Life is strange and beautiful. But sometimes overwhelming. As a result, we tell ourselves stories, to make these times move easier. If it were not for our daily stories, we would simply drift away into oblivion. I brought forward a collection of tales, twenty four in all, from as far away as the other side of the moon, to as near as your own home. They say truth is stranger than fiction, but this I tend to doubt. This is a book of fiction, So remember, things are not as they seem, and it's not over till the fat lady sings. So hang in there until the end, and you will not be disappointed.

A Fire's Shadow

A Collection of Short Stories From LifeBy John Henry Clark

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2009 John Henry Clark
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4389-7460-6

Contents

Foreword......................................................xiPreface.......................................................xiiiDead Spell....................................................1Only Children Are Afraid Of The Dark..........................11The Fourth of July It's All Fun and Games.....................17Sometimes They Cry At Night...................................21I Remember Jean...............................................27Snow Fall.....................................................31So You Don't Believe in Ghost.................................35Those Crazy Days of Summer....................................51Days of Summer's End..........................................59The Games We Loved To Play....................................61She Cries My Name.............................................69Never Leave Me................................................75If I Had The Time.............................................81Because I Said So! e..........................................83If Only They Let Me Be Me.....................................91Let The Evil One Out..........................................99Summer Lovers.................................................109The Best Christmas Ever.......................................113Can I Walk With You...........................................119The Rain......................................................123Were You Out There............................................125Apples Through The Window.....................................133The Night of the Moon Stalker.................................143The Price We Pay For Glory....................................155Something's Coming And We Can't Stop It.......................157Fire From The Sky.............................................165How About Friday Night........................................171The Night Goblin..............................................175Dream To Live Live To Dream...................................181

Chapter One

Dead Spell

Darkness is cold when you lose the ability to see clearly in the night, and it came hard as a large stone to the head or so I thought. My eyes slightly opened to the shape of a large black beetle perched upon a few dark green blades of grass. This didn't seem normal for the fact that all of this is about a few inches from my eyes. Feeling the drift of cold moist night air coming over my body tells me I'm not standing. A fear from a distant memory quickly sets in as I slip back to when I was about six or so. Falling down a flight of dark cellar stairs, just lying there being so frightened of the darkness that surrounded me and the unknown that waits for me in that cold cellar. I remember staying very still until my mother came for me. It seemed like a lifetime passed until she did. I can guess that won't happen now. Then reality comes rushing back and its still cold, dark and strangely quiet. But I can see the beetle clearly, so there's some sort of light. But where? Not the moon or stars, but a flashlight. Yes a flashlight past my head. It's beam shooting past into the thicker growth of the yard. I must be back near my pond, somewhere by the greenhouse. Where's Toby my Goldie, who's always out here with me? Why am I here and what happened. Now don't panic, breath slowly and clear your head. Think of a song or maybe a person, yea a person, my wife or kids. I wish I knew what happened.

We've been through some hard times like anybody else has over the course of our lives, so it's a little easier to look back when things are now going good. Remember back when you were stranded with the car on the highway in the snow and she drove 40 minutes at night to get there. Just to see her show up gave me a feeling all over. How about when the boys were born? That's better than worrying about laying here. Let's go by the numbers, one; I'm alive, two; I think there's no danger, and three; I can still think. Ha Ha! Well, I see the bug left and I smell the pond water so my senses are coming back. I don't feel any pain or numbness anywhere, so let's try to move a little. Oh, that was not good. My head feels like a 50 pound bag of wet sand and there's seems to be something wrong with my left arm. I can hear foot steps coming from the house, slow and heavy. I find I can reach the flashlight with my right hand, so I shut it off. The footsteps stopped dead. Now there's only silence. If I new the person that the foot steps belonged to; a simple flashlight going off would not stop them in there tracks like that; so now I am in deep shit. "Move" I tell my self and do it quick and quiet. Rolling over on my stomach, I maneuver over the tall grass by the back of the pond. Stopping, I hold my breath to listen for any sounds. Dead silence falls again so I wait. While I lay here, I feel some of the fl at pond rocks that make up the waterfall wall next to me. I'm not going down without a fight. I wish I grabbed the flashlight before crawling all this distance. But now I have cover and the rocks as a weapon. Looking towards the back of my house, I notice the lights are all out and there's a small red glow by the ground. Maybe a lit cigarette? I don't know or care right now. Where did the footsteps come from? They didn't seem close. The pond is about two hundred feet from the house, so who ever it was knows I'm here somewhere. I'll buy some time and let them play there hand. The little red light dims and goes out.

Where did I mess up to put me out here and so far out of reach of my house and family? I wish I knew where my stupid dog is. He hears everything, sometimes he barks at nothing. I must have been off my guard when this happened so think jerk, what happened. There's something coming this way my night vision cutting in and I see a silhouette moving from the back porch towards me. Grabbing a fl at rock, I wait in the silent darkness for the unknown entity to arrive. Then a light from the house next door. All motion stops in front of me and I lose my night vision to the light from the next-door porch light. This is the time to fl y and fl y I must. I roll to my knees and start crawling around the back of the pond, heading to the chain link fence that borders the property. "I made it" and over the fence I go, in one fell swoop. I'm in the woods and moving fast to the other side of the property that's next door to mine. There's no catching me now. For a moment, I fl ash back when I was fifteen years old and being chased in the night by angry homeowners, across a large park that was called Marine. Two large men hunting down a boy, who just tore a set of Christmas lights from their front fence of their home. It was not the two dollar string of lights that was the problem, but the fact of taking them in the first time. However, with the wind behind me, the pitch darkness and the cold night air, I moved as if I was on fire and for good reason. They would kill me for transgressing on there turf. I've been here before and I move like the wind with little noise or worry. Clearing the second fence is just a quick sway of the weight. Wait a minute! Why am I running, I stopped my running when I was in the Navy. Its time to stop, turn and take a stand. A checklist would work well in a situation like this. Look for movement back in the darkness and listen for any sound, no on both accounts. "Let's move to the street," out there are the...