The Mad Man

By David Halliday

I can never sleep. Soon as my head hits the pillow, my brain turns on. Ideas. Things that you can never imagine yourself thinking. For months I used to worry about my airplane. There’s a small airport near the trailer where people land small aircraft. And as soon as my head was horizontal I started to worry. Where did I park the airplane? It’s not like it wouldn’t be easy to find. There can’t be more than a couple dozen airplanes on the ground. But I couldn’t recall parking it anywhere. Keep me up for hours. And then one day I was in Durham in this small grocery store picking up a few vegetables when it suddenly dawned on me. I don’t have an airplane.
One night I’m laying there worried about the poles. Not the country. The north and south pole. What if they switched? It had happened before. Would we wake up the next morning disoriented? Would the birds start flying north in the fall? Would we have to remake all our maps? Would Santa Claus have to seek out counseling?
It’s a disorder. I’ve been tested for it and found wanting. What do they call 4 a.m.? The hour of the wolf? You go outside and there is a strange stillness in the air. It’s the hour when most people die. Just before the dawn.
Up at the trailer I would go out and wander through the fields. Try and tire myself out. A couple of times I found myself the next morning, sleeping with the cows. Nothing romantic. But, I love cows. There’s a sad wisdom in their eyes. Don’t fool yourself. They know what’s in their future. They can smell barbecues miles away. But they’re resigned to their fate. It makes my heart sink. That’s why Madeleine and I became vegetarians. That lasted about six months until one night when I fell asleep in a field of carrots.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Halliday
• Release date: Sep 23, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370282319

David Halliday

I have published poems, short stories, plays, art works in reviews and publications across the United States and Canada. I have several published books:murder by Coach House Press. This book is a series of poems and illustrations set up like scenes in a movie, describing the murder, trial, and mob execution of an innocent man. Winner of the 2001 Eppie for poetry.The Black Bird by. The Porcupine’s Quill. This is a book of poems, illustrations and short prose pieces describing the fictional making of the John Huston film, The Maltese Falcon.Making Movies by Press Porcepic. This is a book of long poems, interviews, short fiction pieces about a fictional BBC documentary about a fictional Canadian film maker, Samuel Bremmer and his company of actors and colleagues. It follows his career through the creation of a series of his movies.Church Street is Burning, a book of poems, was a finalist in the 2002 Eppie for poetry.The God of Six Points, published by Double-dragon-ebooks. A man who believes he is a god believes he has murdered one of his subjects.Sleeping Beauty, published by LTD ebooks.com is a murder mystery. A woman lands in a small village where the only escape is to be murdered. Finalist in the 2003 Dream Realm Awards. Winner of the 2004 IP Book Awards.The Hole, published by LTD ebooks is one in a series of cop stories. There are unusual happenings in the quiet suburb of Islington. People have begun to disappear. And they have been disappearing for generations. For the soon to retire Sam Kelly, this is his last case as a detective. All the clues point to a mysterious hole, which appears to have no bottom.In 2007 I was short listed for the C.B.C. Literary Contest in poetry.

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The Mad Man

Published by David Halliday at Smashwords

The Invisible Man Part 8

Copyright 2016 David Halliday

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1. Dinner at the Cravens

That was delicious, Monique. Charlie wiped his mouth with a napkin and as he did deposited the piece of gristle into the napkin that had been hiding out in his cheek.

I’m glad you enjoyed it, Charlie. Monique glanced over at Frank pleadingly. I didn’t have time to go shopping. The baby kept me hopping. It was just something that I threw together at the last minute.

Charlie turned to Frank. "We put the meat in the oven to cook it. And then we shit out the meat at the end of the day. Seems all that we’re after is the heat. The human sausage machine, transforming dead stuff into living stuff and vice versa. The miracle of defecation. Agitating those atoms. That’s what it’s all about. Eating atoms. Crunching down on those little suckers. Digesting atoms with all those stomach chemicals that are also atoms. Shitting out atoms. Pissing off atoms. And yet atoms remain atoms. We don’t change them, don’t even make a scratch on them. And yet here we are. Human beings. Clouds of atoms. Life is agitation. God, I love laundromats! Looking in at all that laundry, your socks and shirts and women’s dainty things tumbling around. Reminds me of the Milky Way. Galaxies swallowing galaxies. And the stomach. And