I love the short story. One of the most remarkable classes I had in
college was presided over by a famous Arabic scholar and he taught short
stories from around the world: Italian, African, Chinese, even American
short stories. I became convinced, from that point on, that the story
belonged, with poetry, at the constituent level of literature.
Much has been made of the decline of the short story. It didn't decline
at all. The literary markeplace, like any other marketplace, became
fractured by the specialized modern culture. An art desires to be produced
for those who want it not those who think they need it to look good. Well,
we are here at any rate, and have published a lot of stories over the past
four years. We are specialists of the good story that is created by human
imagination and not the inhuman machinery through which most stories are
told these days. The inhuman machinery simply says that human beings will
be captured for the next several thousand years in a world infinately
stronger than they and beyond their understanding. So, they will join with
their fellows who wandered the Earth thousands upon thousands of years
before Sumer and UR.
We assert our right to slip out of the cave and fall from the tree from
time to time.
A
View From the Field by Sam Douglas
There was sand in her doll’s hair. And it
was all Monika’s fault. They were playing in the field across
from the Gasthaus only because that was where Monika wanted to
play, and the field was full of sand. Erika looked intently at
Monika and said, “Du kannst mir nicht sagen wo wir spielen
sollen. Ich bin aelter.”
* * * *
Springtime in
Babylon by Raj Sharma
The waters of the
Euphrates were rising with the onset of spring. It was brief in this land which virtually had only
two basic seasons: winter and summer. Each lasted about six
months, and by the end of March, the snows had thawed in the
far north and the cold winds blew no more.
Undercover
Arnold by Ben Kharakh
(A humorous fiction)
The phone rang and Arnold Schwarzenegger leapt from
his bed, onto the floor and crashed through it, landing safely
on a chair on the first story of his rented home.
Two Fables
by Bruce Holland Rogers
Fables for our
time! The esteemed writer offers up old Aesop favorites, The
Wolf and the Lamb and The Bullfrog and His Shadows. "A wolf
stopped to drink at a stream and spied a young lamb resting in
the shade nearby. "You there!" the wolf said."
Sidewalks by Marta Palos
He spotted the woman coming his way for the second time that week. Shoulders hunched,
nose thrust forward, she scurried along the sidewalk, now and then casting a glance
about her as if on guard against some invisible danger. The Mouse Woman, he called her.
High Altitudes by A.F. Rützy
When my
native guide plunged to his death, just seconds after he had stepped on a
firm-looking glacier, I remembered Reinhold Messner’s words. “Mountains are not
fair or unfair, they are just dangerous.”
Second Encounter By Xujun Eberlein
The shadow of the building has shifted from west to east.
Miami, a story by Julio Peralta-Paulino
It seemed to him more like a mall than an airport, as he sat at the Bacardi bar-- which tried to recreate a lost atmosphere from someone’s idea of Havana in the Forties-- nursing a crimson-coloured beer.
A Change of Scenery for Joanna by Elizabeth Schambacher
He had been afraid the hotel would not please her 
and when he asked her if
the room was all right, his uncertainty sounded in his voice.
Unheard Story by Muhammad Nasrullah Khan
The hot tea sucked me back into reality, my mind
rudely awakened from frequent naps. It had recently
succumbed to the habit of chasing thoughts unrelated
to the topic at hand. My mind returned: ‘Wasteland’.
The Road to Elgin by D.F. Mitten
I must have been a rotten soul in a previous life, because this one is not much better.
The Protestors; a story by George Sparling
The large turnout in Eureka challenging the U.S. war of aggression
in Iraq wasn't unusual...
Mr. Fix-It; a story by Nora M. Mulligan
I was really nervous when I brought Tom to my garage. I mean, I don't let just
anyone see this alien artifact thingy that I have hidden out there.
A Gathering of Widows; a story by Dayna Mari
The age-old custom of flaying political assassins
alive and wrapping the ashes of their victims in their
skin was constitutionally terminated by the most
recent widow.
Dancers by John Henry Fleming
It is said that the Lakas are natural dancers because when they walk from hut
to hut or village to village they must spin, shuffle, and slide over
treacherous, cliff-hugging paths and the knife-sharp rocks that stipple their jagged
island.
Pelham's Saturday Morning Frolics by R.F. Marazas
He stepped naked onto his moon splashed lawn and had the crazy sensation
that he would sink and drown. He did not drown. Too many manhattans
gurgled in his stomach, keeping him buoyant.
Voyagers by Martha Nemes Fried
The sitting room had the quality of shabby gentility. It was not smart, it was not chic, it was not color-coordinated. The furnishings consisted of a threadbare sofa, several comfortable chairs, some lamps and small tables, an old television set and an even older phonograph
The New Girl by Martha Nemes Fried.
Our lycee had its own uniform as did all others in Budapest. It included three sets of middy blouses and skirts, a winter and spring coat, a beret with the school's insignia, black shoes for winter, white for summer, gym clothes and a pair of gym shoes.
If you want to submit stories paste them in the body of an e-mail
message and send to David at eide491@earthlink.net
The easiest way to keep up with C/Oasis is to subscribe to the
newsletter Sunoasis 2006. It has many of the same links in an easy-to-read
format. It's free and is under 2000 words. To subscribe just send a
message to: oasis-l-subscribe@topica.com
Just send the message away! Once your subscription is received you'll be
sent the latest issue.
If there is anything you want to see included in C/ Oasis or have some
links you want checked out feel free to contact the editor at: eide491@earthlink.net
Hope you enjoy C/Oasis!
DAVID
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