Category Archives: Anthology

Libraries and non-profits: The Spider Lady and Other Short Stories and Poetry

At this point I feel compelled to honor the non-profits and libraries that have made my first book available.

AspenCat Colorado Library Consortium Check out eBook

Charlotte Mecklenburg Library North Carolina Check out eBook

Uintah County Library Vernal,Utah Check out eBook

Academic Books Denmark Non-Profit Paperback for Sale

San Francisco Public Library Check out eBook

Friends of San Francisco Public Library Buy Paperback on eBay

Stinson Beach Bolinas Libraries Marin County Check out Paperback

World Cat Askews and Holt Library Services UK

Kalamazoo Public Library Check out eBook

Indie Bound

Indie Bound is a non-profit that was started to help independent bookstores throughout the USA and Canada to be able to set up a system of selling books online in order to help them compete with the huge online book sellers that included mega online department stores. The idea was to save independent bookstores for local communities that did not want to see their favorite bookstores disappear. For bookstores that already had websites Indie Bound would add eCommerce web pages with buy pages for books. Customers could then order the books online and have them delivered to their homes or pick them up at the bookstore. The bookstores could have the books in stock in their stores or the books would be sent from the warehouses of Indie Bound. For bookstores that did not have a website Indie Bound would set up an eCommerce website for them. Some of the bookstores are university and college bookstores. I am proud to say that Indie Bound chose my book for its independent book sellers to sell if they chose to and it has been almost two years now. My book has sold out on Indie Bound twice and is now fully back in stock again!

The Spider Lady and Other Short Stories and Poetry | IndieBound.org

Book Shop

Book Shop is a non-profit that grew out of the economic distress caused by the covid-19 crisis. It’s goal has been to save local bookstores by helping them to sell books online and through direct donations. Currently Book Shop is at $14,744,102.33 raised for local bookstores. Book Shop is powered by Indie Bound which means that Book Shop uses the same eCommerce platform that belongs to Indie Bound. The books are shipped from the same warehouses of Indie Bound and they are the same books that Indie Bound has in stock. This is why as soon as Book Shop went online my book was on their website. Indie Bound and Book Shop are associated with ABA, American Booksellers Association. Under the radar Ingram which is a distributor to local bookstores and a self publishing company is associated with Book Shop. It is easy to see why they would have an interest in seeing that independent bookstores survive.

The Spider Lady and Other Short Stories and Poetry, Volume 1 (bookshop.org)

Book Shop UK

Recently Book Shop has extended its influence to include helping independent bookstores in the United Kingdom. Since my book was already on Book Shop in the USA it was automatically on the new Book Shop UK.

The Spider Lady and Other Short Stories and Poetry (bookshop.org)

Back In Stock: The Spider Lady and Other Short Stories and Poetry

After more than a month since selling out worldwide The Spider Lady is now starting to be back in stock!

At long last back in stock on Amazon Brazil! R$93,29 Estimativa de envio de 1 a 2 meses.

Back in stock on Target!

Back in stock on Walmart!

Back in stock on Amazon Canada!

Back in stock on Blackwell’s UK!

The Talisman: Part Three by Mark Alberto Yoder Nunez

Photograph by Mark Alberto Yoder Nunez
From The Talisman
From The Spider Lady and Other Short Stories and Poetry

Continued from: https://markalbertoyodernunez.blog/2019/11/27/the-talisman-part-two-by-mark-alberto-yoder-nunez/

I returned to the town on the west coast from which I had started before my journeys.  I took a job in the office of an import, export business.  I oversaw the merchandise at the unloading and loading on the docks and kept track of the inventory in the warehouse.

I frequented a restaurant at the harbor.  There was a beautiful, young waitress there who waited on me.  She seemed to give me special attention, always filling my coffee cup.  She asked me if I wanted raisin bread for toast even though she said the cooks did not like her running raisin bread through the toaster.  She said the raisins got stuck in the toaster.  I said yes more to please her than myself.  I was generous to her with my tips since her attention to me was rather flattering.  Sometimes she would give me a glass of orange juice for free.  She was going to the local junior college and studying business. 

