Schontag's Short Stories: Volume Two

By Benita Cunha Schontag

In HALLOWEEN SCHEMES, Elaine plans a special party for trick-or-treaters and to ask Jack, a widower and high school friend she had a crush on, to join them later. Will he be responsive and attracted to her? It all depends on finding his two boys in the Central Valley's dense tule fog.
In EVE's-DROP CAFE, The bank has sent Eve a Notice of Default for not making a mortgage payment. Will she lose her restaurant or, worse, have to ask her son to postpone his college education? It all depends on her son, his great high school friends, and Mr. Mangini.
In FLIGHT TO CYDONIA, Clarisse decides to try another out-of-body experience with the aid of Asante, her mysterious but trusted classmate who leads groups in astral travel. Will they reach the Cydonia Region on Mars and will Clarisse be able to escape the sorrowful entity she meets there? It all depends on controlling her fears and following Asante's instructions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Benita Cunha Schontag
• Release date: Sep 17, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311486479

Benita Cunha Schontag

Benita Schontag lives with her husband Peter in the San Francisco Bay Area. She graduated from U. C. Berkeley in 1975; studied writing, which included the course "Method Writing by Mail" at the University of Massachusetts; and started writing short stories after her retirement as a legal secretary. "Schontag's Short Stories, Volume One" is her first book.

Book preview

SCHONTAG’S

Short Stories

Volume Two

Benita Cunha Schontag

Copyright © 2014 Benita Schontag

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the author or publisher.

Cover design by Stewart A. Williams

Smashwords Edition

CONTENTS

HALLOWEEN SCHEMES

EVE’S-DROP CAFE

FLIGHT TO CYDONIA

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

HALLOWEEN SCHEMES

Elaine Mangini thought about her plans for Halloween as she drove over the San Francisco Bay Bridge on Friday afternoon. God, I hope this will work out: I’ll call Jack tonight to invite his kids to the party Sunday, and then ask him to drop over after the party for some cake and hot cider. He’ll see the new me, slim in my snug costume, hair cut short. I’ll have to be patient though. He’s only been a widower for ten months.

The last time she saw Jack was at Jenny’s funeral. She sat four pews behind him in the church and studied his handsome, solemn face, which was fixed on the priest performing the service. She wondered how she could still be attracted to him after ten years. Elaine had had a crush on Jack when they were seniors in high school, but suppressed her feelings when she saw the obvious signs of mutual attraction between him and Jenny.

Now she was returning to Oakforest, a small town on the east side of the Central Valley, hoping to create a glorious Halloween night for the trick-or-treaters and to see Jack afterwards. The two-story Queen Anne her mother, Molly Mangini, owned there was the perfect setting for it.

She wondered if what her mother heard was true, that Jack withdrew from his friends after Jenny died and that his children, Doug and Joey, kept getting into trouble around town. She thought it must be very tough to be around eight and six without a mother.

She relaxed back in her seat when she turned off busy Interstate 5 and