Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                
Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    From $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Syzygy
    Syzygy
    Syzygy
    Ebook107 pages1 hour

    Syzygy

    By Cat Oars

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Six stories by six authors on the Jungian theme of Syzygy: The merging of the masculine and the feminine, two mates into one force. A wife is ready to leave on business, but her rather 'slimy' spouse is a little lustful ... A lonely man wins the woman of his dreams, but can he keep her? ... A Hungarian immigrant remembers one of the lovers of his youth, after he fled his native land for the United States ... and more ...

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCat Oars
    Release dateMay 31, 2011
    ISBN9781465937032
    Syzygy
    Author

    Cat Oars

    Cat Oars has rowed the rivers and stalked the squirrels. Cat Oars has sang, danced, laughed and loved. We are a group of like-minded writers of all shapes and sizes, colors and creeds and what we've written will change the way you feel about the universe and the life you've already lived and the life you have yet to experience.

    Read more from Cat Oars

    Related to Syzygy

    Related ebooks

    Anthologies For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • UNLIMITED

      O Fortuna, Velut Luna

      Sep 15, 2018

      What is Miss Treece’s trouble, according to a popular notion? The man A has failed to show up. Arousing herself at the restaurant, she fixes her lipstick when her solo supper concludes and takes herself down the stairs situated behind the bar. There,

      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Wrong Shampoo

      Apr 10, 2022

      Brandy scoured the rows of bubble gum bright shampoo bottles. How much time had passed already? She looked to the front of the store but couldn’t see the checkout lines. She had only been to Jeff’s apartment once so far and didn’t remember what brand

      16 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Gabriel & Holly

      Feb 8, 2021

      The first day was the most daunting. It helped that she’d arrived last night to settle herself in the cottage annexe before first contact this morning. Still, nerves attacked her as she stood before the door of the imposing but charming ivy-covered 1

      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Jack of Knives

      Jun 3, 2021

      WINNER £100 Jennifer is the author of four middle grade children’s novels published by Maverick (writing as Jenny Moore). Her latest book, The Misadventures of Nicholas Nabb, is set during the same period as her winning story and also includes a scen

      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      A Quick Thrill

      May 20, 2021

      A Quick Thrill
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Intelligent Creatures

      Jul 6, 2023

      Intelligent Creatures
      19 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Lost Children

      Aug 4, 2022

      Lost Children
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      100-WORD-STORY COMPETITION Winners

      Aug 16, 2022

      We’ve been delighted by the huge response to our 100-word-story competition. The entries have flooded in thick and fast during the past few months, but while we’ve enjoyed reading every story, only a few can come out on top! You, our readers, voted t

      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary

      Jun 17, 2020

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary
      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Running Away

      Feb 22, 2021

      Leaving London behind her, Millie drove faster, picturing thousands of crazed fans in pursuit, desperate for what – a lock of her hair? Or Julian; except after the last gig, somehow she knew he wouldn’t follow. She knew from bitter experience that di

      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Announcing The winners Of Our FLASH CONTEST

      Feb 29, 2020

      I sever the first two fingers of my left hand on a Tuesday. They fall to the ground at my feet, causing a momentary confusion as I wonder what tree has dropped this odd fruit. Then I see the crescent scar left behind by a fish hook and know that thes

      8 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Alice in the Delta & Other Poems

      Sep 1, 2024

      Now the muscle can uncoverthe shoulderthe field can come inthe bright green grass as an act of repairThe plaster so tiredso gladto stop holdingeverything upAfter years she scrapeda rectangle on one walldown to white by the lightsocket before she tore

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Broken Wings

      Aug 24, 2020

      Whenever Gemma Faber came to London for work, she stayed at Searle’s. It was a luxurious club-type hotel and every time she visited, she felt she’d really made it. The taxi pulled up and her heart lifted at the sight of the lilac-and-gold striped awn

      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary

      Jun 17, 2020

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary
      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Somehow

      Mar 15, 2018

      Somehow
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Glass Ceiling

      Aug 21, 2023

      ‘You’re late.” Evangeline glanced up from her workbench, neck already aching from the intricate creation before her: a hat decorated with no fewer than six hummingbirds, pinned to netting so fine it would look as though the creatures were, indeed, fl

      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Change

      Aug 8, 2019

      The Change
      10 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Cricket Ceague

      Apr 1, 2019

      Penelope Berkeley, age 9 Mars Hill, NC Night had fallen, and Luna awoke from where she had been sleeping in a cornfield. She moved steadily through the stalks with barely a sound, keeping her eyes on the glittering glass rooftop of the greenhouse in

      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Education of Mrs. R.