I lived in a cozy but tiny apartment in the harbor with a view of the docks and ocean from my window.  I loved to wake up in the morning, drink coffee and look out of the window.  I loved to breathe in the fresh, sea air.  My whole life was in the harbor.  

I decided to take classes at the community college after work.  I took a beginning business class and a creative writing class.  When I told the blonde waitress that I was taking classes at the city college she looked at me strangely. 

It cost a pretty penny to take these classes.  I struggled with my finances.  The students in my creative writing class appreciated my work but the teacher was overly critical.  I tried to satisfy the teacher’s criteria but I felt that he was jealous that he did not have the experiences to be able to tell the stories that I did.  At one point he said words that implied that my stories were too fantastic to be believable.  I suppressed my anger.  I had to remind myself that my goal was to just make it through the class.  To my surprise he gave me an A in the class despite his criticisms. 

I had hoped that by going to the city college I might run into the blonde waitress and actually see her someplace else besides when she was working at the restaurant.  This never happened.  It was a little depressing going to school at night in the winter when it was dark and cold.  When I awoke in the morning all I could do was drink some coffee and try to make it to work on time.  I had to grab whatever snack food I could to make it through the day.  Fortunately the harbor had its amenities.  There was a hole in the wall restaurant close to work where I loved to buy fish tacos.

I told the blonde waitress that I had finished my classes.  She seemed very interested in the things I had to talk about.  She seemed especially interested in my creative writing.  She would ask me questions about it.

After a few more months of working and trying to save money I started to pressure my bosses to let me take two weeks of vacation so I could visit my mother.  They weren’t happy.  Finally they agreed to one week.  I took it.

Soon I was on an eastbound train.  I arrived in the little, land bound town with rolling green hills.  I had spent a lot of time wandering in the woods here all alone.  When I found the house she was not there.  I was told that she had passed away.  I returned back on the train with a little package she had left me.  In it were my birth certificate, baptismal certificate, some report cards from school, honor roll certificates, my baby book and photographs.  I stared out the window of the train at the countryside passing by.  Would I ever pass this way again? 

I reported back to my job on Monday morning.  I was told I was not needed.  When I asked why I was told that my job had been given to someone new.  This was not an answer to my question but the real reason was obvious.  I had dared to stick up for my rights and ask for some vacation time.  When I had previously asked for a raise I had been told that business wasn’t so good.  I knew that this was a lie because I had overheard the owner telling his brother that their accountant had told him that their profits had never been better.  I knew this was because of me and my high level of professionalism.  My knowledge of the import, export business from my years of working the freighter ships was what made me so valuable.  

I went to the harbor restaurant.  The blonde waitress was not there.  I returned to the restaurant the next morning for breakfast.  She was not there again.  I thought this was unusual.  I asked about her.  I was told that she had graduated from school and had gone back to the inland town that she came from.

I found myself on the same familiar pier again looking at the ships and gazing out to sea.  I found myself once again wandering aimlessly along the narrow lanes of the waterfront.  I came to a narrow lane and looked along it to my right.  There was the curio shop, three shops down, on the left side of the lane!  I wasn’t in a mood to question.  My mind had been sullen.  I walked toward the door of the curio shop.  Inside I saw the oriental carpets, tapestries, silk, carved wooden figurines and beads.  These were things I now knew too well from my travels in the Orient. 

