The Novella Life of Illuscia Nester Himawari

    An unlucky driver is taken for a wild ride by otherworldy forces... It was a chilly, dreary day, and my   'check engine'   light was on. I frowned. Since I'd walked out of that fast food place along with the rest of my shift, driving had become my only source of income. If it broke down, I was screwed. Not that I was getting much work. The miserable rain was keeping people indoors, away from all the bars and restaurants that were my usual source of drunks and cheating spouses in need of a ride. My phone pinged. A job? I checked the location. Whoever this was, they needed a ride into town from the middle of nowhere. I must've passed by that spot a million times; there was nothing out there but leafless trees and abandoned factories. My frown deepened. I looked in the mirror. Between the weather and the month-long abstinence challenge I'd accepted--mostly to forget about my precarious work situation--my expression was turning into a permanent scowl. I sighed and t

    I am not a social man, and I have had few friends in my life. Sal, the bartender at my favorite pub, was one the select few in my inner-circle. I know what you’re thinking: he’s a bartender, he HAS to be friendly to get a good tip. You’re wrong, it goes beyond that. I’d known Sal for over 25 years, and sat across from him at the bar almost every day since we met. When I got married, Sal was my best man. When my wife threw me out, it’s at Sal’s home that I stayed. When she took full custody of my daughter, it was Sal who consoled me. He was a good friend, always willing to listen to me and give me advice, like any bartender would. Unlike the other ‘tenders; however, Sal actually cared.   Now, Sal was a very private man with a rather quiet demeanor. That said, on the few occasions where he chose to let loose, he talked a LOT. Sal had a way of capturing the attention of everyone in the room. This might sound a bit clichéd, but he’d regale us with st

  I suppose its about time I told this story. I'm not getting any younger and I think its a story that needs to be passed on, considering the state of the world. This was in my early days at the DNR, thats the department of natural resources of course, in a unit jokingly called the Night Stalker Unit. It was our job to deal with the cases deemed CZE, thats classified zoological entities. Anything found in the natural world that requires special care and diplomatic contingencies. Dogmen, sasquatch, merfolk, any of those entities which defy scientific conventions, display an intelligence similar to our own, or present a formidable threat to our species which requires a high level of discretion and tact on our part. If someone has an encounter with a CZE, thats not something we look into, other than to make sure they haven't gathered any evidence that might compromise the CZE's privacy. What concerns us are the cases of negative contact. If a company is