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    Friday Afternoon
    Friday Afternoon
    Friday Afternoon
    Ebook48 pages35 minutes

    Friday Afternoon

    By T.D. Johnston

    ()

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    About this ebook

    In a hurry, and stuck behind a dirty pickup truck on a lonely two-lane road in western North Carolina, corporate executive Bryce Stanford attempts a bad pass around the wrong guy. The events which follow will test his courage, his strength...and his soul. This is the story of a morally bankrupt man who seemingly has everything, until suddenly his every decision, every word, even every thought could make or break his fate. In the surreal tradition of The Twilight Zone, "Friday Afternoon" is an unforgettable journey into the inner reality of who a man really is, and whether he can survive a test which he does not know he is taking. As D.G. Bracey writes about this story, "T.D. Johnston's 'Friday Afternoon' is a percussive burst of genius."

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherT.D. Johnston
    Release dateApr 19, 2012
    ISBN9781476433806
    Friday Afternoon
    Author

    T.D. Johnston

    T.D. Johnston’s debut collection of a dozen short stories, titled "Friday Afternoon and Other Stories", is due out in the summer of 2012. His stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Short Story America, O. Henry, PineStraw and Civil War Camp Chest, among others. His first novel, "The Godfather Assassins", is also due out in the summer of 2012. He can be reached by email at tdjohnston@hotmail.com.

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      Book preview

      Friday Afternoon - T.D. Johnston

      "T.D. Johnston is a champion of the short story form. Nothing displays that more than Friday Afternoon. It is a percussive burst of genius."

      -D.G. Bracey, author of Basement Songs and other stories

      "Friday Afternoon by T. D. Johnston is a masterpiece that ranks with ‘The Swimmer’ and ‘The Lottery’. Something about being both predictive and horribly suspenseful at the same time: you know what is going to happen, but you are on nerve-wracking edge the whole way to the satisfying end. A champion literary piece. Bravo."

      -Gail Taylor, author of Tornado and Other Seasons: A Collection of Short Stories

      "T.D. Johnston's blistering page-turner Friday Afternoon is surreal, savagely funny and entertaining, proving that 'the short story' is in good hands, and here to stay..."

      -Mark Hunt, Producer of Tom Dowd and the Language of Music and other feature films

      FRIDAY AFTERNOON

      T.D. JOHNSTON

      Copyright 2010 T.D.Johnston

      Smashwords Edition

      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

      ***

      The rusty rear bumper of the sky-blue pickup bore no distractions for Bryce Stanford. Yet, he didn’t dare take his eyes off the obnoxious bumper sticker and its contention about Jesus. If the moron in the truck was going to go fifty in a fifty-five, Bryce would just have to let him know that some people on the planet actually had somewhere to be, rednecks notwithstanding. To stay tight in the pickup’s rearview, Bryce had to concentrate on Jesus Saves.

      Just his luck, too. Late Friday afternoon, stuck in a two-lane nightmare behind Jed frigging Clampett, when the party was starting at seven. Seven! He’d never make it. Not at this rate. What was worse was that Joan’s dad was going to ride him anyway, what with those yokels at Burton’s dropping the account without even looking at the goddamned numbers. It wasn’t as if Marvin needed more fodder for needling his son-in-law.

      "Jesus saves WHAT, you MORON?" Bryce yelled into the windshield, pumping his fist.

      As if in answer, the pickup’s speed dropped to forty-eight. Bryce imagined the guy in the truck, nothing to do, nowhere to be, such a goddamned redneck, enjoying a chuckle holding up the Bryce Stanfords of the world. Redneck’s revenge? A slow pickup on a Friday afternoon.

      The northbound traffic was maddeningly heavy. Bryce couldn’t find a decent shot at getting around Goober, so he groped for the black flair pen lying on the BMW’s tan leather passenger seat. He’d write the loser’s license number on his hand if he had to. Find out where the gomer worked and get his ass fired, if it was the last thing---

      A chance to pass. Not much of a chance, a distant part of him warned, but he was sure the chicken truck coming down the northbound hill was slugging along about as slowly as Goober, who had no right, none whatsoever, to make the C.E.O. of a Charlotte company late for anything, much less his father-in-law’s birthday party. He’d get around him because

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