.

zippywings.wordpress.com

Smashwords Edition

E-book edition: 1.2

ISBN: 9781310344398

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this e-book. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. If you enjoyed this book, please return to your favorite e-book retailer to discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

No part of this text may be reproduced in any other work without giving credit to the author. No part of this text may be used for commercial purposes, except by reviewers or critics, without the author’s permission. The complete text is intended for personal use only and may not be used for commercial purposes, or duplicated in any other form for purposes other than personal, noncommercial use, or posted to any other site without the author’s permission.

Contents

Title

Copyright Information

Edition Notes

Introduction

The Fountain of Truth

Christmas Log

St. Nick’s Gym

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Section 5

Section 6

Readers’ Group Discussion Questions

Other Books

For Reviewers

Join My Mailing List

Author’s Note

E-book Version

Revision History

About the Author

Contact and Questions

Coming Soon

Preview: Snow in Miami

Edition Notes

Thank you for downloading The Fountain of Truth.

This e-book version (2018) adds a series of discussion questions for readers’ groups at the end of the story, as well as a preview for the upcoming Christmas fable collection, Snow in Miami, but is largely unchanged from its first electronic edition (2015). It fixes a few grammatical and stylistic issues from its original version, but the story remains the same.

This version can also be found in the electronic and print editions of Zippywings 2015: A Short Story Collection.

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Introduction

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Every year on Facebook, I like to republish a fable I had written on Christmas Eve 2005 about families eating together at a popular restaurant for the holidays while revealing shocking truths about themselves to the surprise of their companions and children. I’d written it during a season when I, myself, was waiting tables and serving drinks to families who wanted to celebrate the holidays in public, and wondered how much truth they were hiding from each other. The Fountain of Truth is my interpretation of what the scene might look like if no one were to keep anything hidden from each other.

Now that we’re coming on the tenth anniversary of that story’s creation, I thought it would be fun to take it beyond Facebook’s range and make it more accessible for not just those who live on my Facebook friend’s list, but for everyone interested in the idea. So I’ve decided to port it to the e-book format. If you’re reading this, and if you’re reading this on Christmas Eve, I want to say thanks for spending your evening with the fountain of truth (the fountain) and The Fountain of Truth (the story collection), and remember to always stay truthful because liars suck.

Oh, and the other stories, Christmas Log and St. Nick’s Gym, are brand new. I wrote them to give this e-book and the idea of the Christmas fable some weight. But I’m also considering making this into a yearly series, depending on how much the readers want it. Let me know if you want more.

With that, enjoy all the truth ahead.

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The Fountain of Truth

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The Kingdom Affair restaurant in the upper section of town was world-renowned for its ritzy atmosphere, its genteel clientele, and its popularity among holidays. Established from the skeleton of an old ballroom at the base of a glamorous hotel, the restaurant developed a style of high-class living that rivaled the aristocracy, the wealth, and the social gatherings of the posh sort. It was the perfect locale to usher in the Rolls Royce of façades when the name of saving face was in order.

For this wealthy establishment, Christmas Eve was regarded as the busiest night of the year. On this eve of holidays, families and cohorts of the upper class persuasion dined to their hearts’ content, laughing and chatting over things that bore little significance to their lives. Dominating conversational topics ranged from pools, to spas, to Mercedes brand automobiles—all delivered through smiles that masked what people truly thought of the world. It was colorful bliss of the richest kind.

But on this particular Christmas Eve, something remarkable happened. All across the restaurant, from one wall to the other, from the big room to the private one, the façade somehow fell. Families and friends abandoned their discussions of plastic surgery and million-dollar homes to speak of life in its truest colors. Those who were sobered were stunned. How dare they speak their mind? they thought, as sincerity erupted from out of nowhere and threatened to unsettle their special little utopian thoughts.

The first sign of this Christmas miracle began with a table of eight—four men, four women—all wearing thousand-dollar outfits and million-dollar smiles. They had just taken their seats, the drinks had already arrived, and the hors d’oeuvres were on the way when the first break in conversation occurred.

And the Jaguar drives like a dream, laughed the first man, a frail gray-haired chap of about seventy. I haven’t been so happy since I got my latest Botox injection.

He took a sip of his soft drink, which he had ordered to keep from mixing his medication with alcohol.

But then, what’s a Botox injection, he continued, "but to