A Television Drama

This short story starts off with a middle age lady that is married by the name of Carolee. Started as a usual sunny day, Carolee was minding her own business, doing her chores of washing the dishes. When she looks at her window to see a whole scene of people and police officers. A flying bird passing her window was what caught Carolee's attention. Carolee looked around the whole scene from her window, she was very curious on what was going on and could not believe that she would be missing out on this if it wasn't for the bird passing by. She saw police blocks everywhere, people standing on her property and all around. She could see even more police officers coming down her street. There were loud voices around, telling people to clear the streets. However, she couldn't get the greatest few of the whole situation, she had many scenarios going on in her head; thinking if someone killed someone else, was there a shooting? All these scenarios seemed to be going through her head. She wanted to get a better view of everything before making any judgements. She walked into her husband Pete's study room and looked out that window. Now she even sees more police and ambulance, a whole line of security. She seems to be very bored looking out this view, she glances around once more. All of a sudden, Carolee notices a young man sitting in quite an awkward position with his hand pressing against his shoulder. Then his head slightly raises up and there were blood stains on his shirt and pants. Right away, Carolee's instinct is the young man must be hurt. Carolee had no idea what to do, to let the police know, let others know that there is a man injured in front of her own lawn. She thought about helping the young man, but did not want to be seen by others. Then the man just got up and made his way across her lawn. A quick second passed and Carolee sees the man drop to the ground, she didn't seem to hear the gun shot but saw him drop. Then she heard the voice of a cop saying, suspect apprehended. Carolee immediately rushed to turn on her radio. It was said that the man had robbed a bank, ran a car into a tree and shot a police officer. Reporters came around, but Carolee didn't bother saying anything about her seeing the man, she just went back to the kitchen. She questioned herself if she should tell her husband about the sight she had seen. She told part of the story but left quite a bit of it untold. Her husband was quite afraid on this whole situation. While watching the news, Carolee wondered if her story would have actually been different if she said something or if the news is actually telling the truth. I believe the theme of this story is never trust everything you see. Trust your own instincts. Do not trust others, but yourself.

A Handful of Dates

This short story was read in class and it starts off with the narrator talking about his grandfather and describing the way he looks. He describes his grandfather as tall with a white cotton wood-pure white and of great beauty beard. Also, describes his grandfather the way he walks which is with a lot confidence and pride. The narrator always looked up to his grandfather as a role model in life, as someone that he can always look up to no matter what the situation is. The story finally starts off with the narrator asking his grandfather all the details about their neighbour, Masood. His grandfather starts talking a lot of rude and disrespectful things about this innocent man; he talked about Masood owning a lot of land and selling it all after getting married. He just kept putting Masood down, no good comments. The narrator was offended by all this talk and really disliked his grandfather talking about someone in that way. Also, how his grandfather kept talking about the land as if it was nothing. Then Masood comes up to the door and asks them if they would like to join him in harvesting the dates. They decided they would just go with him, even though the grandfather just said all those disrespectful remarks on him. They all began harvesting the dates, Masood asked politely not to cut the heart of the palm. Even though others did not quite listen, the narrator was the one that paid most close attention and did not cut the heart of the palm. The narrator feels really bad for Masood cause no one seemed to listen to him and how much he really cared about this land, no one else seemed to take pride in that. When the whole land was clear from people harvesting the dates, there were two men still left; one was Hussein the merchant and the other man was Mousa the owner of the land next to the narrators. Noticing all the people that left, the grandfather stormed up to his feet and grabbed as many dates as possible. And even gave some to the narrator to hold and to bring home with them. As well as, Hussein and Mousa took a lot of dates and left none for Masood. The grandfather explained to his grandson that Masood anyways owned him 50 pounds of dates. The narrator was disappointed and disgusted at his grandfather's ignorant actions. It made him think that all his grandfather really thinks about is wealth and all power. All the dates made the narrator quite ill, he decided to run to the river and threw up all the dates that his grandfather had given to him. Letting all his thoughts of his grandfather out his mouth and flow down the river. The theme of this short story is although you think you know someone so well, you never know they can change right away or show their true inner self which can be good or bad.

Short Story: Gargoyles

Bill Gaston "is the author of several much-praised story collections or novels. He is the recipient of numerous prizes and accolades, including a Giller Prize nomination. Gaston lives with his family in Victoria, British Columbia, where he teaches at the University of Victoria." "In Gaston's marvellous, riotous, Rebelaisian world, Gargoyles are physical manifestations of the disfigurements and contortions to which we human beings subject ourselves. Indeed, as Gaston wrote each story, he sketched out a distinct gargoyle to look down over it. For that reason, each story in his collection has a stange and unique guardian spirit whose sometimes benevolent, sometimes malevolent presence informs the characters and their actions. Gargoyles shows off one of our best writers at the top of his form.

