THE LAST BUS AND OTHER STORIES
26 short stories by David Kubicek. Included in this collection are:
Games Machines Play—A computer holds a college student hostage until he complies with a peculiar request.
Spare Parts—On the day of his wedding, Mike Thayer learns a shocking truth about himself when something odd falls out of his ear.
Safety First—William Fawth’s car is programmed to help him develop safe driving skills, but its attitude grates on his nerves.
The Last Bus—For $15, Local businessman Wilson Brakhage will take you on a tour of the wreckage remaining from the worst tornado disaster in Nebraska’s history.
Blood—Is a cougar mutilating the cattle? Or is there a darker, supernatural force at work?
Keeper of the Shrine—A college student working the night shift in a photofinishing plant learns a life lesson from a dead spider.
With each story, the author gives his commentary on its background and how it came to be written.
Read One of the Stories:
SPARE PARTS
His father’s basement workshop brought back memories. It ran the length and width of the house and was full of countless floor-to-ceiling cabinets with pull-out drawers where Professor Norman Thayer kept screws, gears, dials, nuts, bolts, and electronic components he used in his tinkering. Tools hanging from hooks covered the walls, and other tools filled drawers or lay on workbenches. For the young Mike Thayer growing up, it had been a magical land full of the exotic smells of sawdust and machine oil and the electric sounds of drilling and cutting. After his retirement, Professor Thayer had begun working a lot with plastics, and there was a work area for those experiments.
“It’s amazing,” Mike said. “It’s exactly how I remember it.”
“You haven’t been down here in years, since Mama died,” Norman said.
“You made all of my toys, my bicycle, my wagon.”
“That I did. But we can reminisce later. We need to get you right for your wedding tonight.”
He gestured to a low workbench, and Mike sat on it.
“Monica wanted me to go to the doctor, but you know how I feel about doctors.”
Norman nodded.
“I do indeed. It’s good you came to me. You said you woke up with a headache?”
“The granddaddy of all headaches. I never get headaches.”
Norman slipped a penlight from his lab coat pocket and examined each of Mike’s eyes.
“You said you found something.”
“Well, it’s silly, really. When I woke up this morning, it was on my pillow.”
“Did you bring it?”
“Yeah, but I felt silly.”
“Nonsense. Any little thing could be important. Let me see it.”
Sheepishly, Mike drew a clear sandwich bag from his pocket. The bag contained a tiny, very tiny, speck of something. Norman sucked in a breath.
He took the sandwich bag to the jeweler’s station near the workbench. With tiny tweezers he removed the speck and set it on the table. Then he used a jeweler’s lens to scrutinize it under the light. He turned the speck over with the tweezers and scrutinized it some more. Mike had stood up and was watching over his father’s shoulder.
“I was afraid something like this might happen,” Norman said.
“Is it a bug?” Mike asked.
“No. A gear.”
“A what? In my head?”
Norman sighed.
“It must have fallen out through your ear. I knew I would have to talk to you about this sooner or later. But on the morning of your wedding…”
“Dad, what is that thing?”
Norman passed the jeweler’s lens to his son.
“Look there on the left side.” He pointed with the tweezers. “See it. The shaft is broken.”
“It is a gear. A tiny gear. That was in my head? Is it part of the tube they put in when I was a kid and had those ear aches?”
“This has nothing to do with those tubes, I’m afraid. But it is important. Crucial, in fact. Without this, you could have a fatal seizure at any moment.”
Mike sank down on the bench. He looked shell-shocked.
“What?”
“I can replace it. It won’t take long, and you’ll be as good as new.”
He turned to his cabinets and started pulling out drawers and poking around in them with his tweezers.
“Now where was that?” he said. “I just saw it the other day.”
“Whoa,” Mike said, jumping off the bench. “Wait a minute, Dad. You’re going to put a gear in my head?”
“I had hoped it wouldn’t come out like this,” Norman said, still opening and closing drawers, “but you’re getting married tonight, and we don’t have enough time to go into it in depth, especially since that particular gear broke. It’s a key gear and must be replaced immediately.”
Norman opened another drawer and poked around in it with his tweezers.
“In the weeks after you and Mama died in that auto accident—”
“Whoa! I didn’t die. I’m right here.”
Norman stopped rummaging in drawers and turned to face his son.
“I couldn’t find a way to tell you this, son. I tried many times. But now you need to know.”
“Tell me what?”
“I was heart sick at losing both of you. I retired from the university. In the weeks that followed, I experimented. I called on every scrap of knowledge I’d learned during a thirty year career, and I built you.”
Mike backed away from his father.
“That’s crazy,” he said. “I’m not a robot.”
“Of course not, son. ‘Robot’ is a crude word. You’re more sophisticated than that. I prefer the term ‘android’.”
“But I remember my childhood. I remember growing up. I was home on the night of the accident.”
“I programmed in the memories of your childhood, and a false memory of you being home that night, and while I was at it, an aversion to doctors so you would come see me first if you had health problems.”
“You need help.”
“It won’t take long,” Norman said. “I just have to open your skull—”
“You’re not opening anything!”
“It won’t hurt. I’ll turn you off for the procedure.”
Mike backed up against the exam table. Norman drew a small cylinder from his lab coat pocket and aimed it at Mike’s chest. Mike threw up his arms.
“Wait!”
The tip of the instrument glowed green. Mike stopped moving, and his eyes took on a dull sheen beneath the cold workshop lights. The instrument pulsed, and Mike’s knees bent slightly. Norman helped his son sit and then cradled his body as he laid him down on the workbench.
“Don’t worry, son,” he said. “I’ll have you set right in no time. I have spare parts.”
He turned away and continued rifling through the drawers in search of a replacement gear.
“Spare Parts” © 2023 by David Kubicek
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction 3
SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY
It Gets Lonely on the Third Floor 5
The Wallflower 16
The Park 20
Games Machines Play [with John Kubicek] 32
Grennies 43
An Evening Stroll 46
Spare Parts 50
Garbage Disposal [with John Kubicek] 54
Safety First 57
Three Fables:
The Hawk’s Head Tree 65
A Bear Needs a Territory 70
The Green Yarn 74
HORROR
The Last Bus 79
Unblinking Eyes 92
Blood 96
Another Guest for the Party 108
LITERARY/MAINSTREAM
In Whose Halls? 113
I Go Every Week to IGA 119
Obsession 130
Connecting 148
Waiting in October 172
A Place of Their Own 181
A Good Boy 192
Keeper of the Shrine 197
Not a Neon Sign 207
Silent Night 211
About the Author 215
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