About the author:
Gadralneure enjoys writing stories that examine the reactions of ordinary people in extraordinary situations. He likes to highlight the ironies of life and how we meet challenges. His short stories owe a great deal to the style of the author O Henry, who is known for his wordplay and twist endings.
Work Spotlight:💡 Flights of Fancy is a collection of stories to thrill, entertain, and enlighten. It currently boasts 14 thought provoking tales of fantasy, mystery, murder, love, sci-fi, and war. within the mind and around the globe and universe, journey with the heroes and fools, the victims and the villains as they search for love, redemption, and meaning in a sometimes cruel, but always fascinating, world.
"Surprises"
Akira smiled to himself. He hated surprises, he always had, so it was with some satisfaction that he walked down the street early Monday morning thinking about his birthday. He was glad to be home. He recalled his time at Princeton in the United States and remembered his birthdays there. It was all about surprises. Surprise birthday parties were almost a requirement in the United States and he hated them. He remembered the stress he felt when his roommate, Jeremy, discovered the date of his birthday. Akira recalled walking through the door that evening when suddenly thirty people jumped out and screamed at him. He hated being the center of attention. Akira was a man who enjoyed his privacy. He smiled again knowing that surprise parties were not common here in Japan, that he would have a peaceful and relaxing day. He did not like surprises.
As Akira walked briskly down the street, he noticed the groups of laughing children making their way to school as they always did, and again he smiled, remembering the carefree days of his childhood when the worries of the world were still distant. It was a hard time now, but it would get better, it always did. As he was lost in his recollections, a young child of about fourteen jumped out from behind a tree and screeched in an effort to scare him. The child succeeded and Akira found himself angry. He did not like surprises.
As he passed the market, he noticed some of the vendors beginning to set up their stations for the day and suddenly, pangs of hunger made themselves known. Akira decided to go to his favorite tea shop and grab himself a bite to eat. As he approached the store, an annoying feeling that something was not right intruded on his contentment. The shop was closed. A sign read, "Master Yoko is ill today, we will resume business tomorrow." Akira pouted. He did not like surprises.
He decided to purchase a snack from a street vendor and sit on one of the benches along the boulevard. The food was tasty, the weather warm and pleasant, and it was quite a satisfying experience, all in all. He paused for a while, watching the hustle and bustle of the people, buying food at the market and walking to wherever it is they needed to be, even at this early hour.
This is as it should be, he thought, everything pleasant, everything orderly, no chaos, simply a calm and peaceful morning. He did not like surprises.
Akira had enjoyed his time in the United States and his education there. He had made good friends. He was upset that he had lost contact with them and hoped that they were well. Akira regretted not having had the opportunity to visit them in the past few years, but hopefully that would change sometime in the near future. Yet his college memories were bittersweet, he was to marry his childhood sweetheart when he returned with his degree, but she had found someone else and it broke his heart. He did not like surprises.
Akira got up from the bench and continued walking to his place of employment. He glanced at his watch, it was ten past 8. He muttered a curse under his breath, he was going to be late. He should not have stopped for food, he realized, he had gotten caught up in his own thoughts and now he would have to endure an almost certain berating by his boss. Akira had not planned for this. He did not like surprises.
Akira quickened his place, he had not been this late for a long time. He could see the building where he worked up ahead.
It wasn't that bad, he thought, they might not even notice. He would work, go home to celebrate his birthday with his family and everything would be fine. Then tomorrow, everything would be calm and normal again, as it always was. Akira was determined that there would be no further surprises today. He did not like surprises.
Suddenly, an uncomfortable feeling overtook him. Something was definitely wrong, something unexpected was in the air.
Another unwanted surprise, he thought. Akira looked around. There was not time for this. He glanced at his watch. It was 8:15 . He noticed people looking up into the sky. He looked up as well.
It was 8:15, on his birthday August 6, and there was something falling from the sky above his beloved home of Hiroshima. Akira tried to determine what it was, but could not. Suddenly a brilliant fireball brighter than the sun burst forth above his head. It was the last surprise Akira would ever have to endure.
"If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once in the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one....
Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."
- J. Robert Oppenheimer, after the detonation of the first atomic bomb, July 16, 1945.