      Sep 6, 2022

      An adolescent shriek woke her. Cockerels, she thought, cockerels, with a wry twist to the word. She lay in the dark listening. There was no use in covering her head; the screaming still came through. The soloist was suddenly submerged in the chorus.

      13 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Cricket League

      Jan 1, 2020

      Ivy Lugbill, age 8 Indianapolis, IN I was so excited! My dad and I were going camping! After we packed all our stuff, my dad said, “Hop in!” I grabbed the paper towel roll binoculars I had been making and jumped into the car. It was a really . . . re

      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Ann Beattie

      Sep 15, 2017

      I’d started to visit Olivia more often because it was obvious she was lonely. The ALS lady who’d been moved to Hopkins had been Aunt Olivia’s closest friend, leaving aside Merton Hillstead, who actually went home. Even the friendly paperboy who somet

      23 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Are You Lonesome Tonight?

      Aug 8, 2019

      Are You Lonesome Tonight?
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      A Gentle STIRRING

      Mar 13, 2024

      A Gentle STIRRING
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Freshening

      Sep 15, 2018

      My cashier’s black hair was beautiful. Though not unlike mine, it was shinier and thicker, and hung glamorously down to her waist. It looked strong, too, like Christopher Reeve’s in the Superman movies. A strand of Superman’s silvery hair could hold

      21 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Fitting In

      Oct 1, 2021

      Fitting In
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      A Do-Over Romance

      Aug 5, 2024

      A Do-Over Romance
      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      THE HOUSE with the BLUE DOOR

      May 7, 2020

      THE HOUSE with the BLUE DOOR
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Five Poems

      Jul 1, 2019

      You agreed to meet him in one of those cafés you imagined yourself writing in if you could afford to live in that city. He was also a writer, but older, and you wanted to know how to get published. Slip a picture of yourself in with your poems, he ad

      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      From Dawn ’til Dusk

      May 21, 2020

      From Dawn ’til Dusk
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Syzygy

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Syzygy - Cat Oars

      SYZYGY

      _______

      A Cat Oars

      Publication

      SMASHWORDS EDITION

      Copyright 2011 Cat Oars

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and lending to friends as commonly allowed. This ebook may not be re-sold.

      Thank you for respecting the hard work of these authors.

      Contents

      Introduction

      Francais

      Adam and Ava

      Writeorbust

      The Couple

      Train Whistle

      Where the Petals Go

      Cufflink

      Reaping Ode

      Laiadevorah

      Topz and Trowzers

      Francais

      Chew Toy

      R Toady

      Introduction

      Francais

      HOW DID I conceive this theme? It was December, and the time to announce the Valentine’s Day project was approaching. I remember where I was standing: at the bottom of the stairs, in my dining room, in front of the kitchen. I remember tossing around some ideas in my head, liking some, rejecting others. But I can’t recall how I settled on love stories filled with Jungian archetypes: Jung Love, I thought it would be called at first, but then it became this book, Syzygy.

      So I asked Cat Oars veterans and anyone else on the Craigslist Literary & Writing forum to compose love stories, but love stories with Jungian archetypes: Characters, such as the wise old man, the loyal dog, the mysterious cat; myths, such as creation and apocalypse; and concepts, such as anima, animus and syzygy.

      It was a leap. It’s impossible to summarize Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious and how the archetypes inform our personalities, our conception of ourselves, our world. Entire schools of thought have developed from exploring the mysteries of the archetypes. So I wasn’t sure what kind of results my call for submissions on this theme would produce.

      What developed was a collection with an intensity that I think is comparable only to what I feel are the best in the Cat Oars series, and the best anthologies anywhere.

      Writeorbust tells of a man and woman maturing together, but in an unusual dynamic. Train Whistle describes a couple at the end of their long road. Cufflink paints a lyrical picture of a man who longed for a woman and her beautiful voice, but is conflicted now that he has her. Laiadevorah wonders why she couldn’t make a cosmic connection – or even a less-than-cosmic connection. I tell the story of a man who looks back on his experience of that combination of opposites, his hallucinatory immersion into the woman he loved – in the context of his life as a refugee. R Toady explores the existential dilemmas of a contemporary shopping mall, the creation of art and the search for love – with a tip of the hat to Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.