The elegant, Oriental lady was there again standing behind the counter.  Once again I looked at her with her perfect oval face and curious smile with her lips sensuously turned up slightly at the corners of her mouth.  I gazed deeply into her dark eyes.  She did the same with me in response.  I don’t know why but I reached into my inner coat pocket and pulled out the talisman.  I asked her if I could sell it back.  She nodded and said she could only give me half of the original price that I had paid.  I said, “Okay”.  She took the silver talisman from my hands.  As she put the bills and coins into my hand she held the soft skin of her hand against mine for a moment while looking into my eyes.  Then she drew her hand back and said, “It always comes back”.  She smiled and bowed her head a little.  All I could think of to say was, “Thank you”.  She nodded twice and smiled.  She looked off to the side so that I admired the beauty of her face in profile.  I walked away to the door looking back at her over my shoulder.  I went through the door to the world that was waiting for me outside.

To be continued.

Sold Out! On Back Order! The Spider Lady and Other Short Stories and Poetry

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The Spider Lady and Other Short Stories and Poetry is sold out with retailers all over the world following the holiday season. Distributors are out so books are on back order. This is a Print On Demand book so more copies are being printed and are on the way.

Most sold book February 2020 #13 Printed Book #62 eBook Meistbestellte Bücher im Februar 2020 #13 The Spider Lady and Other Short Stories and Poetry https://diebuchsuche.at/mb.php

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Available with more sellers on Abebooks UK from £ 11.72!

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McArthur Street: Episode Five

Photograph by Mark Alberto Yoder Nunez
From McArthur Street
From The Spider Lady and Other Short Stories and Poetry

Continued from:

https://markalbertoyodernunez.blog/2019/09/25/mcarthur-street-episode-four/

One fine day a family moved into the house next door to Jimmy’s that had been vacated by the family of the younger John.  It wasn’t exactly a normal family.  There was a mother, son and daughter but no father.  I found out this was the result of a divorce.  The new boy of the neighborhood was outgoing and popular.  His name was Mike Holly.

    He had an air of confidence in everything he did.  Although he was popular with Jimmy, myself and my brothers he was a public school boy who soon became friends with Keith, the boy who lived across the street from Jimmy.  Keith was the boy who Jimmy said was ba-a-a-ad.

At first there was the sheer pleasure of meeting Mike Holly.  Besides the fact that he was very likeable it was exciting that he went to one of the public junior high schools that was legendary among the Catholic school boys for being a very dangerous school.  The boys at my school would have debates as to whether Wakefield or Utterback was the toughest of the schools.  Mike went to Wakefield.

Mike once said something to me of great interest.  He said that the previous year he had lived with his father.  He said his father was Mexican.  His father bought him two pairs of jeans and a package of white, cotton undershirts for clothes to wear that year.  He said he was the most unpopular boy in school that year.  The next year he lived with his mother and everything changed.  This was something new to me.  In Catholic school we wore uniforms.  Clothes was not an issue.

Mike often went to dances for junior high school kids at the YMCA.  In Catholic school boys and girls were often separated and there was no such thing as dances.  I started to get glimpses of Mike’s younger sister.  She had short, blonde hair and was very cute.  I wondered why if Mike’s father was Mexican that he had an Anglo last name.  I assumed this had something to do with his mother and father being divorced.

It wasn’t long before I met Keith, the bad boy from across the street.  Jimmy told me that he cussed a lot and so did his father.  Jimmy said his father got drunk a lot.  Keith’s family, also, kept a German shepherd who barked viciously from behind the low, chain link fence in their front yard. All this contributed to the general notoriety of Keith’s family.

Keith was a freckle faced kid who was just a little pudgy.  He grinned and laughed a lot.  He had a younger sister with long, thick, red hair.  Even though I didn’t approve of Keith’s cussing we got along well.  I think I liked his sense of adventure.

Mike Holly continued to gain in popularity.  I remember one day visiting with him in his front yard.  Although his yard was dirt and a few tufts of dry grass it was all underneath the shade of lines of trees, each of which was thick with dark leaves.  We knew there was no man in his house and realized that his mother was a divorcee struggling to support her family.  It was cool and a little dark under the shade of these trees as we sat in lawn chairs in front of his house.  Mike confided with me that his mother had told him that he should hang out with me and my older brother, Daniel, rather than the other boys in the neighborhood because we were good boys from a good family and that the other boys were sort of rough.

