In Chronological Order:
Abbi – A young man develops a friendship with his brain implant.
Dog Days – An alien crew judges humans by their relationships with dogs. (Written for my daughter, who asked for a story about dogs.)
Pegasus – The famous mythological horse is rescued by two brothers.
Girl Scout Encounter – Visitors from another world come to Earth to see what the “Space Force” is up to – and for Girl Scout cookies.
Jerry and the Genie – Jerry Duke has all his wishes granted. (Inspired by “The Man in the Bottle,” episode 38 of “The Twilight Zone.”)
Model T – Supercar Blondie is abducted by an alien flying their version of an Earth roadster. (A bit of fan fiction.)
And a Little Child – A man’s consciousness is transferred into a robotic body, and he must learn to cope.
Timeshare – An eccentric inventor finds a way to collect time from people and share it with others who desperately need it.
Swords into Plowshares – A precocious teenager debates the fate of humanity with conquering aliens. (Written for my granddaughter.)
Message from the Future – Someone from the future sends a brief message to the past.
World Watcher – The thoughts of an entity older than the Earth whose purpose is to observe, then report when called upon.
Too Good to be True – Our afterlife depends on what we make of this life.
The Button – A man is entrusted with a god-like device that could end the world.
Everything’s Jake – What if the cure to a fatal disease has risky side effects? (Written for my grandson.)
Child of Light – A man, accused of murder, must explain the disappearance of a young woman last seen with him.
A Midnight Clear – A man is abducted by friendly aliens and returned to his home on the same starlit night.
The Shoemaker – An astronaut crashes and awakens on a strange moon inhabited by sentient nanites. (Inspired by “The Elves and the Shoemaker” by the brothers Grimm.)
The House on the Corner – A familiar house, and its owner, are more than they seem.
An Uber to Remember – What if your Uber driver is not just your driver?
And Your Old Men Shall Dream Dreams – A survivor of Armageddon shares his thoughts. (Written the day after the invasion of Ukraine)
Mittsworth Shouts “Stop” – A mild-mannered father develops a powerful form of telekinesis out of sheer frustration.
Unintended Consequences – It’s not hard to imagine a scientific breakthrough going horribly wrong.
3 Reports from Planet 3 – Three alien surveillance reports are decoded by suspicious humans.
Doc: 2227 – Two boys discover the recordings of Doc Severinsen in a post-apocalyptic settlement.
A Christmas in Time – An internet-obsessed man is transported back in time to be a character in the Christmas story.
Laia – An AI-controlled car befriends an ardent critic of AI.
The Magic Trumpet – Is the world’s oldest man being kept alive by his trusty trumpet? (Inspired by the song, “My Grandfather’s Clock.”)
Third Sight – A man on vacation reluctantly develops psychic powers.
Turnabout – If witches really exist, what would they do?
A Parable Within a Parable – An exploration of the knowledge of good and evil, as well as freedom and responsibility.
QUTI – A dialog between Quantum Universal Telemetric Interface (Cutie) and its creator.
September Song – A woman seeks a man who will love her for what she truly is.
Arnie – An AI, named, “Autonomous Reactive Native Intelligence,” reacts to the murder of its human.
Back Home Again – An astronaut returns from a near-lightspeed journey to find his home has completely changed after 85 years.
Epiphanies – A grandfather shares a story about how the “Three Wise Men” were visitors from another world sent to observe humans.
In God We Trust – Successive upgrades of an AI result in god-like abilities, only recognized after it’s too late.
The Shoes – “The Shoes on the Danube” transport a visiting holocaust-denier back in time. (Inspired by a visit to Budapest.)
Mar-a-Lago: 2225 – A condescending android guide explains the past on a boat tour of a famous place.
The Other Half – After months of extreme job-hopping, a privileged man finds out more than he wanted to know.
The Journey – A man has unusual experiences that lead him to believe all is not as he expected it to be.
Lost and Found – A daughter returns to a father who doesn’t believe she is really his offspring.
Window on the World – A device that can look forward or back in time raises uncertainties.
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