Short Stories

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Notes:
These stories are Copyright © 2001 or earlier by Robert E. Whitsitt, II. If you want to share them, tell your friends the address (http://www.writeteam.com/stories/stories.htm) or point to it from your Web page. Thanks!

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A Christmas Snippet: An Elf's Thoughts, 1998

After a year off (we moved!), the sixth in the series. How do elves view the holidays?

I really don't have the right to complain. As an Elf I have certain responsibilities because of the Commitment we made, and I must meet those. That isn't the problem.

A Christmas Snippet: Life Is Not Billable, 1996

The fifth in the series. How do you keep the family together?

"I'm working now."

Corrine turned away from her husband's gentle gruffness and the phrase he always used to turn off her concerns, her thoughts, the day-to-day things that had to be discussed to keep the household going, even her breezy playfulness. She'd come to hate that sentence: "I'm working now."

A Christmas Snippet: Jack Daniels, 1995

The fourth in the series. What do you get your family for Christmas?

Jack Daniels had plenty of money.

His parents, by giving him that inappropriate name, had also given him the opportunity to learn to laugh at himself. He made a good living, first writing comedy routines for others, then giving them himself. Perhaps you've seen his TV show?

A Christmas Snippet: No Room at the Holiday Inn, 1994

The third in the series. This really happened! Names and identifying details have been altered.

Actually there was plenty of room at the Holiday Inn in central Missouri, but Lana and I decided we wanted something different.

For years, when traveling, we have not eaten at a restaurant if we recognized its name. No McDonalds, no Kentucky Fried Chicken, no Pizza Hut. As a result, we get many mediocre meals, and occasional fantastic ones. Most memorable are the four-star meal in Jefferson, Texas (the chef quit the Dallas restaurant rat race and opened a tiny gourmet spot in this town of 2,000 souls), and the great deal for good country cooking (home of the Mountain Burger, where low fat is seldom heard) in the Quad Cities area where Moline and Davenport gaze at each other across the upper Mississippi River.

A Christmas Snippet, 1993

The second in the series.

Wide-eyed, mouth open, Joan stared at the sales clerk. The woman held the offending credit card high, dangling from thumb and forefinger. "I said, it was refused. There isn't twenty-five dollars left on it."

Joan raised her hand to take the card and the woman released it a fraction of a second too soon so it fell heavily toward the counter, landing on Ben's gift. She picked it up slowly and put it back in her wallet, her wallet back in her purse. Eyes still down, she said, "I guess I won't be needing this after all."

A Christmas Snippet, 1992

The first of what turned out to be a series.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mom glance at Dad. He said, "Well, get to bed or Santa won't come!" He stood up from his armchair and smiled down at us.

Andy was lying on his stomach beside me, chin propped in his hands. He was still looking at the television even though it was a commercial. I rolled on my stomach and arched my back to look up at Dad, my elbows under me, my forearms and palms flat on the rug. "It's only ten o'clock! There's no school tomorrow!"