Tales in the Key of Life: Short Stories

By Ed Houston and Tiffaney Patterson

In Tales in the Key of Life, a father and daughter writing team partner to share a collection of diverse short stories that touch upon love, betrayal, innocence, horror, and murder as a group of eclectic characters face a variety of challenges, each in their own unique way.

Tiffaney knows that fate controls her life. While attempting to find reasons behind the sudden deaths of both her parents, Tiffaney embarks on a journey with her fianc to fulfill her mothers last wishwhere the supernatural is about to collide with a life-altering reality. Karen is drowning amid a life of routines. After she reaches for a life preserver she hopes will bring more excitement into her blah days, she soon discovers that her rescue may cost her more than she is willing to pay. Horace is determined not to use cocaine again. But as he waits in his van for yet another innocent child to rescue, Horace knows he is addicted to something far worse than drugs.

Tales in the Key of Life is a compilation of seven short tales that lead others into the minds of individuals who will do whatever it takes to survive lifes greatest trials.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jul 7, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491738290

Ed Houston

Tiffaney Houston-Patterson is the mother of a daughter and currently works for a large bank. She lives in Lancaster, California. This is her first book. Ed Houston is retired from years of service as a social worker for the Department of Children and Family Services in Los Angeles. He is the author of two other books and resides in Los Angeles, California.

Book preview

TALES IN THE KEY OF LIFE

SHORT STORIES

Copyright © 2014 Ed Houston and Tiffaney Houston-Patterson.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

iUniverse

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.iuniverse.com

1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4917-3830-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-3829-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014910859

iUniverse rev. date: 7/1/2014

CONTENTS

Preface

1.   Fate (Edward Houston)

2.   Nurisha (Edward Houston)

3.   Pearl of Great Price (Edward Houston)

4.   Diary of A Married Mistress (Tiffaney Houston-Patterson)

5.   Want Ad (Edward Houston)

6.   Who’s Really The Blame? (Edward Houston)

7.   The Race (Edward Houston)

PREFACE

I am very pleased to be able to share this collection of short stories. I am especially pleased that my daughter, Tiffaney Houston-Patterson, was able to contribute one of her own stories to this collection. These stories are an eclectic collection of fantasy, science fiction, horror, inspiration, and the supernatural.

I recently retired from years of service at the Department of Children and Family Services in Los Angeles, California. Tiffaney lives in Lancaster, California, and works as a customer service representative for the Bank of America.

Diary of a Married Mistress, is Tiffaney’s story of a woman drowning in a life of routine. She reaches for a life preserver of excitement, only to discover that her rescue may cost more than she is willing to pay. Fate, is a story about the supernatural encroaching upon set-in-stone beliefs about present-day reality. Nurisha, is a story about truth, from the mind of a child, before she has been influenced by political correctness. Pearl of Great Price, is an ancient biblical story about value in a present-day setting. Want Ad, is a science fiction story about aliens, time, space, and love.

Who’s Really The Blame, is a horrific tale of addiction, crack-cocaine, recovery, redemption, stalking, torture, murder, and rescuing one child at a time. The Race, is a story of perseverance, focus, and inspiration.

FATE

T iffaney woke, not moving, but staring at the dim outlines that made up her bedroom. It was still dark. It was not quite dawn, but getting there. In the semidarkness, she reflected and tried to make sense of the past two years of her life. She tried to see some pattern or a red flag that said, Hey! Here’s the reason right here. Just look.

Tiffaney smiled in the darkness. She knew Fate controlled her life and was unpredictable. Finding some reason would just make it easier to accept the death of her father thirteen months earlier, and the death of her mother just two weeks ago.

A drunken driver had killed her dad. Fate, had chosen their paths to cross. Fate had also allowed the standard drunk driving results: drunk driver safe without a scratch and innocent victim dead as a doorknob.

Her mother had never fully recovered from the blow that Fate had bestowed upon her. That night, the night of her father’s death, part of her mother also died. Her mother’s cancer diagnosis six months ago compounded Tiffaney’s unresolved grief for her father. Still grieving from the first loss, Tiffaney didn’t understand why she was faced with beginning the process all over again. Tiffaney thought, "Fate. It was just fate. We live in a world where anything could happen to you anytime, anyplace, with no rhyme nor reason. Here today, gone tomorrow."

Tiffaney believed there was no afterlife. Nobody was behind the scenes pulling the strings. Death was the end, all there was, over and out.

Dawn was beginning to break. Tiffaney shifted and turned over on her side. Paul was still asleep. She focused on the alien thought that had invaded her awareness when she learned that her mother had cancer. The thought had remained in the shadows of her mind. Except for Paul, she was alone in the world. She hadn’t wanted to acknowledge that fact, but in the still dimness of the early morning, it glared in her head like neon.

