Don't look down: A collection of short stories

By Michael Colòn

"Don't Look Down: A Collection of Short Stories" is a book about the chaos and beauty of life. Walk into a world of everyday problems, into the mind of the brokenhearted, and turn the next page to be invited into a whimsical story that could only happen in another world.

Above all else, this collection of short stories is deeply relatable. As readers dive into each story, they will find that the author has a compelling ability to create characters and scenarios that mirror the everyday circumstances that evoke the entire range of human emotion. The storytelling in this book is inventive and keen, yet profoundly unpretentious. This is a must-read for readers of fiction, humor, and anyone who just loves a good story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098389406

Book preview

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Copyright 2021

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

ISBN: 978-1-09838-939-0 (softcover)

ISBN: 978-1-09838-940-6 (eBook)

Contents

Introduction

His Brother

The Waiting Room

The Butterfly

The Groundskeeper

I Can’t Believe I fucked Ms.Pacman

The Joker

The Hand That Feeds

Satan is Kind of a Dick

The Ladder: Part 1

Friday the 13th: The Musical

The Wheels on the Bus

The Perfect Dinner

That’s a Big Fucking Beanstalk

Staring at the Clock

Pull it Off Fast

The Secret of the World

How Good is This Coffee?!

Solitary For a Million Dollars?

What Did the Dog Say to the Cat?

Scarface is Overrated

A Cup of Coffee a Day Keeps Everyone Away

The Daydreamer

The Most Important Interview to Never Happen

Everything is Sad and We Should All Die

Sweet Potatoes for Dinner?

The Road Less Traveled

A Joke

Stop Shoving Things up Your Ass

Emma

Can We Be Close Again?

Ouch!

Focus

You Don’t Need It

FUCK

Sudoku, Anyone?

Lightning or Thunder?

Sometimes It’s Okay to Lie.

Only 80 Miles Left

It Never Ends

Am I a Grown-Up Yet?

The Detective and the Spider

Focus

Should I Try to Kill God?

Just One More Day

What If

El Anhelo

Was it All a Dream?

Faceless Man

L-O-N-E-L-Y

If You Give a Vegan a Fish

WISH A LITTLE WISH

A Boy Meets a Girl Who Might be a Werewolf

Just 15 More Minutes

Let’s Just Meet Somewhere in the Middle

Are We All Just Programmed to Fail?

I Want to be Like Rocky

Mental Illness or Super Power?

The Cat and the Mouse

Take A Chance On Me

This Boat Might Be Too Big?

Feed Me

An Interview with God (Or the Celestial Being That Watches All)

The Outside

Just Breathe (Or the Art of Just Fucking Staying Still)

Don’t Look Down Part 2

The Onion Effect

A Rabid Fox and A Stubborn Boy

Keep My Feet on the Ground

A List of Things to Keep You From Feeling Depressed

You Had One Job

Everything is Okay

A Little Trip to Nerd Heaven

Pandemic 2020

The Acid

Jack & Jill

The Ladder: Part 2

Goodbye?

Introduction

Did you know humans have 6000 thoughts per day? 6000! A day! Right now, as you’re reading this, you have probably had at least 20 different thoughts going through your head. How many of those thoughts are valid? How many do we forget? How many do we hold on to that we should forget? In a world filled with cell phones, televisions, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Tinder, and Bumble, it’s hard for most people to stay focused.

My thoughts have been my best friend for most of my life and, at some points, my worst enemy. The thoughts I have are like living across the street from a busy highway, you always hear the sound of cars zooming by and the occasional honking of the horns. It annoyed you at first, but then you got used to it. You actually grew to enjoy the noise or you were forced to because you would go mad if you tried to fight it.

These thoughts are the reason I wrote this book. I’ve always tried fighting the thoughts most of my life, denying them, avoiding them, being ashamed of them. I decided I wanted to take these thoughts and deconstruct them to see what’s there. Why do they keep coming back? Why can’t I ignore them? Surely there has to be something of substance in these thoughts if they won’t go away. I’m not a mad man, am I?

