Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    George Smith Stories and Plays
    George Smith Stories and Plays
    George Smith Stories and Plays
    Ebook92 pages1 hour

    George Smith Stories and Plays

    By Loren Smith

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Spaceship to Mars is written from the perspective of an astronaut on a long journey to Mars. Alaskan Goodbye is a play about a mud engineer and his family in Alaska. At the Zoo with Billy is a political play set in the Houston Zoo. Caution, Malachite Eggs. No More Ice, Ice, Baby is a play about global warming set in a bar at the Four Seasons Hotel. Squirrel 35 is a little story about the atavistic need to shoot squirrels. The Ugly Duckling, Obamacare, is Hans Christian Andersen’s famous story juxtaposed against a political conversation about health care on a cruise ship in the Baltic. Yticirtcele is a short play about something that both is, and isn’t, what it seems. Enjoy!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLoren Smith
    Release dateMar 23, 2014
    ISBN9781311384232
    George Smith Stories and Plays
    Author

    Loren Smith

    Loren Smith taught Biology for eighteen years. He has worked as a mud engineer in Venezuela, Guatemala, Alaska, Africa and Texas. Loren and his wife Jane reside in Houston.

    Read more from Loren Smith

    Related to George Smith Stories and Plays

    Related ebooks

    Satire For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      European Stalking With Added Spice

      Jan 11, 2023

      European Stalking With Added Spice
      4 min read

    • Article

      Cricket League

      Jan 1, 2020

      Ivy Lugbill, age 8 Indianapolis, IN I was so excited! My dad and I were going camping! After we packed all our stuff, my dad said, “Hop in!” I grabbed the paper towel roll binoculars I had been making and jumped into the car. It was a really . . . re

      7 min read

    • Article

      Becoming Animal

      May 6, 2020

      Becoming Animal
      11 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Jan 20, 2020

      I loved Gregor Woods’s article on camping. What pleasant memories! I have been privileged to see most of Namibia. During 1963 and 1964, my father, mother, a friend and I travelled a total of 7 000 miles through SWA. I can remember that if we had a fl

      3 min read

    • Article

      Honest Like A Bear Attack

      Apr 21, 2022

      Honest Like A Bear Attack
      10 min read

    • Article

      His Brilliant Career

      Mar 19, 2023

      His Brilliant Career
      9 min read

    • Article

      Readers’ Letters

      Nov 19, 2020

      SHARE YOUR VIEWS Email: martin.puddifer@futurenet.com I was pretty disappointed to read Chris Warren’s Judge Height Lest Ye Be Judged article [October issue]. Once again, the ugly subject of ‘extreme’ high-bird shooting was discussed rather flippantl

      6 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Sep 16, 2022

      In die Mei/Junie 2022 uitgawe verwys Koos Barnard na die klik geluid wat ’n eland maak. Ek is nou 67 jaar oud en in die bosveld naby Swartwater (Limpopo) groot geword, waar ek tot so drie jaar gelede met wild geboer het. Hier het ek by meer as een ge

      3 min read

    • Article

      What About Warthogs?

      May 8, 2023

      What About Warthogs?
      6 min read

    • Article

      Excerpts From The Works Of The 2024 Whiting Award Winners

      Apr 10, 2024

      The 2024 Whiting Award winners were announced Wednesday night. Below are excerpts from their work.

      19 min read

    • Article

      Lift Off!

      Nov 17, 2022

      Lift Off!
      7 min read

    • Article

      Goodbye Gordon

      Jan 21, 2022

      Goodbye Gordon
      7 min read

    • Article

      Away With The Birds

      Jun 9, 2019

      Away With The Birds
      3 min read

    • Article

      Table Talk

      Sep 1, 2021

      Table Talk
      11 min read

    • Article

      Readers Recoil

      Jul 16, 2021

      Readers Recoil
      2 min read

    • Article

      Ira & the Whale

      Jun 14, 2022

      It is dark in the whale and hot. The air is difficult to breathe. Ira is coated in gunk, sweating in his black Speedo. The whale’s heartbeat booms and echoes like a giant drum. It’s intimidating. It sounds tribal, ritualistic, as Ira wades through th

      15 min read

    • Article

      100-WORD-STORY COMPETITION Winners

      Aug 16, 2022

      We’ve been delighted by the huge response to our 100-word-story competition. The entries have flooded in thick and fast during the past few months, but while we’ve enjoyed reading every story, only a few can come out on top! You, our readers, voted t

      5 min read

    • Article

      You’d Better Shape Up

      Sep 19, 2019

      WHEN the hunters come in after summer it’s fair to say they don’t look the glorious sights they do at the opening meets. Our yard’s various characters came in from patches of hillside or fields within a five-mile radius of the yard. Our two, which I

      4 min read

    • Article

      Why Is That Funny?