This sort of made me feel happy because Mike was very popular and popularity seemed to be the name of the game at the time.  Becoming close friends with him would have enhanced our image on McArthur Street.  I felt however that Mike was really saying that goody two shoes guys like us were less interesting and exciting than bad boys like Keith and that he was prepared to spend his time more with Keith.

During the course of the conversation while I was relating a past experience I felt it necessary to spell out a swear word because I wasn’t actually allowed to say the swear word.  Mike admonished me because we were in front of the windows of his home.  He felt that his mother might overhear.  I said that I was only spelling it out, not saying it.  He said it didn’t matter.  His mother thought it was just as bad to spell it as say it.  This I found a little odd because once Mike had shown me a message pad with a caricature of a topless waitress holding one of her breasts and underneath was a caption that read, “We also serve these”.  He said it came from the place where his mother worked.  I wondered why if his mother worked at a topless bar she would be so strict about swearing but I figured she was doing what she had to as a result of the divorce to support her family.  That didn’t mean that she didn’t want to raise her children decently.

I had been becoming nearsighted and I finally got a pair of glasses.  I chose a style of horn rimmed glasses with frames that were dark gray on top and clear on the bottom because Jimmy had a pair that were similar but brown on top.  He rarely wore them.   He was very vain and not so nearsighted as I was.  I needed my glasses.  I had a hard time playing baseball without them.  I never knew where the ball was because I couldn’t see where it went.  Once at school we had been playing baseball in the dirt field at lunchtime and I hit the ball straight and far into left field.  I ran around the bases all the way to third but when I looked around to see where the ball was I couldn’t see where it was.  Some boys were shouting at me to stay and some were shouting at me to run for home.  I couldn’t see which boys were telling me to stay or run and which ones were on my team.  I decided to be safe and stay.  In school the boys made a big deal that I had hit a triple off of Brown who was considered to be a good pitcher.  They said I could have had a grand slam if I had ran for home.  I explained that I couldn’t see where the ball was and wasn’t sure who was telling me to stay and who was telling me to run.  For awhile I wasn’t one of the last or almost last to be picked for one of the teams.  Later when they saw I couldn’t always hit that well I went back to being one of the last picked.

What a shock it was when I wore those new glasses!  Suddenly I could see clearly.  No more squinting to read the chalkboard at school.  The world now was so sharply defined and fully of clarity as I had never known.  What a change from the dim view I had before!

One day I visited in Jimmy’s house with my new glasses.  There was the dingy living room with the brown yellow, cigarette smoke stains on the ceiling, the carpet that needed vacuuming and picking up.  I then was alone with Jimmy’s mother in the kitchen.  She was asking me how I liked my new glasses.  I was trying to communicate to her the amazing difference in perception when I said, “I can see every grain of dirt on the floor!”  She said, “Well, gee, thanks a lot!”  I tried to apologize.  I didn’t mean it the way she thought it sounded.  It was something I had noticed when looking at her kitchen floor that had seemed amazing to me.  I felt bad but she didn’t really seem to be upset.

Later I thought how different Jimmy’s house was from ours.  I could picture his mother in her shorts with laundry baskets on the couch, folding clothes in the middle of the room filled with debris that needed picking up.  It was a feeling of disorder.

Continued on:

The Talisman: Part Two by Mark Alberto Yoder Nunez

Photograph by Mark Alberto Yoder Nunez
From The Spider Lady and Other Short Stories and Poetry

Continued from: https://markalbertoyodernunez.blog/2019/08/14/the-talisman-part-one-by-mark-alberto-yoder-nunez/

Perhaps it was the talisman but I took my savings and signed up to join the merchant marines.  Soon I would be leaving everything that was familiar behind.  People said I was still a young man so it was a good thing to see the world.  I wrote a letter to my mother who was in the land bound town I grew up in, the place I left because I couldn’t stand the thought of always wondering what was over the next hill.  This thought had vanished when I found the open sea stretching out before my eyes.