I took my thoughts and turned them into the stories you are about to read. Some are my inner pains, others are the knee-jerk reactions to life. Some are the places I would rather not talk about, and others are the places you would rather not know about. I have attempted to take the chaos of my mind and turn it into something productive for society.

I have written this book for those who cannot stop their thoughts. Those who fight every day to remain in reality, those who have lived their lives in fear of these thoughts. This is for those who have been taught that their thoughts are useless, to never dabble in the fantasy or daydreams of their everyday interactions. I want to take the things that have mainly appeared as background noise for most of my life and make it front and center.

I have taken a background prop and given it a lead role in this play. It may not be what it was initially intended for, but nonetheless, it is what I have created. Some of these stories will make sense, most of them will not. For they are just thoughts, flying through the living tissue of my brain and off into the world of chaos and spreading atoms across the universe.

Let’s pause for a moment before we begin. Do you know how many thoughts you’ve had since you started reading this? 400? 700? 1000? All those thoughts and you can’t remember a single one. This is why I wrote this book. I know that, one day, I will perish and my life and memories will fade away along with my thoughts. So, maybe in the future someone can read this and I can remember for nothing more than my thoughts, nothing of great importance, just some silly thoughts flying through my brain. In the future, they can look at this book and say:

What the fuck is this guy even talking about? Let’s go and watch Men in Black 40.

His Brother

A boy and his brother

Were the very best of friends.

They carried countless memories,

The boy could see no end.

His brother was shy

And slow to speak.

The boy was loud,

Always being the comic relief.

They would walk to school,

They would eat their lunch,

They would play their games,

They were a tight bunch.

The boy loved his brother

And the brother loved him back.

No one could separate them,

They were a little wolf pack.

"When we get older,

Will we buy a house?

Will we still play games?

I really hope things don’t change."

The boy hugged his brother,

The brother hugged him back.

I have to go, the brother said.

"Go? You can’t go, we’re just getting started.

I have so many plans for us

And adventures to do.

You’re my brother

And I can’t do them without you."

"I know this is scary,

You’re going to be okay,

We’ve had our fun and now it’s time to go."

You can’t go! the boy shouted.

"I’m scared and alone.

Please do not leave me here

All on my own."

"It’s not up to me to stay,

This is the end.

As sad as it may be

But you have much to do.

You have much to say,

You’ll bring joy to others,

I’ll tell you this day.

For your future is bright

And your plans are big,

So I’ll give you a hug

And a kiss on the cheek.

Do not cry for me,

We had our fun

And our time for this life,

Now it’s time for me to go home.

I know it doesn’t feel right,

But trust in the plans

That I have told you today,

For life ends for me,

But for you,

You’re just on your way."

The Waiting Room

"He’s in critical condition,’’ the doctor whispered to the family.

Will he make it? the mother of the boy whispered back.

We can’t tell for sure, he responded.

The waiting room of a hospital is as if you are frozen in time—a place where nothing else seems to exist. In these rooms, your religion doesn’t matter, your race doesn’t matter, you don’t matter. In these rooms, all that matters is what happens next. Is the person you love and care about going to come walking through that door, or will life as you know it be changing forever?

Will you remember their voice if they pass away? Will you leave their pictures up, or will it be too hard to look at their face? Maybe you’ll be one of those people who moves on and grows from it. Hell, maybe you’ll write a book about the trauma and pain you went through. You’ll inspire people! You’ll look trauma in the face and say, FUCK YOU. They’ll make a movie about you or some Oprah Winfrey shit…

Or maybe it won’t be like that all. You’ll sink into a deep depression that you won’t know how to get out of, and to be honest, you won’t want to get out of it. It’s a horrible place to be, but at least it’s easy… no worries, no more real life. Just pain and you know how to handle pain, you’ve dealt with it all of your life. You could live here for a while. Sure, your family might leave you, they may never talk to you again, at least that’s one less heartache you have to worry about.

This could be a good thing. People will talk about the person you used to be, how you could have done so many great things, but this horrible tragedy had to happen to you, stop you right in your PRIME! Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck it all. Now that this has happened, you’ll never have a chance to live the life you always wanted to live.

That’s what the people will say. It will be