Freedom

This short story starts off with a young boy by the name of Wa, who is a Jewish and Puerto Rican and had come to Des Moines located in America and all his dreams were coming true because where he was, was where he really wanted to be. He described America vachement cool. There were gun shops and pawn shops, nothing like in Paris where he use to live. Wa finally got the papers to buy a gun and cannot wait till he purchases one. Before Wa actually goes into the gun shop, he stops at McDonald's. He loves McDonald's even though his mother says it is very bad for him, he doesn't care and just decides to order a Big Mac meal. Everywhere Wa went he was always comparing it to France and how big the differences are. In McDonald's the line ups for burgers are way longer then the ones in France. After Wa's large lunch, he made his way to the gun shop and noticed that one of the males that work there talks to him and the other one does not talk to him; Wa figures it is because of his skin colour, which is very dark and this male believes that he is a "towel head." All of a sudden, Wa starts speaking french to the male that does not talk to him, which Wa likes to call him the mec. He becomes very confused and starts to second guess selling the gun to Wa; he is afraid he will use it for different purposes. However, the actual guy who enjoys talking to him and doesn't mind Wa and allows him to purchase the gun and ammunition. Wa made his way home with a taxi and there was a man that was helping him with his house and furniture. He sat on his bean bag chair and the TV was turned on. And on the screen appeared bullfight. Wa, yelled to the man "bullfight, bullfight!" And pulled his gun out into the air. The man was very confused and afraid and quickly decided to call the police. Wa had to get out of there, he quickly rolled outside down the street and into an alley. Wa, who was very exhausted laid his head against the brick wall and fell asleep. Then a bunch of dark skinned men surrounded him and one man woke Wa up with a kick to the leg. Wa had no idea what to do, they were all surrounding him not letting him go anywhere. Wa thought to himself, he pulled out the gun behind his back and threatened with it and they all backed away from him. Wa did not want to get caught by the cops, he just started running as fast as he could. He couldn't run much farther because he was very hungry. He stopped at a small restaurant and ordered a lot of fries with a lot of gravy and ketchup. Wa had no money and the waitress came up to him for the money, but Wa just acted dumb and kept saying "no." And always acted confused when the waitress had said something about paying for his meal. The boss came out telling him to pay, Wa didn't want to pay at all. Wa started to pull his gun out from the front of his pants. Out of nowhere, one side of the room explodes then the other side of the room explodes. Wa is laying there helpless, with his hand covered with the greasiest blood. He sees faces appear above him and feels the deep-hose and draining on his face. He wants to try to explain to them that he is American but he does not know how to say his name cause either way his name does not sound American at all. Wa is all that he says, he has nothing else important to say. The theme of this short story is do not take advantage of all your freedom, think before you do something and there are always consequences to your actions. Nothing goes through without being touched.

The Gods Take Off Their Shirt

This short story starts off with a 40 year old man arriving to his friend's cluttered carport on a hot and sweaty day because it is the longest day of the year and feels as if it is the afternoon, but it is around eight o'clock in the evening. Both of the friends have not seen each other in quite a long time, Jay invited his friend which is the narrator to come over for a few beers because he found out he had a brain tumour and wanted to spend the night together. However, Jay, which is the narrator's buddy, made a decision that we won't be drinking because of the brain tumour and he started fasting as well because fasting burns the fat and toxins, which is good for tumours. Jay was very anxious to fast to see if he could really get rid of the tumour, so in that matter he delayed his brain scan to two months, instead of a week. Jay is the type of guy that knows things; he always knows what is going on, what is suppose to be done and just everything in general. He was a very smart guy; he was filled with knowledge. For example, at only 16 years old he got a hold of absinthe and described the properties and history, while the rest of his friends passed it around and guzzled. From the beginning of the night, the two buddies decided to make a UFO just like when they were younger they would do the same and by making a UFO they would use a bag and inflate it and put a light frame which is holding eight candles, that will be lit, and fill the bag with hot air, and causes it to float up, up over the whole neighbourhood, making others believe that it was an actual UFO, that was their whole plan. Before they actually wanted to send the UFO flying, Jay asked his buddy, which is the narrator, if he could live with him, if he could help him out if the brain tumour gets worse because Jay knows that he is a single man, with no children or anything. Jay wanted to clear things up, he asked if every night is "a night out," meaning going out every night drinking or partying. He still did not know what to answer and did not give him a final answer. The two men waited till that perfect dark purple colour came up in the sky and that is when they set the UFO up in the sky. Jay says to the narrator, "the gods take off their shirt" which means everything is going perfect. Jay got that statement from his ex-wife by the name of Pam, she would always say it when she watched soccer and used to say the guys playing look like gods and at the end of the game when they won, they would take off their shirts. And she would say "the gods take off their shirt." Now when something is perfect, really perfect, they say "the gods take off their shirt." Jay asked once more, what is final decision was. His buddy did not answer, he just thought to himself there is no reason in the world to doubt Jay and just looked up into the sky and saw the UFO in the dark purple sky, something that no one could ever identify or explain. It was just beautiful and perfect. There are a couple of themes in this short story, which are always live life to the fullest, even if you are sick and you know that you are going to die. Always enjoy every moment as it is your last. Another theme is never underestimate the ability of someone's strength and knowledge. Never judge what someone can do just by looking at them or by knowing they are ill and cannot do as much as a healthy person can. Anyone is capable of doing anything they desire.