Before I was to leave I went back to find the curio shop where I had found the talisman.  It wasn’t there.  I traced my exact steps from the pier that day when I had encountered the little shop with the beautiful, oriental lady.  I knew these little lanes along the waterfront by heart.  I tried to find the corner I turned but only found the same familiar lanes and shops.  There was no oriental curio shop.  There was no vacant shop in its place.  It was as if I had imagined it or dreamed it but the talisman was in my possession.  I had it in my inner coat pocket.  I felt delirious.  Had I been lost?  I wandered farther in surrounding areas but these places, also familiar to me, did not make sense with the memory I had of that day when I found the shop, the lady and the talisman.

     With the merchant marines I traveled the world over and over.  I realized the dream of mine to visit the South Seas and the Orient.  This was only after many a cold journey in Northern waters to places like Finland and Sweden.  I enjoyed England, France and the Mediterranean.  My first storm at sea was the most incredible display of the power of Nature, beyond my imagination.

     When I finally was bound to the South Seas of the Pacific and the Orient beyond I was overjoyed at the leaping dolphins in the sparkling blue waters.  I was amazed by the flying fish skimming over the waves amid bright reflections.  There were the hot, summer nights so balmy with the iridescent glowing spots of mysterious night fish.   I felt in a wonderland.

And then there was the Orient.  I found myself wandering down streets and narrow lanes in Hong Kong and Shanghai.  These were places I had heard of and read about and I was there.  It was like hundreds of Oriental curio shops.  I was surrounded by them.  Mysterious Oriental men, mysterious Oriental women and children.  The children looked intently at me as I went walking by with mysterious little smiles on their upturned faces.  When I went to sleep at night I thought of the dream I had when I first acquired the talisman in which I felt I was lost in a foreign land and could not find my way back.  I did not however feel anxious about it as I had when I dreamed it.  I was living my dream and everything was as it should be.  I knew I would be able to find my way home or at least I thought I was sure of that.

     I tried to stay in the Orient for as long as I could but my contract with the shipping company that had brought me there required for me to continue on to India and Africa.  In fact I was to circumvent the globe returning to the cold Atlantic and ending my journey on the east coast of America.

From there I spent time traveling and living in parts of America I had not known before.  I had many adventures and fulfilled a dream of visiting the East coast and learning of it.  However since the only way I could make my living was as a sailor I had to find a ship that needed a hired hand.  Soon I was on my way to parts unknown.  From Norwegian fjords to tropical atolls, from cosmopolitan cities to farming communities I satisfied my curiosities about the world and the people in it.

      Everywhere I traveled I met the most beautiful and interesting women.  Sadness came at last when I thought how none of my love interests stayed in my life.  I wrote many romantic letters.  I gave significant gifts.  I had happy memories but in the end they all turned bittersweet.  The more I loved a woman, the more fleeting she became.  When I thought of all the possessions I had lost along the way in my travels curiously the talisman had always remained.

Continued on: https://markalbertoyodernunez.blog/2020/02/16/the-talisman-part-three-by-mark-alberto-yoder-nunez/

Good Books Make Great Gifts: The Spider Lady and Other Short Stories And Poetry: Worldwide Market Places

Sold out in some marketplaces and with many retailers over the holidays! Some sellers are restocked, some are on back order, some have special order available. There are, also, new sellers.

Back in Stock on Saxo Denmark! Leveringstid 2-3 uger

Back in Stock on Barnes and Noble! Usually ships within 1 week

Now in a marketplace for Switzerland!

Back in Stock on Super Book Deals!

New Retailer in The Netherlands!

