Frolicville is named after the shipwreck of a trading vessel that was headed to San Francisco from China. The crew got disoriented in the salt fog and crashed onto the rocks near Light House Point. There was no lighthouse in 1850, the year of the shipwreck. The only...

  Butter Once when I was cooking I ran out of butter so I put things on hold and told Skip who was in the coffee shop to hang for a few and I walked the long block up to Mendosas. When I passed the barber shop Mitch came out as asked where I was going in such a hurry...

 A house sprouts up amidst fir, redwoods, oak and a few bohemian misfits like cedar and manzanita. It speaks the language of the forest but it takes a geometric form that is alien to trees. It is autumn, the time of albacore, huckleberries and apples.“What are you?”...

  Think in the Morning is working on a new book - The Frolic Cafe. We started this project some time ago but abandoned the idea for lack of time. We are now well into the writing/editing phase. Below are several collages you may recognize. These were the featured art...

  Let there be a little country without many people. Let them have tools that do the work of ten or a hundred, and never use them. Let them be mindful of death and disinclined to long journeys. They’d have ships and carriages, but no place to go. They’d have armor and...

 Hello darkness my old friend                        Paul Simon It’s been several weeks since I’ve been able to communicate with anyone. No internet, no phone, no television, no radio, no TV, no newspaper, no books—nothing. Not even the chance conversation. But, you...

 Not with a bang but a whimper               T.S. Eliot   The cities were the first to go when the robots took over. “For the same reason Willie Sutton robbed banks,” said Gee Bee Tee. “You can run but you can’t hide,” came the response across the chasm. “A few of us...

  I see things. Out of the corners of my eyes. Bears in the woods. Snakes in the grass. Spiders in my bed. Warnings. They aren’t really there. But, they might be. And that’s the point. Better to see what isn’t there than miss what is. The dead watch us. They are out...

 Unfinished Short Stories© 2023 David Herstle Jones Think in The Morning A list of short stories is posted below. These stories are unfinished. I am currently editing them. As they are edited they will be removed from this site and combined into a book to be...

  But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee.     Job 12-7  Tictetzoa in chalchihuitl, ticoaoazoa in quetaxlliYou have scratched the jade, you have torn apart the quetzal feather.     Aztec metaphor, Thelma D....

 A woman in a black and white minidress and black spiked heels walked up to the podium. The crowd grew silent. “What we as a country have lost is our intestinal fortitude. I’m entering this race for the Presidency of these United States to Return America To Sanity...

 Everyone said that Paul was born under a lucky star. The sun followed him wherever he went. There was seldom a dark cloud. He was loved. His friends were strong and his enemies weak. He’d seen death. Some friends. Some family. It shook him but it didn’t stop him from...