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    The Heart of Twistown
    The Heart of Twistown
    The Heart of Twistown
    Ebook39 pages31 minutes

    The Heart of Twistown

    By Alpert L Pine

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    About this ebook

    Twistown may well be the poorest neighborhood in Neon City, and yet it continues to be burdened by an influx of refugees, and an uncaring government - the Neon City Authority.

    Now tragic circumstances have resulted in the death of Mama Sheena, a loved and respected elder of the neighborhood. Dav and Sam, just returned to Twistown and faced with this upsetting news, find themselves becoming further embroiled in an increasingly dangerous situation. A second death follows, and everything seems to be leading inexorably to a showdown between the people of the neighborhood and the armed officers of the Neon City Authority. But will either side back down?

    A Science Fiction short story of 8500 words with themes relevant to todasy and to the ever-increasing militarization of police forces around the world.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAlpert L Pine
    Release dateMay 17, 2016
    ISBN9781310156397
    The Heart of Twistown
    Author

    Alpert L Pine

    Alpert L Pine lives and writes in a small cabin, off the grid, in the Northwest United States. Once per week, he treks to the nearest town on foot—rain, snow or shine—and spends the day transferring his material into a digital format, with the help of the kindly librarians whom he has befriended. When he's not writing, he spends much of his time with a metal detector, looking for a rumored Templar treasure which is said to be buried somewhere nearby. To date, he's found a few nails, an old Liberty head penny, and a strange amulet.For free stories, news about past and future releases, and more, visit his website: AlpertLPine.com

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      Book preview

      The Heart of Twistown - Alpert L Pine

      The Heart of Twistown

      by Alpert L Pine

      Copyright 2016 Alpert L Pine

      Rowing Upstream

      Smashwords Edition

      Contents

      The Heart of Twistown

      About the Author

      Also by Alpert L Pine

      The Heart of Twistown

      We returned that day to find the familiar neighborhood faces around Lot Park full of grief and disbelief. Mama Sheena had died the previous evening. Before the day was ended, a man whom I had yet to meet would also be dead; and their two deaths and the circumstances of them, would forever change the lives of everyone in Twistown.

      The neon sky that morning was a shade of pink sweet enough to rival the city's signs and streetlamps—those gas-filled tubes for which our world was known, with oranges and reds and blues blazing within—which adorned storefronts and hung in shop windows, that lined the avenues of most neighborhoods and shone again as glowing jewels dropped within the puddles of the shadowed, late morning roads of the city.

      We followed one of the fat garbage vehicles up the narrow lane towards Lot Park's northern boundary, splashing through last night's rain. In Twistown, the garbage truck doesn't stop and pick up bins that have been set along the route. The streets are too narrow for that. Instead, the vehicles rumble along the tight alleys, and the folks from the neighborhood bring their garbage as close as they can and toss it into the gaping waste chamber. This is workable since the big trucks, like everything else, become ensnared by the molasses-like traffic of Twistown, which congeals and oozes through the clogged arteries, a packed mass of irate automobiles, hand-drawn taxi-cabs, cyclists and pedestrians, oblivious shoppers standing at makeshift roadside stalls, shouting merchants, shady dealers, and the occasional asshole trying to weave through the press on one of those yipping, motorized scooters with its engine barking like a tiny dog, the rider yelling profanities even as they run over innocent feet.

      We stayed in the wake of the coughing, belching garbage vehicle, borrowing its bulk to clear a path through the press. The fumes of the multi-fuel engine—poorly tuned—and the stench of the refuse being flung at the truck, into it and onto it, surrounded us. I was mostly unaffected.

      Kree's Jar, Davro! Samanth held her nose pinched closed with gloved fingers, and added a few more colorful curses. Doesn't the stink get to you?

      I leaned my head back for an ostentatious inhale, and then flashed the young woman a grin. "Didn't I ever tell you, Sam? I

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