      Oct 19, 2022

      Why Is That Funny?
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Quest For Home!

      Nov 2, 2022

      The Quest For Home!
      4 min read

    • Article

      Strange Season

      Jun 4, 2020

      Strange Season
      14 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for George Smith Stories and Plays

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      George Smith Stories and Plays - Loren Smith

      GEORGE SMITH STORIES

      AND PLAYS

      by

      Loren Smith

      Copyright 2014 Loren Smith

      Published on Smashwords

      Formatted by eBooksMade4You

      * * *

      All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

      This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

      Smashwords Edition License Notes

      This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

      * * *

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      SPACESHIP TO MARS

      ALASKAN GOODBYE

      AT THE ZOO WITH BILLY

      MALACHITE EGGS

      NO MORE ICE, ICE, BABY

      SQUIRREL 35

      THE UGLY DUCKLING, OBAMACARE

      YTICIRTCELE

      * * *

      SPACESHIP TO MARS

      by

      Loren Smith

      Alone, and drifting toward Mars in a spaceship with no power, George looks down at the dark computer screen and console, then out the porthole window into clusters of stars in the infinite distance. With no power, death is only hours away. His toes and nose and fingers are getting cold. He has had no power for three hours because of a miscalculation by the engineers back in Houston.

      Those engineers think they know it all. Hah! This will show them. Not that it makes any difference to me. My sands have run out. This is the end of the fourth quarter, last of the ninth, eighteenth hole, game over baby; no more time on the clock. George could feel his fingertips going numb. His face was getting cold. He knew that the silver thermal blanket around his legs only postponed the inevitable; death by freezing.

      Great, George thought, my worst fears, now founded. No heroic landing back on earth, no celebrations for the great astronaut, no heroic speeches at schools, no tinkling glasses at welcome home cocktail parties and no speeches to Kiwanis Clubs. George chortled; especially the Kiwanis clubs. There would only be stories about the mission to Mars that went horribly wrong. For hundreds of years people will look up into the night sky, see the red dot that is Mars and whisper, ‘George Smith, the new face on Mars,’ and they will be right. They won’t really give two shits whether George Smith is alive, dead or was eaten by aliens."

      With no power, the thrusters could not automatically course correct. The pull of Mars’ gravity will cause Pilar, his spaceship, to crash land on her red surface. George shifted his weight back and forth trying to settle deeper into his ergonomic chair while pulling the silver astronaut blanket closer under his chin. His toes were so cold they were hurting. The pain was turning to agony. His mind began to jump around. Why had he become an astronaut? Why indeed. He truly wanted to explore distant worlds, which had led to a precocious interest in navigation. He remembered the day in elementary school when the teacher was talking about Christopher Columbus’ journey to the Americas:

      He discovered America in 1492. Does anyone know the names of the three ships in his little fleet? Okay Suzie, what were their names?

      The Puta, the Nina, and the Santa Maria.

      That would be the Pinta, the Nina and the Santa Maria, Suzie.

      Thank you Miss.

      And how did they navigate? That’s a big word isn’t it class? George raised his hand. Yes George?

      Navigators use latitude and longitude. Latitude is expressed in degrees north or south of the equator from 0 to 90. In the same way, longitude is degrees east or west of the prime meridian. Christopher Columbus used an astrolabe, a sextant, and dead reckoning for navigation.

      That’s correct George, very impressive.

      George snapped back to grim reality and looked out through the porthole window into the star filled darkness. He looked down. The computer and console were still dark. The heater was not on. The thrusters could not course correct. He remembered another time long ago when his father had taken him deer hunting. It was cold then too:

      Be very quiet, his Dad had remanded him. And don’t make any quick movements, George, If you have to scratch your nose, move your hand very slowly. Remember, don’t make any sudden movements. I’ll be back at nine o’clock. Then his Dad handed him the gun. Cock it and put it on safety, son, and Good luck." George did as he was told. His father then closed the plywood deer blind door and walked silently away into the dark forest.

      He was all bundled up in winter hunting jacket, hunting cap, and gloves inside the plywood deer blind. He held the heavy deer rifle and could feel the cold plastic chair on his bee hind through thermal underwear and blue jeans. His orange ski cap was pulled down low over his ears and eyes. There was no wind. He could see stars above the dark silhouette

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1