Three Stories and a Novella: For All Ages

By Gene Brewer

Lattie is a drop of water identical to all the others. Although he encounters countless setbacks, he never gives up his dream of becoming a unique and beautiful snowflake. Branty, a young Canada goose, suddenly finds himself in the position of being leader of his flock after his mentor, Old Father, succumbs to old age. When problems are encountered, he relies on the wisdom of the ages to solve them and lead his flock to a new winter home.

In The Boy Who Spoke with God, a five-year-old is invited by God to ask one question at the time of his next visit one year hence. A governmental committee is formed to select the question for the boy to ask. When the times comes, the world waits for Gods Answer

A ten-year-old who is curious about everything finds himself in a cavern near the farm where he lives, and emerges in a world different from, yet strangely similar to, our own. As he attempts to find his way home again, he tries to make sense of the people and institution he encounters in his travels through Yonderland.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 3, 2007
• ISBN: 9781477179567

Gene Brewer

Before becoming a novelist, Gene Brewer studied DNA replication and cell division at several major research stations. He is the author of ON A BEAM OF LIGHT, K-PAX II and the forthcoming K-PAX III, published in summer 2002, which will complete the K-PAX trilogy. He lives in New York City.

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Copyright © 2007 by Gene Brewer.

Library of Congress Control Number:  2007902936

ISBN:

   Hardcover   978-1-4257-1885-5

   Softcover     978-1-4257-1886-2

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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CONTENTS

STORIES

LATTIE

BRANTY

THE BOY WHO SPOKE WITH GOD

NOVELLA

YONDERLAND

*Originally appeared in the novel Watson’s God, by the author, under the title The Question.

OTHER BOOKS BY GENE BREWER

K-PAX

K-PAX II: On a Beam of Light

K-PAX III: The Worlds of Prot

K-PAX: the Trilogy, featuring Prot’s Report

Creating K-PAX

Alejandro in Twice Told

Murder on Spruce Island

Wrongful Death

Ben and I

Watson’s God

K-PAX IV: A New Visitor from the Constellation Lyra

The American Way

K-PAX Redux: A Play, a Screenplay, and a Report

LATTIE

Lattie could not remember being born. His earliest memory was of a cold, dark night and of falling slowly, slowly toward the light. It was a pleasant feeling, almost like floating. All of his brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and cousins were tumbling gently with him, playfully bumping into one another from time to time.

With all his relatives blocking his view it was not easy to see the ground below, and Lattie had been drifting a long while before he noticed that the lights were getting bigger and brighter, and that some of them were moving. Like most young snowflakes he wondered what they were, where they had come from, and what sort of world he was falling into.

The lights were coming closer and closer and moving faster and faster. But he was unafraid because he was not alone. In fact, he couldn’t wait to see what would happen next. But suddenly the beams were very big indeed, and moving faster than the wind. He was blinded by a sudden flash, and then there was only darkness: he had been run over by a large truck!

Before he realized what had happened he was further pulverized by a small green car, a white van bearing the words BOB’S TOWEL AND LINEN SERVICE, and a long gray limousine with darkened windows. He began to feel very strange, for he was no longer a shiny white snowflake. Instead, he had become a muddy little drop of water.

Under similar circumstances many of his brothers and sisters would have accepted their fate and let themselves trickle slowly into the gutter. Not Lattie. Pulling himself together, he lifted himself from the warm pavement and began to climb upward toward the night sky, passing many other flakes on their way down. No one noticed him because he was almost invisible, a mere wisp of vapor.

Eventually he found himself above the dark clouds, and he rose higher and higher until he could see the sun coming up all yellow and orange and red on the horizon—it was a wonderful sight! It was just at dawn that he collided with a high-flying speck of dust and became a visible droplet again.

Soon he encountered many more droplets his size, and together they formed a tiny white cloud, which floated lazily above the snow-covered earth.

But Lattie was not satisfied to be a drop of water, identical to all the others. He longed to be his own special self. He wanted to be nothing less than a snowflake!

The other droplets laughed and poked at him and called him names: they all wanted him to be just like them. But the truth is, they were jealous of him because they were afraid to be different. There was security in being one of the crowd.

Summoning all his remaining energy, Lattie pulled himself away from his speck of dust, disappeared once again, and soared ever higher in the sky until he began to feel very clean and cold. How he loved the cold!

When he came across a high-flying grain of pollen he happily surrounded it. SNAP! He became a beautiful snowflake once more, crystalline, perfect, entirely unique!

