The On-Going Story

By Bruce Baker

This is a collection of short stories, poems, musings and jokes.

Discover the man who liked to sit in dark rooms with strangers and stare at the wall.

The Infinite Library has up-to-the-second books of everyone.

Learn to fly in a Lesson from an Angel.

Go to the Federal Supermax Prison and meet Blanket Bob, Jimmy the Grinder and the Crunch Monster.

Travel to Time, Arizona that has day on one side of town and night on the other. Sheriff Daily runs the town. One Sheriff Daily only works the dayshift and the other Sheriff Daily only works the nightshift. They look alike but they are not twins.

Laugh at The World's Funniest Joke and The World's Second Funniest Joke.

And shiver to the World's Scariest Scary Story.

There's the story of a HUGE spider bigger than a human hand and rats in Ecuador that are as big as cats.

Discover the conspiracy of planes being flown to America from Afghanistan filled with a billon dollars of heroin backed by The President of The United States. This conspiracy is uncovered by the reporter (who is later murdered) and two spies, Steve Barrister and Phun Hung Lo, and is reported in The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and The New York Times.

Read about The Invisible Murder and the secret black op fund involving hundreds of millions of dollars.

Visit My Spacious House that is ten thousand square acres.

Thrill to the story of the baby that walked to glory and how the whole world shook.

Find out The One and Only Question Women Should Never Ask Men and The One and Only Question Men Should Never Answer.

Try out the experiment that involves watching the 1990 movie "Flatliners" with The Flatliners Reality Check.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bruce Baker
• Release date: Nov 12, 2011
• ISBN: 9781301456178

Bruce Baker

BRUCE BAKER is a reader in modern American history at Newcastle University. He is author of What Reconstruction Means: Historical Memory in the American South, coeditor of After Slavery: Race, Labor, and Citizenship in the Reconstruction South, and coauthor of The Cotton Kings: Capitalism and Corruption in Turn-of-the-Century New York and New Orleans.

Book preview

Once upon a time there was a man whose favorite pastime was to sit in a dark room with a bunch of strangers and look at the wall. This is what he liked to do more than anything else.

Now he didn't do this every day and sometimes days and weeks would go by without sitting in a dark room with strangers. Yet, this is what he liked to do most of all.

The dark rooms were not always the same. And the strangers were never the same.

But the reason why this man enjoyed sitting in dark rooms with strangers looking at the wall was because this experience could take him places faster than the speed of light.

What is faster than the speed of light? The speed of thought! He could travel anywhere, be anyone, even go backwards and forwards in time--all at the speed of thought.

Well, one day when he was sitting in his favorite dark room, surrounded by strangers and looking at the wall, the strangest thing happened to him. He was suddenly.....

Chapter Two:


The Book


....transported forward in time. He looked around and all he could see, in every direction, were stacks and stacks of books.

He picked up the book next to him. He opened the cover of the book to the first page and read: Once upon a time there was a man who liked to sit in dark rooms with strangers and stare at the wall.

This book was the story of his Life. He turned to the back page. The page was blank.

He looked up and thought, I wonder what was the last thing written about me.

He flipped the pages back to the last written page.

It read, He flipped the pages back to the last written page.

Then he thought, Wow, this book is really accurate and up-to-the-minute. Hey, I wonder who the author is?

Just as he started looking at the title page..........

Chapter Three:

The Infinite Library

he dropped the book. He looked at his feet to see where the book fell, but since all the books looked exactly the same he couldn't find the book he dropped.

So, now what am I going to do? he thought. He couldn't find the book he wanted, so he decided to just leave. He looked around to see the door.

There was no door.

There was just row upon row of books. There were books stacked higher than he could see. It was then he noticed that this room had no ceiling.

Just as he started to climb a stack of books, he heard a woman's voice say...

Hello?.....Hello? Is anybody there?

He started to answer her then he stopped himself. Who was this woman and what was she doing in the library of his Life? Her voice sounded familiar. It was almost the voice of an angel.

He shouted out, Hello. I'm over here. Actually I'm up here on this stack of books.

He looked down and there she was dressed in a long white flowing dress: A vision of loveliness. She asked what he was doing up there.

Oh, I thought I'd try to climb my way out.

"You know, there is an easier way out. All you have to do is....

Chapter Four:

Lesson from an Angel

fly."

What do you mean by 'fly'?

I mean fly! Fly like a bird!

I can't do that!

Sure you can. All you need to do is close your eyes and imagine yourself floating in the air. Here, let me show you. She closed her eyes and slowly, slowly she started to rise. He closed his eyes and tried to do the same. But it didn't work.

She said, Relax, almost as if you're going to sleep. It's the same feeling you have just as you start to fade into sleep. You're not quite asleep but almost there.

He closed his eyes again and just tried to go to sleep. It still didn't work. Or so he thought.

He was just about to open his eyes...when she said, Wait, keep your eyes closed for a little longer. Reach out and hold my hand.

He reached out and felt her hold his hand.

Now remember, I'm holding your hand. You're safe. I will keep holding your hand and keep you safe. OK. Now open your eyes.

He opened his eyes. He was floating above the floor. They were both floating.

I'm flying! he cried.

They started floating higher and higher until the books below were merely dots. He looked above them and all he could see were stars.

As he gazed at the stars, holding her hand, he wondered at their beauty and magnificence. He wondered what it took to actually create a star or a galaxy or a universe.

She said, "You know I once had a dream that I was flying among the stars with God. And He showed me how to make a star. He told me all you had to do was think and there it was. I said, 'That's it? All you do is think and the stars appear?' He said 'Yes, that's all there is to it.'

I'm sure it takes a lot of practice to be able to think like that, but then that makes God the ultimate artist.

Chapter Five:

What's Next?

All at once he felt his hand slip out of hers. He started to fall. Down and down he went. He closed his eyes.

She said she'd never let go, that I would always be safe, and now I'm falling!

He fell for what seemed like an eternity. After a while he wasn't sure if he was falling or floating. He didn't dare open his eyes for fear of what he would see.

After a while he started to drift off into a nice easy sleep. His leg kicked and he woke up with a jolt.

He was sitting in a chair in a dark room with a bunch of strangers. On the wall he