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    Vienna, USA
    Vienna, USA
    Vienna, USA
    Ebook77 pages1 hour

    Vienna, USA

    By Nick Hayden

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    About this ebook

    Vienna is a small Midwestern town like a hundred others, but if you look closely, it has its stories. Collected here are five stories from Vienna, where ordinary people encounter the big questions of life.

    In "Transitions," a young man has to decide whether he's ready to grow up. A granddaughter deals with her grandfather's ALS in "Old Man." Richard Higgins, Vienna reporter, learns something startling when "Local Man Struck By Lightning Survives." In "The Love Letter," an emotionless bachelor tries to discover what love is. And, finally, experience a story told in reverse in the character study "That Which Is Hidden."

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNick Hayden
    Release dateMar 15, 2012
    ISBN9781476168913
    Vienna, USA
    Author

    Nick Hayden

    Nick Hayden has never known exactly what to write in his author's bio, but he's willing to try. Nick is married to his lovely wife Natasha, he is father to his wonderful son Fyodor. (No, we are not Russian.) Sometimes Nick really loves to write. Sometimes, he prefers to dream about writing. Most times, he enjoys reading things he's already written. Without a doubt, he has to write. He truly believes that fiction is a lie that tells the truth. That is why he writes, and that is why he loves fiction. He tends to read books published before his birth, though he is always willing to make exceptions. He tends to write speculative fiction, though he is always willing to make exceptions. Nick believes in the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus Christ and believes that Jesus is the truth. This may very well show up in his writings, but hopefully won't land like a piano from a third story window. Above all, Nick hopes that something here will inspire you, entertain you, make you think, or simply make you smile. If not, he supposes he'll have to keep at it until something does.

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      Book preview

      Vienna, USA - Nick Hayden

      Vienna, USA

      By Nick Hayden

      Copyright 2012 Nick Hayden

      Smashwords Edition, License Note

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author

      ~~~

      Table of Contents

      A Few Quick Words

      Transitions

      The Love Letter

      Local Man Struck By Lightning Survives

      Old Man

      The Which Is Hidden

      Other Works by Nick Hayden

      A Few Quick Words

      The city of Vienna is fictional but barely. Anyone who lives in Kendallville, Indiana, may recognize a landmark or two. Other locations are made-up wholesale. This mix of fact and fiction weaves itself through the whole collection. The initial story, Transitions, is inspired by my father's cross-country trip and subsequent assumption of ownership of the family business. The postcard on the office wall is word for word from a postcard my father actually wrote.

      Old Man is another personal story, this one for my mother. Nearly every detail of Maggie's Grandpa is lifted from my own grandpa's life. He was an amazing man, and I'm glad I captured a bit of him in fiction.

      The letter Mark finds at the beginning of The Love Letter is copied from a letter my now-wife wrote before we started dating. Luckily, the rest of that story is made-up.

      And, as much as I would like to meet the real Richard Higgins, he, too, is a figment of my imagination.

      ~Nick Hayden

      Transitions

      Mitch had long grown accustomed to the rhythm of orange lights over the dash of the van, and in the days to come, when the road was not so long or so lonely, the sounds of Meatloaf and Led Zepplin and the Rolling Stones would still echo in his mind. But this road was ending, and Greg was asleep in the passenger seat, so Mitch exchanged the classic rock station for a cassette tape of American Pie, which Greg hated. The van was old, with too many miles before they had rolled the odometer 10,000 more. Plus, tapes were cheaper than CDs.

      The interstate continued east to the ocean, a line connecting dots of orange street lights, and Mitch thought he could continue until the morning and beyond, driving without a care, like Peter Pan flying toward his star. But he had already seen the Atlantic, and the Pacific, too; and he had delayed two weeks extra already; and in half a mile he would turn onto State Road 7; and at half past two in the morning, only 45 minutes from now, he’d enter the town of Vienna, his home.

      Like most small Midwestern towns, the allusion to European grandeur didn’t mesh with the Low Bob’s Discount Tobacco stores and fast food strips. Mitch’s trek across the country had shown him grandeur — the dark depths of Mammoth Cave, the solitary enigma of Devil’s Tower, the seaside views from San Francisco’s hills, the chiseled skyline of New York City — but it was more than memories of landmarks and monuments that lingered in his mind: the crabs swarmed the beaches beside the Barrier; the trails twisted beneath unending trees in Michigan’s Paradise; the eye sped swift across the Utah flats.

      He took the exit onto State Road 7. He should have called Maggie earlier that night, but he hated phones. He never knew what to say. He had barely remembered to call her two weeks ago, when he had told her he would not be home that night, that he and Greg were spending a few extra weeks away to see the rodeo in Cheyenne. She hadn’t said much, but it was a woman’s silence, and he knew he would have to bear her anger soon.

      He had forgotten her sometimes, unintentionally, when consumed with the sights and decisions and everyday demands of surviving and enjoying life on the road—not because he did not love her, but because his world, for that short time, had not and could not involve her. He decided he would surprise her tomorrow at Burger King. She worked there to pay the tuition at Saint Anna’s Nursing College 30 miles north of Vienna.

      State Road 7 was dark. Greg stirred occasionally as he slept. Mitch rewound American Pie and hit play again.

      His father would want an answer tomorrow; Mitch was two weeks late.

      Mitch stopped thinking and concentrated on the lyrics of the song, mouthing the words silently. He did not fear falling asleep. The cooler in the back was full of empty Mountain Dew cans. A pair of headlights approached, then disappeared with a whoosh of sound. The song was ending again.

      Them good ol’ boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye, singin’,

      This will be the day that I die.

      Mitch shut off the tape player and watched the swift speed of yellow lines. He traveled through two small towns, just as he had traveled through hundreds in the last three months, but as Mitch watched their passing, he found memories attached to the familiar buildings, and, for the first time, he realized that he approached home, that place he had always known, that held within it people and events just as the rest of the

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