Fantasiesa collection of fantasies by J.A. Aarntzen Mosquitoes in Heaven J.A. Aarntzen
Jerry Fieri discovers that he is upon a field where ahead of him is a gate. He quickly surmises that his life on Earth had come to an end and that he is now on the verge of entering Heaven. This does not surprise him in the least since he had led an exemplary life that did not veer from the tenets and expectations of his faith. What does surprise him however was the man that worked at the gate. It was not St. Peter. It was just a regular guy by the name of Stan who quickly buries Jerry in reams of paperwork. Bureaucracy has an afterlife as well. Amongst the paperwork was a vow that required Jerry to swear that he would not harm any living thing that he finds up here. When Stan asks Jerry where he would like to settle, Jerry decided that he wanted to live in something akin to the rolling country of Kentucky. He had lived his life in the urban sprawl of Baltimore and thought that he would prefer the bucolic lifestyle instead. Once the processing at the Gate was completed, an Amish man in a buggy arrives to take Jerry to his new homestead. From Ivan Yoder, Jerry learns that Heaven is not quite as he expected it to be. Almost every creature from all over the Universe comes here regardless of where they may have been along the evolutionary ladder during their mortal life. He also learns that he is not truly immortal. He along with everybody else is susceptible to death here but everybody will be continually reincarnated upon death throughout eternity. When they arrive to his homestead in the country, Jerry is immediately disappointed. It was not at all as he expected it to be. It was a forlorn lonely shack tucked in the middle of nowhere with no nearby neighbors. Jerry immediately asks Ivan to take him back to the gate but Ivan declines saying that he has another fare to which he must attend. Jerry is left by himself at the homestead. He decides that he would have nothing to do with it. He does not even enter the building. He was determined that he would go to the city and have himself reassigned there. But his conundrum was that he did not know where the city was. He did not even know what direction to take. This did not stop him from leaving the homestead. He embarked on his journey. He soon discovers that he is a long way from any other living being. He journeys across an endless prairie and quickly grows tired, hungry and thirsty, all elements proving that he was still in a living body that required rest and sustenance. He comes across an ant hill and breaks the vow that he had made at the Gate regarding not harming any living creature. Mosquitoes in Heaven follows Jerry’s trek across what he believes to be Heaven. He eventually meets creatures/beings from other parts of the Universe as well as proto human beings from the distant past of Earth. His guardian angel meets up with him and from this guardian angel he learns that there has been a mistake and that he should not be here at all. A hearing would have to take place to determine if Jerry should be permitted to stay.
J.A. Aarntzen Corman had the life. He was the biggest fish in the lake. He had many plump and content wives with whom he wiled away long, warm afternoos in a private cove. Everything was perfect for the carp. But then one night zebra mussels marched into his world. They scattered Corman's females away. Corman woke up the next morning to discover that he was alone. At once, he set out to find his last wives. But his lake was big, and it was connected to a series of other lakes. His girls could be in any one of them. Frinding them would be like finding a needle in a haystack. Corman the Carp follows the carp's forays and follies as he scours the lake country in search of his wives. He makes friends and enemies along
J.A. Aarntzen Jack Thurston eagerly awaited his return to Black Island, his mother’s family retreat in Canada’s wild and pristine cottage country of 1929. Yet when the young lad of 10 arrived no one would have anything to do with him, not his grandfather, not his aunt and uncle, his cousins, not even his mother. He soon discovered that the physical world itself would not interact with him. He no longer possessed even the simple skill of opening a door. The only ones that took note of him were two eerie strangers, a haggard old woman and a creepy little boy that seemed to be always lurking in the shadows. When his grandfather suddenly took ill Jack knew that these strangers were somehow connected. The urgency of his grandfather’s condition demanded that he be rushed to the hospital at once. The worried and distressed family went along with the dying old man. They somehow had forgotten Jack. He was left by himself trapped inside the cottage on Black Island with nobody other the two strangers who were trying to get in. The Little Boy of the Forest follows Jack’s odyssey into loneliness and fear with his undying hope that one day his family will return.
by J.A. Aarntzen Her world began to fall apart on that fateful day on Pioneer Lake when her parents had that big fight with her grandfather. Little did any know that her grandfather would die that day and that withibn a week the remaining Meadowfords would be burying him. The rest of her summer she would be plagued by him. She began running. And even as she ran, he would follow, coralling her to the only possible destination that she could go, to the place where it all began. Readers first met Thora Meadowford in The Little Boy of the Forest. Now in this next chapter in the Grappling Haven family legacy, follow Thora as she hovers on the brink of madness trying to make sense of a once proud dynasty and the curse that seeks to destroy it.
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