The Dark Side of the Earth

By Timothy A. Bramlett

This is a collection of short stories that shows the dark side of humanity in a sometimes humorous, introspective way, exploring various sides of the human psyche in a variety of circumstances.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 9, 2019
• ISBN: 9781546253099

Timothy A. Bramlett

Timothy A. Bramlett is the author of a number of books including short stories, novels, and children's books. With a strong science background, he is a former biology teacher and Vietnam era veteran. He has written and published eight previous books. He started writing at an early age, and has been influenced by authors including Ray Bradbury, Rod Serling, and H.G. Wells.

Book preview

© 2019 Timothy A. Bramlett. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 01/03/2019

ISBN: 978-1-5462-5310-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-5308-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-5309-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019900124

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

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.

Contents

Preface

The Dog That Went to College

5th Street Church Cafe

The Other Half

The Junkyard Cafe

The Dead Don’t Always Die

The Evil Old Man

The Island

A Dry Day In Vance

The Snows of Pine Mountain

The Curse of Angelo

Sharkey And The Blips

The Ghost of Camp Daniel Boone

Preface

I hope you enjoy this collection of unusual short stories that have evolved from a variety of sources, including dreams that I had and that demented mind of yours truly. You have to experience these for yourselves and draw your own conclusions. You might even learn something about yourself and others.

The Dog That Went to College is a story that evolved from my great love of man’s best friend. Taking shape as a canine prodigy and ending up as a co-ed in a college. How bizarre is that? What happens when you combine a superb intellect with that of a devoted dog with a loving family? Is there a correlation between intelligence and devotion or are they separate entities?

The 5th Street Church Café came from a dream that I had that took shape with the idea that a church should be fun to go to instead of a habit that we practice every week. One thing I noticed while going to my Sunday morning ritual was that everybody seemed to be in a habit of doing everything the same way every week. People park in the same parking spot, enter the church through the same door, sit in the same seat in the same pew, and exit through the same door, every week. All done with relatively precise timing. A friend of mine hung his hat on the same peg every Sunday morning and picked it up on his way out. One Sunday morning I decided to put his hat on a different peg to see what happened. I noticed that he just picked up his hat and left as if nothing unusual had happened. Have we gotten so automated that we don’t even notice changes? Are things really as they appear to be?

The Other Half came from another dream I had about a man who suddenly fell into a fortune, or so it seemed. He was, by definition, an ordinary Joe and didn’t understand the workings of the upper crust of society. How was he going to handle the change? He was someone who drank Budweiser and ate saltine crackers with Vienna sausages. He loved canned spaghetti and potato chips. He drove a Chevy and lived in a modest house. He might just find this a bit too much or he might learn to love it. Then things changed. What then? Was it better or worse?

The Junkyard Café was from another dream. We’re used to eating in conventional restaurants with all the amenities of what we’re used to. Whoever thought of putting a restaurant in the middle of a junk yard? And what will happen with the health department? Surely, they will never approve of such a crazy idea. And what will the neighbors think? Or the rats? Or the groundhogs?

The Dead Don’t Die Sometimes is a story about a man who died, or did he? The age old question of what happens after death is explored in this story. When is a person really dead? Everyone wants to know and will leave no head stone unturned to find out, even if it’s a cadaver in the autopsy room. Are you dying to find out what happens?

The Evil Old Man is the story about a man that everyone in in the neighborhood hates. Maybe hate is too harsh a word. Let’s be a bit more charitable. I guess they just don’t care much for him. He seems to be a crummy, selfish neighbor. But is he really like that or is all that rotteness just a façade to protect himself from some insecurity. Do people really change for the better or do they stay rotten to the end. You shall find out by reading this story. Maybe we should take a different look at people like that.

The Island is a tale about ordinary people that get put in unusual situations. Is it natural for a person to suspect that he or she is going to be murdered? How do you deal with such feelings? Being stuck on an island is bad enough but when you suspect that there is a murderer there is reason to be suspicious, or is it? Especially when there is nowhere to hide. It may not be exactly like Gilligan’s Island but we’ll see what happens without the professor to straighten things out.

A Dry Day in Vance is in a typical southwestern desert town that lacks something vital-rain. What are you going to do when you are miles away from the nearest river and days away by horse and wagon? Your water supply is dwindling. Are you going to hire a rain maker even though you don’t believer in such nonsense? Desperate times call for desperate measures. There are flimflammers that are ready to take your money and run.

The Snows of Pine Mountain is the story about a group of people who crash their airplane in the middle of nowhere in a snow storm. How could anything be worse than that? What will happen to the only survivor of that crash? With my luck, I would be rescued by a desperate criminal. But even desperate criminals might have a side to them that we may have never seen.

The Curse of Angelo is a story about a couple of washed up city people, one a gangster and the other a private detective. They somehow end up together in the same jail cell. What then? They’ve been trying to kill each other for years. Are they even going to survive being in jail together. When they get out, do they help each other or do they go back the way they were?

Sharkey And the Blips is taken from some of my earlier stories about Sharkey and the Space Pirates, the Blips, and Thomas and Mary Caroline. The Blips are tiny human like creatures that live under ground. Somehow, Sharkey and his crew get involved with Thomas and Mary Caroline in a quest to help save the Blips from the wrath of modern times. How do you stop plans for a shopping center? Can the Blips be saved from the wrath of a bulldozer and something called progress, or will they be swept under like a burrow of moles? You have to find out.

The final installment is a true story. In the summer of 1960, I spent a week at Camp Daniel Boone in western North Carolina when I was in the boy scouts. I was eleven years old at the time and it was a very interesting experience.

THE DOG THAT WENT TO COLLEGE

782924_01_final.jpg

Let’s make it clear from the start. Butch was no ordinary dog. You might even say he was a dog prodigy. Extremely intelligent and some may even say he was smarter than most of the people in the neighborhood. His little black nose seemed to be into everything, even from the start. He was furry, not short haired like a lab, and had the distinct look of a terrier mix. He was never self-conscious about his mixed breed background and it was never confirmed who the father was, but it was strongly suspected that the culprit was a friendly mutt rounder-about-town named Harvey. Butch’s mom, Helga, was a sweetheart of a dog and loved by all the neighborhood kids. She lived up the street with her adopted family, the Smiths. They were two doors up from Mr. John Randle, his wife Gladys and their two children, Hal and Janet. The Randles lived at 275 Maple Street. They were promised one of Helga’s pups, which they looked forward to adopting.

When it became well known that Helga was in the family way, it was an exciting time in the west end of the neighborhood. As the glorious moment drew near, the neighbors came to witness the blessed event. They brought puppy food, chew toys, pull ropes, baby beds and blankets, and other things that were obviously for larger puppies.

Butch was the boss of the litter from the start. He was an obvious alpha dog and never let the others doubt for a minute that he was in charge. Mother Helga had to put Butch in his place several times when he got a little too rough with his brothers and sisters.

In about six months, the Randles adopted one