The Switch

By John Dodsworth

A story within a story. This melancholy tale explores ideas regarding family and love, while testing the boundaries for what can be considered fiction and non-fiction. An action-packed short story with a shocking twist ending. Readers will be left to fill in the blanks, wondering what was real, and what wasn't.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Dodsworth
• Release date: Oct 9, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463008560

John Dodsworth

Former political staffer whose passion for writing and alcohol has fueled a life of many triumphs and failures alike.

Book preview

The Switch

By

John Dodsworth

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2018 by John Wiber

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Waking up to the grey gloom, that sort of bluish light winking through the window. His first thought is nothing but a muddled question: how much money do I need or have today? Ever since the separation, this same question surfacing each morning like a bloated corpse upon the ocean.

Rob a bank.

It was funny, until the day he actually started considering the notion…

Rolling from his Queen-sized bed, he pauses momentarily at the edge of the mattress, rubbing his eyes. What day is it? Wednesday. When is your first meeting? Nine-thirty. He reaches over and hits snooze. 

Ten minutes later... 

"WHAMP-WHAMP-WHAMP." 

Gary pulls himself from the warmth of his bed and shuffles across the bachelor apartment, pausing momentarily to look back at the mangled mess which was the extent of his current existence: queen mattress and box spring lying upon the checkered linoleum floor in the corner; night-table from Ikea with night lamp (also from Ikea); a stack of novels sitting against the wall; a rotatable office chair with no desk to call a home; a sorry excuse for a kitchen buried in the opposite corner; and that was about it, save for the boxes filled with random and meaningless miscellaneous items from his former home stacked in haphazard piles by the door.

"BRR-ING-BRR-ING-BRR-ING."

Hello? 

Gary?

Yes Susanne, it's Gary.

Are you okay? You sound terrible.

Thank-you. I am doing quite well in fact. Just trying to get ready for a big meeting this morning... 

Oh, well... good luck with that.