Short, Short Tales

By David Pliner

The purpose of submitting different types of stories is to explore different types of writing; Hogans Choice covers a wide range of topics, from corruption to pollution, greed, loneliness, discrimination, futility, and sex to name a few. It is funny, satirical, nostalgic, and poignant.

The other stories are literal and absolutely true and are derived from experience, ranging from a story about a bad dog to a story about a cute dog. Some stories raise issues that have bothered the author for many years, such as the way justice is treated in our country and whimsical moments like The Old Mill Stream. One story even deals with the supernatural as the author has experienced it. The idea behind the stories was to create something that could be read quickly. Some will make you think, and some will make you laugh. Perhaps a few will bring tears to your eyes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 27, 2016
• ISBN: 9781514470510

David Pliner

David Pliner is seventy-nine years old and has embarked upon a new career, and this is his first novel. David published a collection of short stories last year called SHORT, SHORT TALES. Writing is a lifelong ambition, but this is the first opportunity David has had to write after retiring from a real estate career to become a full-time caregiver. David studied both American and British literature and poetry in college. He is now working on a second novel to be published sometime next year. Writing is difficult, and David hopes you will enjoy the books as much as he enjoyed writing them. The purpose behind each story is to make the reader think. David is particularly influenced by both poets and authors, namely Isaac Singer, T. S. Eliot, James T. Farrell, John Mortimer, Nelson DeMille and Fredrick Forsythe.

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Copyright © 2016 by David Pliner.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016903259

ISBN: Hardcover     978-1-5144-7053-4

Softcover     978-1-5144-7052-7

eBook     978-1-5144-7051-0

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.

Rev. date: 04/07/2016

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This book is dedicated to Frank Ashcraft, the finest teacher I've known.

Thanks to my wife Suzanne, who helped edit the book and encouraged me throughout the process.

CONTENTS

Prologue to Hogan’s Choice

Hogan’s Choice/ A Burlesque

Duke/A True Animal Tale

There Is No Justice

The Magical Weekends And Other Magic/A Bagatelle

The Mill Stream

Lucy/A Dog That Thought She Was Human

Freedom Park

Unexplained Happenings/Some Vingettes

Death On The Atlantic

Bright Light

A Final Goodbye

A Day At The Races

Dogs Are Family

The Hereafter Is Just A Meditation Away

Kate And The Wolf

The Bar Mitzvah That Couldn’t Go Bad!

PROLOGUE TO HOGAN’S CHOICE

OZYMANDIAS

I met a traveler from an antique land

Who Said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert … Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:

And on the pedestal these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, Ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Percy Shelley

HOGAN’S CHOICE/ A BURLESQUE

It was as cold as a whale’s ass in China that day in Cornwell, a pretentious second-class city in a third-rate state with tremendous wealth but lacking an acceptable quality of life for a large city. Like weather, people, and businesses, Cornwell presents two faces: outwardly impressive but inwardly replete with urban sprawl, congestion, pollution, and corruption.

In this pretentious world-class city lived Moses Hogan (born Hoganovitz), a corpulent, balding, middle-aged bookkeeper, who worked for Adam Dickworthy, a real estate mogul, mired in a small office, which openly displayed the insignificance of someone marginally needed and barely tolerated. Hogan’s plain, stained clothing reflected more color than his character. Besides that, Dickworthy hated Jews. He hired Jewish agents and took on Jewish partners to help finance his projects, if it was expedient. Hogan was retained because he was willing to compromise the books, and Hogan needed the money, however meager. Hogan was Jewish, but after college graduation, he discarded his Jewish name, hoping to acquire better status and acceptance, not by work and effort but by name change. He still inherited the curse of race because he looked Jewish and couldn’t alter that. Hogan detested Dickworthy as much as Dickworthy hated Jews. Dickworthy claimed to have changed, but when Dickworthy was asked to sponsor a prominent Jewish applicant to the posh Quail Roost Country Club, of which Dickworthy was a founder, the answer was