The Ghost Ship: A Scary Story For Halloween: Final Episode

The Ghost Ship
Illustration by Mark Alberto Yoder Nunez
From The Spider Lady and Other Short Stories and Poetry
by Mark Alberto Yoder Nunez

Continued from:

https://markalbertoyodernunez.blog/2019/10/02/the-ghost-ship-a-scary-story-for-halloween/

     I swear I could feel my heart in my chest sinking and my mind became heavy as a weight.  “Aye, and we are adrift, matey”, I heard the old sailor say.  I looked to my right where I heard the voice coming from.  The old salt looked at me thoughtfully.  “First we were driven off course.  Now we are drifting off course but perhaps the captain at least knows where we are”, he said.  “Did it matter if we know where we are if we can’t get back on course?” I thought as I turned full circle to look all around me.  The ocean was so still that I felt I could see a hundred miles in every direction but all there was, was open sea. 

Days went by.  We were in tropical waters.  It was hot and humid.  The sailors took off their shirts.  We were on rations of water and food.  When we looked up at the sails there was not even the slightest of breezes to move them.  There were no sea birds, no dolphins or fish leaping out of the water.  Why?

At night when it was not as hot a sailor broke out a concertina and began to play music.  He sang sailor’s songs.  Other sailors sang along.  Some danced.  They told stories and laughed.  The captain had allowed a ration of rum for all.  The sailors made me smile.  They joked about being in the doldrums.  One sailor said, “Aye, and I’ve been in the doldrums before but only because I was on dry land for too long!”  The crew gave a hearty laugh.  I laughed, too.  It sent a feeling of relief through my body.  The rum was a helper.

     I slept well that night but awoke feeling bad.  It was not because of the rum.  My soul was burdened by a weight of darkness in my being.  I went out on the deck in the brightness and heat of the sun.  Where was I?  Our small, fragile vessel was in a nightmare landscape of yellow, brown and green seaweed!  I looked at the sails, no wind, not even a breeze!  The hot sun beat down on my enfeebled mind.  I almost experienced vertigo as if I would lose my balance.  “Aye, and we are in the Sargasso Sea”, said the old sailor.

      All of the old, sea stories I had heard all my life about this accursed place came back to me.  Would we all die of hunger and thirst here?  I looked about at the motley crew.  Their faces were grim.  A burly sailor with a black beard and shaggy, black hair said, “All we can do is pray.”  My mind went into a state that bordered on insanity.  I thought back to the beginning of the voyage.  Could I have made a decision to not get on board this ship?  Such thoughts were futile I knew.

The next few days were a nightmare that never seemed to end.  The sickening, horrible seaweed kept getting thicker as our once proud, ocean vessel drifted with no wind.  There were pieces of old cargo and parts of old ships like small islands of rotting junk covered with seaweed surrounding us.  We were getting deeper into the Sargasso Sea.  Everything I had heard about this cursed place was true.  Mentally I had descended into pure hell.  Would we become just more of the flotsam and jetsam of the sea, rotting under green graves of seaweed?  The sun in the sky was like a cruel, all knowing eye looking down on us.

One dark night we were all on deck.  It was humid and very warm but not sweltering hot as in the daytime.  Then a very young sailor shouted, “There’s a ship!”  Without thinking with words my immediate feeling was that this made no sense.  The sailors started stirring.  Some stood up and walked over to the starboard side of the ship where the young man was looking out to sea.  It seemed that the young sailor was looking intently at something.  My curiosity was aroused.  Another sailor said, “I see it!”  Another said, “Aye, and so do I”.  How was it possible?  Was there another miserable crew of sailors like ourselves adrift in this abysmal place?

       I walked over to the side of the ship and looked in the same direction as the others.  There was something in the distance that shone pale as if in the moonlight but there was no moonlight.  There was no moon.  It started to get bigger on the horizon as if it was moving towards us.  I remembered that there are fish in tropical waters that glow in the dark but the sailors had said that it was a ship.  It was a ship!  We all stood in wonder, frozen on the spot and waiting as the spectral ship in the darkness seemed to keep approaching us.