      Toady asked if the book would be dedicated to Miss Conception. I told him it would be, and also to my friend Don H. Perfect, he responded: a double dedication, a man, a woman, they merge – syzygy.

      I just wish they were both still here to read the book. That was not to be. But I’ll remember them always.

      Adam and Ava

      Writeorbust

      NEXT THERE WAS THE PAIN IN HIS BACK, a twinge, as if a dull needle had passed through the base of his spine. As pains went, it was easily relegated to a growing list of minor symptoms, all of which combined might add up to something, but singly were each insignificant and tolerable. The loss of hair, the soft slackening of his skin, for instance, both caused Adam more alarm than the weak ache in his spine.

      Ava was not without sympathy. It is all part of it, she told him, speaking to his image. She sat at the vanity, straightening her long black curls into something fashionable and sleek. Beneath one raised arm, the reflection of Adam turned over, struggling to rise from the bed.

      Maybe you pulled something, she suggested, A muscle or something.

      The weight of years, Adam grunted, hefting himself upright, is what I've pulled.

      She watched him from beneath lush, dark lashes. The mystery of those eyelashes had captivated him, their implied secrets stunning him into giddiness in those early days when she was a fresh young thing and he was already a man with too much past. Now there were new mysteries hidden in her eyes, and Adam realized the lashes were only spiked bits of hair after all.

      Now he read the news. He read books and magazines, went to museums and the theatre. She was filled with career and children. He watched movies, listened to music, dabbled. She went to the gym, took Spin classes. Now he knew her by the things she did not know, and did not care to know. It was an overflow of lake water carving the Grand Canyon.

      Ava ran down the list of her day, subtly disparaging his weight of years. Her mouth was moving. She was saying something. But his skin had gone clammy and his spine had melted, and he could no longer understand her meaning, and he understood there was no meaning. Nothing she said required a response.

      Inch by inch, he left the room. Ava seemed not to care that he had become a snail, or that only habitat and behavior separated him from a slug. Did she know that only the thin luxury of his shell, the hollow shelter he carried with him always, kept him from going about exposed and slithering through the world? Perhaps in her mercy, she allowed the shell. Adam shrugged through the hallway, down the stairs, taking infinite time to curl and uncurl over the precarious edge of each step.

      Ava passed Adam on her way out the door. He sat drinking coffee at the kitchen table, reading the morning paper. Peering up at her, his eyes appeared moist, bugged out under the magnification of thick reading glasses. He was a disheveled, silly dear, she thought. She did not regret her marriage. She felt for Adam a genuine affection, and a true regard for his well-being. His stability allowed her to settle, yet paradoxically to spread and grow. And growth, she had learned, was her core strength and cottage industry. As her business thrived, their children grew taller every day, all tendril vines carefully tended and trained to a trellis.

      Are you off again? Adam noted the small travel suitcase, which she wheeled perpetually after her like a vendor's pushcart.

      Off again, she agreed. I told you all about it a minute ago. You never listen. I'll be back on Wednesday. The twins have a recital on Tuesday, so you'll have to cover that. Will you remember?

      Certainly. His eyes dilated on the ends of their ommatophores, taking in the long expanse of her legs, the curve of her ass. He turned his eyestalks upside down and peered up her skirt.

      Adam! What are you looking at?

      You. He retracted his eyes. She smiled indulgently at his open admiration. Adam reached for her and she opened her arms, folding him into a fragrant cloud of affection. She smelled humid and ripe.

      I'll miss you, she said. She mussed his remaining hair, kissed his pate, the skin tattooed with sun and age. Unique patterns were beginning to emerge.

      His radula scraped a subtle buzz saw across the succulent skin of her chest. Yes, she was grown to ripeness now. The razored tongue pulled a tiny ribbon of flesh. He savored its cool sweetness. A bit like cucumber, he thought.

      Ava laughed and pushed his hands away. She wheeled her suitcase out the door behind her with a cheerful wave. She would not miss the small bite he'd taken. Not this time. Not yet.

      The Couple

      Train Whistle

      GILLIAN SAW DARKNESS, felt it pressing on her chest. She heard voices calling for IV’s and stretchers, backboards and help. Above the blare of sirens someone said, Ma’am, Ma’am, can you hear me?

      Gillian felt arms reach under her, lifting her onto something hard and flat. A man’s voice, very close to her ear, said, "It’s gonna be alright Ma’am. You’re gonna be fine. This is an oxygen

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1