Bob Faszczewski

“The Day Everything Stopped” by Bob Faszczewski

Submitted to Contest #125

                            The Day Everything Stopped      Struter Jones rushed to the corner to catch the 7:58 Fifth Avenue bus. As usual, she had timed every action in getting ready for her daily work grind down to the last second.  No fan of her current dull-as-hell-go-nowhere clerical position, she did only what she had to do when she had to do it, as every day she se...

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“Parting the Clouds” by Bob Faszczewski

Submitted to Contest #124

     Each step forward in the dark forest brought Joe Stinson face to face with another mysterious turn. He had driven around the entire afternoon trying to uncover the path to the ramshackle “mansion” that he thought would form the foundation of his future retreat on the Eastern Shore.       Joe’s afternoon adventure, however, quickly caused a confrontation more complicated than the twists and turns of his own troubled personality.  For six months he had fought off the effects of t...

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“A New 'Phantom'?” by Bob Faszczewski

Submitted to Contest #123

                  A New ‘Phantom’?      I could sense the overpowering stink of the creature enveloping the entire audience and, as I looked out from the stage, I could see him glowering at me just itching to consume me as his next afternoon snack.      My performance as the lead in our community theater company’s production of Our Town would cause my raw first-time performer’s nerves to race out...

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“The Invasion That Fizzled” by Bob Faszczewski

Submitted to Contest #122

                The Invasion That Fizzled      John Pritchard sat in his living room waiting impatiently for his buddies to arrive so they could start watching the Giants football game. He had laid out the snacks, put the hors d’oevres in the oven and stocked the freezer with plenty of beer.      Then, all of a sudden, someone rang his doorbell--and it wasn’t one of the gang John expected. In fact, he didn’t se...

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“Broken Eggs Don't Always Make Omelets” by Bob Faszczewski

Submitted to Contest #121

            Throughout his youth in Elizabeth, New Jersey the mysterious John Wilenski’s actions and appearance convinced many of his neighbors and peers that his actual age amounted to a much smaller number than that displayed on his birth certificate or sworn to by his parents and other relatives.  Noone, however, had any idea how  the perception of his youth would carve out a future path none of them ever imagined.          &...

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“Sounds from the Silence” by Bob Faszczewski

         Wind howled through the trees along Route 611 with a vengeance so strong you would swear its main mission this November was to rip the entire Ocean City area off the map and hurl it as a package into the Atlantic that surrounded it.     The time--around midnight on a Saturday night--the screeching of the breeze stood alone as the solitary sound inhabiting this stretch of Delmarva adjacent to the Maryland section of Assateague Island.     &...

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“You Don't Necessarily Reap What You Sow” by Bob Faszczewski

Submitted to Contest #118

“Can’t wait to get back into the fields and get my hands dirty in God’s green earth,” farmer Frank Albertson said.            Every year for the past 15 he had carefully arranged his corn plants in perfectly constructed rows--and carefully irrigated each of his three fields so they would bring him the greatest yield to produce the most profit--and the ideal climate of Caroline County had never failed to work its magic on his crops.          &n...

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“Unmasked at Last” by Bob Faszczewski

Submitted to Contest #117

                                       Unmasked at Last    For many years the rundown farmhouse had stood abandoned at the end of the country road in one of the dark forests of the northern Delmarva Peninsula.    The farmhouse appeared to have no useful value to anyone and, as far as anyone knew, no one had liv...

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“Off the Track--of Common Sense” by Bob Faszczewski

Submitted to Contest #116

     A misplaced boyhood adventure could have meant not only the final Summer of elementary school for myself and my best friend. It could, theoretically,  have resulted in the last summer on this earth for both of us.       Sure, we had bent the rules many times in the past--like the time we stole Old Man Pinto’s grapes and escaped serious injuries after scaling his fence just ahead of the guard dogs in his backyard vineyard. Seldom, however, had we actually put our lives on the li...

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“Adrift in a Sea of Nothing” by Bob Faszczewski

Submitted to Contest #115

     Following World War I, veterans newly released from military service looked for ways to feed their families, “work the land” and enjoy an honest day’s work in the fresh air of the Midwest.      Among many agricultural areas throughout the Midwest, they gravitated to central Iowa and soon mapped out a new small town in which to plant their family roots as well as their crops. They came together in 1930 to establish a completely new community they named Winding Mountain Pass along the bank...

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“Programmed into the Netherworld” by Bob Faszczewski

Submitted to Contest #113

                        Programmed into the Netherworld      Tom Jepson worked hard as a project manager for Apex Computer Consulting. In fact, every one of his many clients would rely solely on Tom’s expertise. If he had taken one of the extremely infrequent vacations he took during his two-decade tenure at Apex, his clients would endanger the success of important projects rather than entrust ope...

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“Much More Than Floods” by Bob Faszczewski

Submitted to Contest #112

                                             Much More Than Floods      The cold, dark dreariness of the skies above Dover matched Devon Johnston’s mood this day. In fact, it had reflected his mood and the daily routines of both he and most of his neighbors throughout Devon’s life, but his mood...

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“Road Trip From Hell” by Bob Faszczewski

Submitted to Contest #110

            As I drove cautiously along a deserted road in the Virginia-North Carolina countryside, the passing scenery reminded me of the forest scene from "Deliverance." To add to the negative atmosphere, my least favorite Realtor office colleague sat next to me. The stillness on this Saturday night made me feel like a solo mortician closing up shop after the last mourner following the wake of the least popular crotchety old man in the neighborhood.  My fellow Realtor, Jill M...

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“Workday Nightmare--Lifetime Dream” by Bob Faszczewski

Submitted to Contest #109

           During John Wilkenski’s youth in Elizabeth, New Jersey he had played out his Fountain of Youth act well--so well, in fact, that none of his neighbors ever guessed that the age he portrayed in his daily life quite skillfully disguised his actual, and much older, chronological self. What they also didn’t realize was his “staged act”  would come in handy in the future in a way neither he nor they had ever imagined.           ...

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“Home Renovation TV on Steroids” by Bob Faszczewski

Submitted to Contest #108

                         Home Renovation TV on Steroids1          I stood apprehensively, yet assuredly, tightly gripping the can of gasoline in my garage. Then I struck a match, ready to destroy the dwelling that, of late, had brought so much mental--and potentially, fiscal--destruction to the lives of myself and my wife.         ...

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