Then it came closer.  It was in full sail as if a strong wind was driving it but there was no wind!  No one spoke a word.  I looked at the faces of the superstitious sailors around me with their wide open eyes, some with jaws clenched and some with jaws dropped.

The ship came closer.  There was the sound of a howling wind.  We saw that the sails of the ship were in tatters streaming forward with the wind and yet there was no wind.  It was a ghost ship!  My hair stood on end!

The ghastly, black ship with its flags and torn sails driven by a wind we could not feel started to pull alongside our ship.  I looked at the sailors.  Most were frozen with fear and could not move.  Then there was the strange sound of music and sea chanteys.  Then there was the sound of chains and moaning.  There were screams.  The ghost ship came up right along the side of our own vessel.  The sound of chains and moaning grew louder.  No one could be seen on board the ghost ship.  It glowed pale and ghastly as if there was a moon with an eerie light of its own.

The ghost ship was passing slowly alongside of us now and a chill hit me that went straight through to my bones.  I started to shiver.  The burly sailor with the black hair and beard fell to his knees grasping at the beads of his rosary to pray.  He looked up at the sky as if to ask God, “Why?”  The old sailor’s teeth began to chatter uncontrollably making a horrible racket.  Then the young sailor ran to the port side of the ship and jumped.  As the ghost ship slowly passed our own fragile, little vessel and the sounds of chains and moaning gradually subsided none of us could even move.

   The ghost ship had passed.  We started to take deep breaths.  Then we thought of the young sailor who was still just a lad.  We ran over to the side of the ship.  We shone lanterns all around the dark sea below us.  There was seaweed everywhere.  The Sargasso Sea had taken him.

     The next days were misery.  No one really wanted to talk about the ghost ship.  We had all seen it.  The merciless sun beat down upon us in the day.  We were on starvation rations.  The landscape around us was nightmarish.

One day I was lying on my back on the deck in a patch of shade, trying to conserve my energy.  I did not want to die of starvation or dehydration.  I opened my eyes a little and looked straight up.  I thought I saw the flag at the top of the highest mast of our ship move.  Was it my imagination?  I kept looking at the flag.  It moved again.  My eyes were now fully open.  I just kept lying there as if in a dream.  The flag moved again.  It started fluttering a little.  I stood up still looking up at the flag.  The other sailors around me noticed.  They started looking up at the flag with me.  The flag moved again.  All of the sailors now were looking at the flag silently.  The flag started fluttering some more.  Then it fluttered even more.  There was a breeze!  Some of the highest sails appeared to move just a little.  All eyes were above.  The sails started to move some more.  It was as if we were all frozen, afraid if we moved or said anything we would destroy the magic.  The sails started to move more and the flags all started moving.  The topmost flag started fluttering in the breeze and didn’t stop.  All the sails were moving.  The sails were starting to fill up with wind!  We looked up at the helm of the ship.  The captain was there at the wheel.  He had a confidence and pride that we had never seen before.  The ship was moving!  It creaked and it moaned but it was not like the creaking and moaning of the ghost ship!

The first mate came on deck to assure us that the captain and the navigator had been keeping track of exactly where we were and would steer us on the right course.  Some expressed concern about the obstacles of flotsam, jetsam and seaweed that surrounded us.  The first mate said that those obstacles were taken into consideration.  We were truly glad that we even had a chance since sailing at sea always involves risk.  Only the use of skill keeps a man alive in the vastness of the awesome power of nature.

Much to our amazement, after negotiating some tricky turns to avoid being stuck in the seaweed of the Sargasso Sea, there appeared more open spaces in the water.  It wasn’t long before we saw the open sea ahead of us and a clear path to reach it.  We must have drifted through the hell of the Sargasso Sea and reached the other side.

