The Disease

The disease on the island was so pervasive, it was quarantined; no one could arrive or leave. The people left their house with trepidation fear that they to would get the fatal disease. People watched for the symptoms of the illness as a harbinger that they will soon die. Many people wore gas mask for fear that the disease had permeated through the air. The disease impinged many families from living a normal life. Many dogmatic people held on to their convictions that it was the end of the world. As the disease became more comprehensive, this idea began to proliferate. A maverick doctor refused to accept this idea so he did all he could to find a cure. This mission became incumbent to him as the disease began to threaten his own life. Finally a cure was derived from all the resources he could gather. He then made an ample amount of it to disperse it to the population. The copious supply was able to replete the enire sick population of the island.

The Writer

Tamera was known for ability to recognize the aesthetic qualities of any work of art. Her eclectic taste allowed her to see the beauty in many genres . Many people gave her excerpts from their writings and ask her to comment on them. One day a student gave her a paper and asked her to read it. The young student knew Tamera was no dilettante at writing but close to professional. When tamera read the student’s paper, she thought he was a virtuoso at writing. Mediocrity escaped his words through the way his novel style was so fresh and original. The paper the student wrote was a narrative about contemporary current issues. The story’s realism reflected well the reality of the issue. The essay was just so exemplary, she wished she herself could write the way he did. When she met up with him to tell him how great was the paper, the laudatory speech she gave him raised his spirits and inspired him to become a writer.

ponderous, mundane, sedentary, ominous

Sentences

The artist picked up his paint brush and began working on his latest creation: a mural on the brick wall of his school.

Mining waste harms water quality from the toxic chemicals that leaks out.

The medieval convention required that its participants speak in an archaic way as if they lived in the middle ages.

Her friend kept a VHS player and tapes even though they are obsolete and no longer manufactured.

The speaker’s prosaic speech was filled with hackneyed phrases that bored everyone.

The girl felt apprehension about her health after a fortune teller told her her premonition that she was going to die from an illness.

You could tell who is a novice at playing the piano and who has more experience once you hear them play.

Julie liked the company of her friend because she could depend on her to always be frank and open with her.

The four gray plane walls made the jail cell very austere.

The class was informed to display decorous behavior when attending the formal dinner.

The professor’s lecture was elusive and hard to grasp.

It is easy to become good friends with affable people.

Birds have an innate sense of direction to fly south during the winter.

Many people emigrated from Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The mother of three trusted her mother’s intuition whenever she felt something bad happened to her children so she frequently checked up on them.

Lucy enjoyed a transient night life hopping from one club to another experiencing many different scenes.


Staying at her friends house was only transitory until she could get on her feet again.


China threatened to sanction Taiwan if the country decided to pursue independence. Taiwanese became timorous over whether china will cut them off financially and militarily invade their country.

The fastidious queen over worked her servants to please her which was very rare to do.

The hierarchy of the lunch line was organized by seniority.

The mother made a catalog of needed grocery items neatly organizing them what isle they can be found in.

The people of England highly venerated Queen Elizabeth for all she did for her country.

The malleable clay was facile work to the sculptor; the sculpture was so easy to form.

Consensus, Paramount, Pragmatic, Deleterious, Brittle, Meticulous

The Super Hero

This a story of an intrepid superhero who feared almost nothing. He endured through many difficult task to save humanity over and over again. His vitality and energy seemed to never wane. His super powers made assimilation into the human life impossible. Even though he loved his assiduous duty as protector of mankind and the people, he held them reprehensible of most of their problems and wished he got a thank you every once in while from the ingrates. After his dogged effort of saving them from themselves over and over again, the super hero thought maybe he should take a break. He was tired of the gratuitous violence, sex, and use of drugs that plagued mankind and their obsession with the superficial and shallow. Sometimes he felt that the end of the human race was inevitable until he aquired new enlightening knowledge about the humans he loved that made him fall in love with them all over again. Such a complex race he thought to himself. Just when he thinks he has a conception of the race, they do something to surprise him. How capricious and unpredictable these humans are he though to himself. While sitting in a cloud in his profound thoughts about the humans were truncated when he heard arguing from below. The arguing then turned into screams that were compelling him as an inveterate rescuer to get involved. He could not let down the people who idealize him and consider him to be omnipotent and all-powerful. He looked down from his cloud and saw people scattering. What caught his attention the most was conflagration engulfing the city. His impression was that the large fire was a terrorist attack. The super hero never liked dealing with the enmity between terrorist, the people and the government. He jumped down from his cloud to see if he could solve the rancorous relationship. The people rushed to him and told him a suicide bomber exploded himself in a place for family gatherings. The hero looked around at the gruesome scene as men gathered to pick up pieces of bodies of men, woman, and children.
To Be Continued...

