The Visitation

 

by Glen L. Bledsoe 

She awoke with an angel standing at the foot of her bed.

"Do not fear me for I am Jujunezba, Angel of Heaven."

"Am I dead?"

"No, it is not yet that time. The world is long overdue for a miracle for those who require proof of Him. You, Joanna, have been selected to be that miracle. You have been chosen to found a new faith, a new religion to bring billions of people of Earth into the Beacon of His Love.

"Joanna? My name is Cindy? Joanna used to live here, but she moved in with her boyfriend about a month ago."

Jujunezba's face froze. "Oh," the Angel said. "I'm not the one who is supposed to be omniscient. Sorry to bother you." And was gone.

The Bather

This illustration depicts the legend of the moment before Dooth, the leader of the Funnelbeaker peoples, first gazes upon Mar-Thol (who is about to disrobe to bath in the Nile) and becomes besotted with her beauty. They marry only later to be cursed with immortality with their memories of each other's appearance erased by Arka-Arkitutti, the Witch-Queen of the Sea Peoples. For eternity they criss-cross the planet searching for one another with aching hearts.

Somebody needs to write an opera about this.

The Autobiography of Jacob Henrik

 

By Glen L. Bledsoe 

Jacob Henrik was a man dedicated to perfection. The secret of his success, he would tell everyone he knew or happened upon the street, was his attention to details. No problem could escape solution if one methodically applied his resources to sorting through the intricacies and correcting errors every step of the way. It was his formula for success. It had made him one of the wealthiest men on the eastern coast of the Americas. 

As Jacob Henrik approached his fiftieth year he decided that it was incumbent upon him that he share his secrets to the world at large to not only running a successful business (or string of businesses as was his case), but to lead a better, healthier, happier life. To that end he decided to write an autobiography--an autobiography of a man who attended to details. 

Jacob Henrik knew his strengths and he knew his weaknesses. While he was master of ledger books and business agreements, of railroads and coal mines, and he knew that his 8th grade education left him unprepared to take on the telling of the story of his life in print. He understood that certain work had to be delegated, that one man could not take on every task, but could oversee the tasks of those who he managed. 

Over the period of several months he dictated his life’s story to a secretary who in turned handed the text over to an editor who in turn sent it to a team of proof readers who line by line wrangled the tangled rules of spelling, punctuation, grammar and capitalization, then double- and triple checked their efforts until they were satisfied that their work was polished and perfect in every way without error. Upon Jacob Henrik’s approval they sent the book to the printer. 

Upon receiving 35,000 copies of the book, almost seven and three-quarter tons of paper, which were placed in a special storage unit designed to preserve the volumes in pristine condition until ready to be given away to relatives and business associates, Jacob Henrik opened a fresh copy of his leather bound life story to the title page to autograph it and noticed: 

“The Autobiography of Jacob Henry” 

His last name was misspelled.