Beyond Your Wildest

By Barbara Ann Horton

“Seven little tales for you to read,

But, beware of what you find.

For these little tales will take you deep

Into the author’s twisted mind.”

Fear not dear reader.  In between the death and destruction, I’ve tossed in a bit of humor for you squeamish souls.

Besides, you better get used to this.  For there are more tales that must be told.  

‘Beyond Your Wildest’ will take you beyond your imagination. Beyond your fears.  Beyond your reality.

Now, sit back. Relax… if you can.

And enjoy what I have prepared for you.

That is, if you dare.

Disturbingly Yours,

      B. A. Horton

• Language: English
• Publisher: DreamWriter Press
• Release date: Sep 20, 2016
• ISBN: 9781533749765

Barbara Ann Horton

Barbara Ann has published fiction and nonfiction. Her stories and articles have appeared in Dark Regions; Parents Magazine; Wonder Time Children's Magazine; Hydro Review; Kansas City Star Newspaper; Olathe Daily News; Independence Missouri Examiner; The National Library of Poetry; Fate Magazine and national trade magazines. She has written lyrics and music to published songs, and performed those songs on stage. Barbara Ann has written and directed plays for several theatrical groups and has also sold scripts. She created and wrote a humor column, The Lighter Side of Life, from Mother and Wife, for a local newspaper in Kansas. 

Book preview

Imagination creates reality.

Richard Wagner Composer

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Contents

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1  A Man of Taste

2  The Right Choice

3  Second Chance Chances

4  The Magic Mirror

5  No. 1 Best Killer

6  A Day Late

7  Road Kill

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The Right Choice was first published in Dark Regions

The Magic Mirror was first published in Mystic Circle

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This book is a combination of efforts by many people in my life. But I want to especially thank Carol B. and Karen H. for their editing and Sam L. Garrett for his awesome cover art and for coming up with the perfect title.

All of who are dear friends.

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1A Man of Taste

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Henry McDougal was a strange man. He was a loner and a looser. He had few acquaintances and fewer friends. In fact, the only people Henry ever associated with were his co-workers. And that was only when they needed something from him like the company’s annual budget report.

He lived alone in a tiny house that  he inherited from his mother after she passed away  last year. He had always lived with his mother, all through college and all through his adult life. Although Henry had a very high IQ, he lacked all social graces.

He only had his mother to rely on as a role model. She picked out what he wore and decided where he went. His mother, thinking it  would  make her son a more rounded individual, enrolled him in piano lessons.

But his mother’s aspirations for her son becoming a concert pianist were short lived. Henry

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returned home in tears on the first day of his piano lesson, well before his lesson should have been  over. He carried with him a note in his hand from his piano teacher Mrs. Thurber. His mother pried the wrinkled note from his pudgy little fingers. It read:

Dear Mrs. McDougal,

You owe me $149.95 for one piano bench. Lessons cancelled.

Your son is well rounded enough!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Eleanor Thurber

It seems that Henry in his excitement to impress Mrs. Thurber, sat down on her antique walnut piano bench just a little too hard. And that was the end of Henry’s piano lessons.

By the time he was twelve, he was taller than any kid in school by at least two heads and outweighed them by a hundred pounds. As Henry got just a bit older, he persuaded his mother to let him try out for the football team. But that too was  to no avail. On the first day of practice, Henry tackled Jake Harrington and put him in a cast for the rest of the school year. And to make a bad situation even worse, Jake was on Henry’s team.

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Henry never seemed to fit in anywhere. He was awkward around people. Especially  women. He never dated much at all. Any dates he had were in high school and those were blind dates. Compliments of Tom Addison, the football quarterback and heartthrob of every giggling high school girl in Tarrant County. Old buddy Tom, didn’t set Henry up out of sympathy, he did it to make a fool out of Henry.

Henry’s date humiliated him in some way or another. Mainly because, of course, it was all set up by Tom ahead of time. Tom sent love notes  to Henry from Paula Sue Crenshaw, the most popular and most beautiful girl in school. Henry was just naive enough to believe the notes were actually from Paula.

With the encouragement from Tom, Henry called Paula and asked her for a date. He wasn’t surprised when she said, Yes, Henry, I’ll go out with you.

Henry spent hours and hours practicing in front of his bedroom mirror. He rehearsed what he is going to say on his date with Paula.

But when Henry showed up at her home, promptly on time and with flowers, sweet Paula would not be home. He was told she was out with Tom.

Henry didn’t know any of his neighbors and they sure didn’t want to know him. Although he had lived in the neighborhood all his life, he  stuck

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to himself. When he did go outside to pick up the mail, the neighbors hurried inside. Children ran by him calling him names like Ogre and Big Oaf and Fat Ass. Adults avoided him like his awkwardness and comical looks were contagious. But Henry was a gentle man and never grew angry. He was used  to the world’s rejection.

Aside from being awkward, Henry was a very large framed man, well over six-foot tall. His wild crop of thinning, unruly red hair made him look somewhat crazy. His hair was almost never combed and when he did comb it, it sprung right back up out of place. He didn’t know how to dress. He might wear a red striped shirt with orange pants. Honestly, it didn’t matter to him. Why should it?  He just didn’t care anymore.

He had always been portly as his mother kindly described him. He could out eat any adult man at that time. His only claim to fame was when he won a hundred dollars and an award for  winning a hot dog eating contest at the Texas State Fair. He beat the world record of a man in Coney Island by devouring 76 hot dogs. It is the only recognition Henry ever received.

His pale skin and light blue eyes almost made him look almost transparent, despite his size. Even in the hottest of summers, Henry always wore long sleeves and pants to protect his fair skin from burning.  At  age  forty-two,  he  began  to  show

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patches of gray in his reddish locks and developed  a few noticeable bald spots. Henry came up with a quick, cheap way of correcting his hair problem. He tried to hide the gray with a red permanent marker. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn’t. Once, during a meeting he was called on to answer a question about the budget. He did not like talking in front of people and avoided it whenever possible. It made him nervous. And when Henry got nervous, he sweats. A lot.

When he sweats, his temporary hair color fix would then proceed to run down the side of his  face. He tried to avert his embarrassment by immediately running out of the office yelling, "My stitches broke