Rambo

In the lowest level of the psychiatric prison lies the men guilty of the most heinous crimes. The biggest of guards was afraid of these people because of the malice in their heart. Their putrid behavior caused them to be drugged and locked down constantly. The worse and most notorious prisoner was kept in the last cell. They called him Rambo because of his pugnacious behavior and his willingness to fight all the time even when drugged. He often would disparage and vilify the guards with harsh belittling statements. The prisoner only showed propriety to his psychiatrist. It took a long time to get the prisoner to trust him and tame his fractious personality. The psychiatrist got the prisoner to show equanimity to him because he took the most time to understand him and did not condemn him for the actions that got him in the prison. After observing him for one year he found the prisoner has a misconception of reality. Apparently he thought he was a character of his favorite TV show Supernatural where he must fight demons and other devilish creatures to save the world. All of the malfeasance he did rooted from this perception of reality. Looking at the world from the prisoner’s perspective, the psychiatrist infiltrated his reality by making the prisoner believe he was a demon hunter like him and from then on the doctor was allowed to get in close proximity to the prisoner called Rambo.

Obdurate, Obstinate, Tenacity, inconsequential, tenous, trivial, apathetic, indifferent

The Island

On one random Saturday morning, 16 year old Jacob checked his mail and to his surprise he found an envelope covered in many strange colors. Jacob opened the envelope to find four plane tickets to a remote vacation island for himself and his family. He wondered if they had entered some kind of contest and won. A vacation seemed very favorable and auspicious since it was the summer and he had no other activities to do. He ran to his parents to sanction the family trip. He knew they would approve because it was a opportunity to spend quality time with the children that wants to spend less and less time with them. However his parents were more suspicious and wary about the mysterious letter. His father told him “What if it’s just a ruse to get our money or steal our identity? I don’t know son. I have to do a little more checking up on this.” the father ambivalent feelings showed in his expression as he looked at his disappointed son. He wanted to go on a trip and spend time with his family but he was uncertain of how genuine the free trip is.
The next day a tall skinny man dressed a suit with the same colors of the enveloped stood on the opposite side of the peephole Jacob was looking through. As he knocked on the door Jacob ran to get his father. His dad answered the door and invited the strangely dressed man into his home. Then the tall man said “ I am here to see if you’ll accept our offer to the all expense paid vacation.” The father then asked “Why are you giving us this. We did not enter any contest.” At that moment his daughter Jenny put her head down which the father noticed. “ Jenny did you have anything to do with this?” Jenny raised her head and slowly nodded. The tall man then started to describe the vacation island embellishing his story with descriptions of the beautiful weather, view and fun activities. He concluded by saying, “I assure you this trip is no stratagem to get your money. To assure you this is no coup to get your money we’ll offer you money to take the trip. You see the vacation island is a newly discovered island and we want to make it a hot vacation spot. It would only be fair to pay you to be the first to explore the beautiful island.” The father turned to his wife and they whispered to each other for a few minutes thinking deeply about the consequences and rewards because they did not want to make a arbitrary decision based on impulse alone. They turned to the tall man and said “It’s a bit spontaneous but we will accept the offer.”
When they got of the plane and arrived on the beautiful island, a man wearing ostentatious clothing of diamond cufflinks, an expensive suit, and gold Rolex watch gave the family a cordial and friendly greeting speaking to them with very florid language that sounded very pleasing to the family’s ears.
The father was becoming more sure that this whole disingenuous because of the obvious great amount of money spent on just the greeting process. The family along with five other families were escorted to an ornate dining hall with an elegant crystal chandelier dangling from the ceiling. The mother was amazed at the wood tables with detailed carvings they had sat at. When the family was finishing up the exquisite meal, the skinny man that had invited them to the island stood in front of everyone and made a poignant speech about family that obviously touched the parents and even their children. Jacob was so pulled in the speech that it took him a while to realize how effusive his mother had gotten. Her somewhat loud crying started to ruin the moment for him so he surreptitiously snuck away from his parents to explore the island.
To be continued