    We reached the open sea!  The wind was with us and apparently the gods were now on our side!  The sails were full as we were swept out to sea!  The captain at the helm with the first and second mates and navigator around him looked proud but at the same time they looked like men who had been humbled.  The sailors cheered!

    It wasn’t long before the ship was sailing along at a good speed over bright, ocean swells with dolphins leaping about.  A sign of good luck!  Spirits were bright.  That night the sailors celebrated with extra rations and a good ration of rum.  There was music and singing of sea chanteys.  The crew danced with men locking arms and dancing around in circles until they grew dizzy.  This made everyone laugh!

And so the days continued at sea.  It was a paradise.  The sailors caught the best fish at sea.  They cooked the fish on deck.  It was a feast and a celebration of life.

Then the captain made an announcement.  We were on course and soon would be reaching the Orient.  Never before had the man in the crow’s nest with his telescope seemed so important.  When he yelled, “Land, Ho!” the cheers of the grateful sailors went up to the heavens.  Soon all of us saw land.  We sailed into the harbor.  It was a successful voyage.  We delivered the goods and brought home valuable trading commodities from the Orient to Europe.

Those of us who were on this voyage continued our careers as merchant marines.  We went our separate ways.  We traveled all over the world.  We had many adventures.  I was fortunate to travel to the Orient many times.  I was able to travel to the New World of the Americas.

Sometimes when I came into a seaport whether it was in my own home country or in a foreign place I would be in a restaurant or tavern that sailors haunt.  I would sometimes be sitting by myself overhearing other sailors’ conversations.  I overheard some sailors talking about the story of the ghost ship.  Apparently some of the sailors who were on the same trip with me had told the story and it had gotten around.  The sailors in the restaurants and taverns would discuss about whether they thought the story was true or not.  The consensus was that it was just another sailor’s story.

I never told anyone this story because I knew that no one would believe me.  As I make the rounds, traveling all over the world and meet one of the crew members who was on that fateful trip we look into each other’s eyes.  We know we share a secret of something that happened that no one would believe.  How do we explain about the young sailor who jumped overboard if anyone should ever ask us?   In the end I guess it is just another sailor’s story.  Wherever I go in all the travels of my life I am restless and can’t seem to settle down but the memory of the ghost ship rests firmly in my mind and cannot be taken away.

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-Truly, freeing oneself in one’s own mind is only the first step on a path of freedom.-

“All evil seems to arise from the desire to dominate others. Most men in our society are taught from a very early age to try to dominate. It isn’t something that they think about consciously. It operates at a subconscious level. They are taught by the adults around them and their peers. Someone dominates them and they in turn try to dominate others. They do it without even realizing it and they do it without even thinking about why. It is without question. In their conscious awareness they may aspire to grandiose ideals but their actions speak for what really motivates them from a subconscious level.”
― Mark Alberto Yoder Nunez, The Spider Lady and Other Short Stories and Poetry

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Most sold book January 2020 #78 Meistbestellte Bücher im Januar 2020 #78 The Spider Lady and Other Short Stories and Poetry https://diebuchsuche.at/mb.php

Most found books in December 2019

Meistgefundene Bücher im Dezember 2019 #14Mark Alberto Yoder Nunez: The Spider Lady and Other Short Stories and Poetry, EAN bzw. ISBN: 9781543957082, 3120 mal gefunden, 4 mal bestellt, neu um € 7,97 … 30,10, gebraucht um € 11,58 … 86,75 https://diebuchsuche.de/mg.php

Most ordered books in December 2019

Meistbestellte Bücher im Dezember 2019 #98 Mark Alberto Yoder Nunez: The Spider Lady and Other Short Stories and Poetry, EAN bzw. ISBN: 9781543957082, 3120 mal gefunden, 4 klicks auf “Bestellen”, neu um € 7,97 … 30,10, gebraucht um € 11,58 … 86,75 https://diebuchsuche.ch/mb.php?l=0

Conversation on Social Media in Russia about The Spider Lady and Other Short Stories and Poetry

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