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    The Flying Kite
    The Flying Kite
    The Flying Kite
    Ebook24 pages21 minutes

    The Flying Kite

    By Victor A. Davis

    ()

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    About this ebook

    (SHORT STORY) Although I have been loose with the facts and changed names and dates to avoid copyright violation, this story was inspired by actual events. Adjacent to where I work is a basement littered floor to ceiling with "antiques" (aka junk). Among the wreckage is a shelf of National Geographic magazines dating back to 1924. They're fun to peek through. In one 1970s issue, I read the story of a man who set out to walk from the northernmost foothills of the Andes in South America to the southern tip of Tierra del Fuego. His wife joined him on part of the trip, but died in an accident. The interviewer asked if he intended to continue, and he said yes. Internet searches, trips to the library, and perusals of future issues turned up nothing for me in the way of a followup or resolution to this story. Naturally, as a fiction writer, I took it upon myself to invent the rest of his story.

    In my story, he turns up again a dozen years later, crazed but still wandering. Three decades later, another Nat Geo photojournalist finds him in Patagonia and walks with him, trying to establish whether he is a hoaxer or the real thing. Guillermo Faulkner, as I've named him, slowly turned from a serious world traveler to a lost troubadour, to an urban legend. As a short story writer, I value brevity. This is the first time I've been so taken with an idea that I've been tempted to write a novel. Unfortunately, I feel I've mastered neither the state of mind nor the state of affairs necessary to dive wholeheartedly into that effort. So I sought out a way to tell the story briefly. Thus the twist: A man walks into a bar claiming that this urban legend is real. The entire story is told as a story within a story, and the dramatic tension comes from the question: Can this man, this americano, be trusted?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherVictor A. Davis
    Release dateDec 1, 2015
    ISBN9781310108037
    The Flying Kite
    Author

    Victor A. Davis

    Victor A. Davis has always loved reading and writing short stories. He is an avid hiker and even when away from the world of laptops and wifi, keeps a pocket paperback and a handwritten journal to keep him company on trail. He is the author of one short story collection, Grains of Sand, and is publishing a second book, The Gingerbread Collection, in the spring of 2016.

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      Book preview

      The Flying Kite - Victor A. Davis

      Copyright © Aug 2015 by Victor A. Davis

      All rights reserved.

      This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

      Printed in the United States of America

      First Printing, Aug 2015

      ISBN 978-1-31-010803-7

      www.mediascover.com

      Special thanks to Kelly Dean, Jonatan Groba, & James Field

      The Flying Kite

      The following is based on a true story...

      It was early June, and the weather was just turning cold. Matías Rojas leaned on his bar reading Gabriela Mistral's Poema de Chile. A few men played cards at a table while his friend, Tomás, sipped on his American whiskey down the bar, ruminating over a newspaper. The barkeep turned the page and yawned, though it was not late.

      A truck rumbled to a halt outside and Matías looked up from his book. The weather was wet, a cold drizzle turning to sleet, which might turn to ice later. A white man in the passenger seat climbed out. He wore flannel under a parka and snow boots, far too overdressed. He walked around to the truck bed and hauled out a big hiker's pack. Then he waved to the driver and blustered into the pub. The men stopped their card game for a few moments, taking notice of the stranger. Tomás, too. He walked right up to the bar and helped himself to a seat, mumbling a hello under his breath. He spared no time getting comfortable, situating his luggage at his feet and unzipping his parka. Matías watched him, trying to catch his eye. When the man felt

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