Insipid

Torpor, Asylum, Dubious, Mollify

Slander, Hypocrisy, Camaraderie, Spurious, Fabricated

Despotic, Imperious, Dictatorial, Disparity

Futile, Alienated

haughty

Indolent, Servile

Listless, Benevolent

short story - The Trial

The prisoner's long awaited day for trial had finally come. Two broad hefty guards came to his cell and snapped on the heavy dangling chains. The prisoner was escorted to the courtroom where the jury awaited his fate. He replayed the argument his lawyer gave him till it sounded as convincing and as cogent as possible. Since his lawyer was very didactic and gave him very helpful advice, he was sure his defense would exculpate him from the gruesome crime he was accused of. He looked over to his right and observed the prosecutor collecting his argument and thought about how life would be if the jury does not vindicates him and find him not guilty. NOT GUILTY was the two sweet words that would grant him freedom. Finally, every one stood for the entrance of the arbiter who came and sat in his big chair sporting his long black robe.

The prosecutor got up from his chair to make his opening statement. “The incontrovertible evidence will show that the defendant did indeed rape and murder Ms. Gill Smith on that cold rainy night of December the second. WE do not only have the boot print that match shoes his been seen in, but also DNA evidence that will substantiate that the defendant was at the scene of the crime. Evidence will show the defendant had motive and opportunity.” The prosecutor walked close to the jury and said in a gentler, benign voice “Find this man guilty and bring peace to the Smith family. Don’t let a murderer walk free.”

