Stop The Nukes My Stories Are On!!

By Jim. Atkisson

If you grew up in the age before streaming services and DVRs perhaps you were acquainted with an individual who had a particular story, or soap they watched without fail.  Day in and day out, season after season, devoted fans turned to the network daytime drama broadcast and followed the story arcs and plot lines as if it were a religion to them.  With the passage of a new day, they invested a little of themselves into the fictitious lives on the TV and outside of an earth shattering, end of world experience, the world stopped when the story was on.

 

Pinkie Stevens waited all summer for Labor Day, and the start of a fresh season of Bay Central Hospital.  After the shocking season finale of last season, it's been a very long, agonizing summer, filled with anticipation and a burning desire to see Bay Central Hospital's cliff hanger resolved, but with an unexpected turn of events in the world outsideof her television Pinkie might never know who shot Doctor Chase Morgan last season.

 

From the same author who brought you, "Roller Derby Apocalypse; The Queens of Iron" this author uses the short story medium to address deeply perplexing social issues in silly, campy, science fiction, short stories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Bright Dog Publishing
• Release date: Oct 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215057810

Book preview

Monday

11:07 hrs

Shady Shoals Community is a close walk up from the beach and it’s famous just-to-die-for view of the ocean.  Pleasant and steady ocean breezes carry white speckled seagulls far inland as they catch the crest of the breeze like surfers on the crest of a wave.  Squawking seagulls mingling with the tourists on neighboring beaches distract Pinkie Stevens from urgent breaking news on her TV.  The vacationing tourists down from Boston were out in droves enjoying the crowded Labor Day beach and last official day of summer.

The holiday chaos around Shady Shoals and persistent breaking news weren’t enough of a distraction from the important task of that morning.  It was almost time for Pinkie’s story and so nothing short of a catastrophic earth shaking nuclear war would deter her from her best laid plans at the moment.

The temperatures hovered in the low eighties, but with a steady ocean breeze the day felt cooler than eighty.  It’s a glorious day for a beach holiday or season premiere of her favorite story.  The sun shines bright from its perch in the afternoon sky casting bright warm sun beams down on her to enjoy. The sun warmed Pinkie’s heart and the carefree ocean breeze captivated her spirit, creating an overall picture perfect moment.

It’s the kind of day someone might wish to collect in a jar and put on a shelf; save it for rainy days or freezing winter nights.  According to the calendar on her wall, those winter nights were only a few months away, but in this perfect moment, it’s the furthest thing on her mind as she tries to remain focused on her prep work in the kitchen.  She’s pressed for time and with plenty of summer happening around, there’s no reason to dwell on future winter coastal storms, or the subsequent Nor’Easters that follow, but the breaking news updates were irritating, pulling her away from this pleasant space, and shoving her to an unwanted reality.

Pinkie felt slighted, annoyed with the rest of the world, didn’t they get it?  Her story was coming on at noon, but the persistent news updates were pulling her attention away from what really mattered, "buildup of Soviet military units on the border of Poland continues at what White