During Tiffaney’s last trip to the hospital, her mother had asked Tiffaney to help her keep a promise to a man her mother had grown up with. Tiffaney had never heard her mother talk about Hugh Stone before.

Promise me that you will go tell Hugh personally that my husband and I have passed on, her mother said.

Why? Tiffaney asked. Who is this guy anyway?

Her mother said, Just promise me that you’ll do it.

Why can’t you tell me what this is all about?

You know I love you and would never hurt you. I’m asking you to trust me. Help me keep a promise I made to Hugh a long time ago. Will you do this one last thing for me? I know I don’t have long. You will find his address in my jewelry box in my bedroom. Promise me. Tell me now that you will do it.

She died that night—and I promised her. I will do it. Tiffaney snuggled closer to Paul. She was careful not to wake him, but she did not want to leave any empty space between them. Hoping the warmth from his body would dispel the wisp of a chill she imagined was beginning to form deep inside her.

They would be leaving after breakfast. Fate was the last thing on her mind as she drifted back to sleep.

That afternoon, the sun was showing off, bright and warm. They turned onto the freeway, and there was no smog. The fresh air was as it had been when Tiffaney’s parents moved to California in the 1950s.

Paul had said that if they drove until nightfall and got an early start the next morning, they would be in Bishop, Colorado, by the next afternoon. She watched Paul negotiate his way over into the far left lane of the freeway. Finding the freeway without heavy traffic was almost as hard as finding the proverbial needle in the haystack. Where are so many people going at all hours of the day or night? Tiffany complained about the freeway traffic a while longer.

Paul finally said, Tiff baby, no matter how heavy the traffic may get, the farther we get away from the city, the lighter the traffic will become. I’m doing the driving. That’s my job. All you have to do is sit back and do your job. I know you’ve been stressed because of your mom, and I know you’re anxious and wondering about Hugh Stone. Bitching about the traffic ain’t gonna do nothing but make you crazy, give me a headache, start us snipping at one another, and create a lot of thick space up here in the front seat between us. Now, I love you way too much to even let something like that get started. Sit back and let me worry about the traffic. Tiff, it’s you and me against the world, no matter what. You just do your job, and I’ll do mine. Besides, you know I can’t resist a woman with freckles and sandy-brown hair, especially yours. Paul looked out his open window up into the sky, opened his mouth, and took in great gulps of air.

He started hyperventilating. He grabbed his chest with one hand, all the while keeping his other hand firmly on the steering wheel. And with a genuine look of pain on his face, started crying out, Why, God? Why me, Lord? Why did you make me a freckle-loving, sandy-brown-hair-lusting kind of guy? I’m just a pawn in the hands of this whip-cracking temptress. She’s just waiting to get me alone so she can have her way with me. Why me, Lord? Paul was holding his chest with one hand, but the pain on his face turned into a grin.

Tiffaney looked at Paul. The feeling in her heart told her she was smiling, but she didn’t remember when she had started. And just what is my job, if you don’t mind me asking, Mr. El Capitan?

Why no, I don’t mind you asking at all, little lady, Paul said in his finest John Wayne brogue. Your job is to sit beside me and keep that there radio contraption tuned to the music we like while we mosey on down the highway till sundown. Then I’m gonna pull over into one of them there fancy overnight sleeping places. And while I put the car to bed, you, little lady, are gonna be inside getting yourself ready to bed me down. Now do you got that, Mrs. Pilgrim?

Tiffaney looked at her man and nodded. She said, Uh huh, slid up under him, and tuned the radio onto an oldies station. At least Fate has given me a good man, Tiffaney thought as she stared out the window, no longer concerned about the traffic.

36989.png

Umm. This feels almost as good as last night. Tiffaney leaned back into the shower stall and soaped herself. Tiny projectiles of hot water made her tingle all over. She thought of Paul traveling all over and inside her territory with his hands, lips, tongue, and depth gauge.

Growing up, Tiffaney had always been ashamed of the freckles on her face and body. The kids teased her about her dots, and anyone else looking her way saw only freckles—and not her. Tiffaney liked her hair; ever since she could remember, it had been thick, but she could do without the freckles. Tiffaney had asked her mother about her freckly face, but her mother said her great-grandmother had freckles and sandy-brown hair—and that was the end of it.

Fate, Tiffaney thought. A freckle face crossing the path of a freckle-face lover. On very rare occasions, like every blue moon, Tiffaney allowed herself to ask Paul, just jokingly, if he really loved her or if he was just attracted to her freckles and sandy-brown hair like he sometimes said. Now, with her mother and father gone, the question took on a sense of urgency. Tiffaney knew Paul really loved her, but from time to time, she needed to hear it from him, especially when she started to feel alone.

Hey! Are you the only one who gets to take a shower this morning? Paul opened the shower door and stepped inside. Or were you just waiting for me to come join you? He pulled Tiffaney into him, letting his hand glide over