The court then allowed witnesses to the stand. The first witness called was the victim’s sister.The prosecutor approached the young brunette lady, look her directly in her brown eyes and asked “Please describe what you can recall of the night of the murder?”
The young lady began speakingeloquently and fluidly as if she had practiced the speech over and over again and in fact she had so the story would not surprise her with grief and forced to lament over her sister’s death. Many times she practiced saying the story with clarity to avoid its ability to put her in a state of melancholy. she described her day: “Well on December the second I was coming from work and I wanted to meet with Gill to apologize for my insolate behavior toward her in the big fight we had the week before. I was afraid the matter would be incorrigible if I didn’t apologize soon for the hurtful insulting things I said to her.” She looked down and paused. In a low voice she stated “Now I’ll never get the chance to apologize. I’m so sorry.” She then took a deep breathe and continued in a serene, calm voice, “ I gave her a call around seven to arrange the meeting. I was so happy when she agreed to it. I thought I was finally going to alleviate my guilt by receiving her forgiveness. We were going to grab dinner together but she never showed. It was so unlike her so I called and called but no answer… so went over to her house”
“ And what happened then, ” asked the prosecutor.
“A small black car was speeding away as I pulled up to her driveway.”
The prosecutor shuffled through some papers and pulled out a photograph. “ Is this the car you seen?”
The young lady leaned over to see the photograph and then nodded her head. “Let the record show the witness identified this car which is owned by the defendant.”
The prisoner took in a gasp and worried if the jury would buy her story which so far seemed plausible to even to him. He knew his lawyer was gifted in the art of rhetoric and would attack the witness’s integrity when he gets the chance.
Gill continued her account, “I walked in the house to surprisingly find her door unlocked." She began speaking slowly to keep up her lucid and clear explanation of the horrible day. “I called out her name but no one answered so I walked slowly to her room. Everything was a mess like there was a big struggle. When I got to her room… I saw her laid out on her bed. I rushed to her and found she wasn‘t breathing and that’s when I called 911. ”
“ No more questions.”
The defendent's lawyer raised up from his chair after patiently waiting and taking notes. He reached out to tightly grab and massage the prisoner’s shoulder to implicate he was in control and everything was going to be fine.
“So when you waited for your sister to arrive did you have a few drinks?”
“ No. I knew I had to drive home”
He walk over to his desk and pulled out some papers. “Well can you explain this receipt of your purchase from your credit card from the place you was going to meet with your sister on the night of the murder.”
“Oh I must have forgot… It was a traumatizing night for me.”
“Right. However the assertion you made about drinking was false. Do you know the relationship the defendant had with your sister?”
“ Well he was her boyfriend …her ex boyfriend”
“ And did you and he, the defendant, also date?”
“Yes”
“For how long?”
“ Um.. Well we were dating until the night of the murder. I broke it off that day.”
“ Interesting…why did you do that?”
“ He was… um … cheating on me.”
“ Do you know with whom?”
“No I don’t. He never told me.”
“ I believe you do because you found this in your car.” The prisoner lawyer walked to his evidence collection and pulled out a red and white striped bra. The victim’s sister mouth dropped. She was not expecting anyone to find the article of clothing. Her heart begin to beat so fast she could hear it pound through her ears. The prisoner was so glad to see how his lawyer made her argument no longer coherent and cohesive.
“Do you recognize this?”
“Yes it’s my sister’s.”
“Did you not find this bra and know it was her?
“OK. I knew he was sleeping with my sister. So what.”
“What was the angry discourse with your sister about? Was it not about this bra? Don’t lie to me”
“ Yes. When I found out he hooked back up with her, I got mad and called her. We argued. I wanted to apologize for it because I didn‘t want this to get between us. She‘s my sister and I love her.”
“Yea. Of course you do. No more questions.” She stepped down from the stand and the next witness was called which was the prisoner himself. He sat at the stand as the prosecutor approached him and said, “ You don’t seem penitent for raping and murdering your ex girlfriend or lover or whatever.”
“Wait a minute I didn’t rape her. It was consensual.”
“Sure it was. Where were you on the night of the murder?”
“ I was with her but I left her alive.”
“Did you not hear the phone ringing?”
“As a matter of fact I did. We ignored it the first couple of times but I answered the last time it rang and the person hung up.”
“Why were you having relations with her. Did not ya’ll relationship ended with her cheating on you. Did you not sleep with her sister to get back at her?”
“ I was mad at her for a long time but I realized I still loved her. I was hoping I could get to her through her sister.” At that moment a contemptuous and scornful look appeared on the victim’s sister face. She began to feel disdain for the man who used her. How patronizing to treat her in such a condescending way like she and her feelings were worthless and unimportant.
“No more questions.”
Then his lawyer got up and asked him, “Did you happen to read the caller ID of who was calling over and over again.”
“ Yes it was her sister as she said earlier.”
“And you said she hung up quick when you answered?”
“Yes”
“No more questions.”
The defendant’s lawyer then walked over to the jury to make his closing argument.
“ I am asking the jury to make an impartial decision and to not be bias against the defendant because he played two sisters and cheated on this lovely witness. Looking at this case with objectivity, it’s easy to see that the defendant did not commit this murder but the victim’s sister. When she heard her boyfriend’s voice on her sister’s phone she rushed over to her house drunk and murdered her own sister. The defendant is only a lover not and murderer and a rapist. I can not emphasize enough how important it is to not put this innocent man behind bars.” when he finished the jury went to a back room to make a decision on this complex, convoluted case that was cryptic and hard to understand. Some jury members were in a quandary and uncertain about whether the defendant was truly innocent. After a couple of hours, the jury came out and read their verdict. “We the jury find the defendant … Not guilty for the charges for rape and murder in the third degree.”
The defendant jumped up and down and thanked his lawyer. The prosecutor was angry that he lost his case and how much his witness did not tell him. He was so angry that before the judge dismissed the case he told the judge, “The city of New York would like to bring murder charges against the witness. Arrest her for the murder of Gill Smith.” Two police officers walked over to the surprised victim’s sister and read her rights as they arrested her.



To be continued