How happy he was to be exactly what he wanted to be. Now if only he were to fall to the top of a high mountain peak, his fondest wish would come true.

But a snowflake cannot control the wind, and he floated helplessly toward the east until the air became calm and he began to fall. Experimenting with shapes, he found that he could zig left and zag right and even do cartwheels. As he came closer to the ground he straightened up and searched hard for streets, roads and byways of any kind. He didn’t want to end up under a stream of traffic again!

What he saw, in fact, was a snowy pasture populated by cornstalk stubbles, wooden fences, and several large brown creatures. This is more like it, he thought, with satisfaction. Fascinated by the wavy hair, the soft brown eyes and long tails of the furry beasts, he let himself drift down for a closer look at the biggest one. But before he realized it, he found himself flying right into its huge warm mouth!

A large wet tongue suddenly loomed in front of him. No! No! cried the little snowflake, but it was too late. The instant he landed on the pink surface he melted again. He rested there for a minute until a snort of hot breath propelled him back into the air and upward and upward into the somber gray sky.

As he rose, Lattie thought about the mistakes he had made in his youth, and he vowed to be more careful on his next trip to earth. No more vehicles! he cried. And no more animals, either! Higher and higher he rose, but before he was cold enough to crystallize, he encountered a tiny mold spore and condensed around it into a shapeless drop of water.

But this time he was content to float with the rest of the newly-formed cloud for a while, to leave his bad experiences behind, to bide his time until he came to a new part of the world where a flake could find a cold, quiet place to land, peaceful and undisturbed.

After two days of slow floating he noticed that the air around him was getting colder and colder. His neighbors were beginning to shiver and complain, but for Lattie it was wonderfully invigorating. He was ready for action again!

Breaking away from his neighbor droplets, he turned his gaze upward and began another long climb. Higher and higher he rode a rising current until: SNAP! He crystallized once more into a uniquely handsome snowflake.

He looked hopefully toward the ground below, but it was obscured by a heavy layer of clouds, including the one he had just left. There was nothing to do but fall and hope for the best. But he was older now, more determined and experienced, and he knew what to watch out for: roads, trucks, cows. This much he could control.

As he fell lower and lower he looked hard for a glimpse of his destination, and finally, through the haze, he spotted it. But it wasn’t white down there, as he had hoped and expected, but brown! And green! And what was this—he was warming up! Oh, no! he thought, as his edges began to soften and melt and he became a nondescript drop of water again. I’m raining!

Splash! He hit the ground with a loud grunt, bounced once, and ended up on a blade of tall grass. Now, for the first time in his life, he was becoming angry. He lay there steaming, feeling sorry for himself and cursing his bad luck. This, of course, did not help him find his mountaintop, but it did cause him to vaporize faster, and he soon found himself rising again toward the clearing sky.

This is getting ridiculous, he thought, as he felt the warm sun pull him upward. Perhaps I’ve been too hasty. This time I’ll wait a good long time before I plunge into something I don’t fully understand. And so, when he found himself part of another puffy white cloud, he began to pay some attention to what the older droplets had to say.

Of course, not all of his elders were clever or wise, and some less so than even he. But by listening carefully he was able to figure out which of his fellow drops made sense and which did not. And he began to learn some important facts. For example, that everything comes and goes in cycles—first warm, then cold, then warm again. He began to understand that if he wanted to be a snowflake he should wait until it turned very, very, very cold.

So he did. He was tempted sometimes by delicious cool breezes and inviting updrafts, but they were nothing he hadn’t experienced before, and he resisted the impulse. And then, one frigid morning after many weeks of floating, even Lattie began to shiver. This is it! he shouted, waking up all the frigid droplets around him. It’s time!

Joyfully he spread his sides and rode the cold, rising wind until it was spent and, with mounting excitement, he began to fall. Faster and faster he plunged, diving past many of the more cautious flakes in his eagerness to get to the frozen ground. Finally, after what seemed like forever, he broke free from the others and it was he, Lattie, who led the way. But below him there were no roads, no cows, no anything!

What’s this? he gulped. The ground here wasn’t white, or even brown or green. It was a steady gray, and stretched away as far as he could see. He bent himself into a parachute and put on the brakes, but it was no use. He was too heavy to rise and too far from land to escape the upcoming waves. He had landed in the ocean, joining billions and billions of his fellow snowflakes in the biggest, wettest place on earth.

Numbed not by the