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    Khrushchev's Second Chance
    Khrushchev's Second Chance
    Khrushchev's Second Chance
    Ebook109 pages1 hour

    Khrushchev's Second Chance

    By Mel C. Thompson

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    About this ebook

    In this fantasy, "the gods" allow the former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to go back in time to fulfill a wish that had been denied him when visiting the U.S. The original plot was the brainchild of a history buff who said to me on the phone one night that it had always bothered him that when Khrushchev visited the United States, it was determined that having him go to a place a complex as Disneyland was too great a security risk. He wished someone would write a book 'righting this wrong.' And so I decided to write that book. This book creates a mythology that makes not only that fantasy come true, but many other things not included in the original idea. The book is full of theological comedy, where the Atheist Khrushchev is confronted with a series of Buddhist and Hindu entities and finally Jesus Christ Himself, along with the Virgin Mary. The book presumes that each "all-powerful" creature is not as all-powerful as we might have believed, and that the cosmos itself is run more like an unruly bureaucracy in which all players are subject to rules over which no one person or thing seems to have final control. The outcomes are rather the "bargains" or "compromises" reached as each character seeks to get his "job" done. Like all of my works, the fiction or poetry is not "pure art" in and of itself, but always has the ulterior motive of clouding the philosophical waters and moving everything into a state of uncertainty, divine uncertainty, where not-knowing again makes all things plausible, at least theoretically, if not practically.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMel C. Thompson
    Release dateJun 16, 2017
    ISBN9781370670208
    Khrushchev's Second Chance
    Author

    Mel C. Thompson

    Mel C. Thompson is a retired wage slave who survived by working through temp agencies and guard agencies. Unable to survive in the real world of full-time, permanent work, he migrated from building to building, going wherever his agencies sent him, doing any type of work he could feign competency in and staying as long as those fragile arrangements could last. He somehow managed to get a B.A in Philosophy from Cal-State Fullerton in spite of his learning disorders and health problems. Unable to sustain family life due to depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, lack of transportation and lack of income, he lives alone in low-income housing and wanders around California on buses and trains. He began writing at the age of 14 and continues till the current day. (He turns 64 in June of 2023). In his early years he wrote pathetic love poetry until, in his thirties, he was engulfed by cynicism and fell in with a group of largely antisocial poets who wrote about the underground life of drugs, sex, alcohol, poverty, prostitution, heresy, isolation and alienation. In his fortes he turned to prose and began to write religious fiction with an emphasis on the comedic aspect of theology and philosophy. He now writes short novels focusing on the attempt to find meaning in a economic world beset with money laundering, unethical marketing, contraband smuggling, human trafficking, patent trolling, corrupt contracting and every manner of spiritual and psychological desperation and degradation. When he is not writing, he wanders from hospital to medical clinic to surgical room attempting to sustain what little health he has left after a lifetime of complications resulting from birth defects and genetic problems. When he is able, he engages in such hobbies as reading, walking, yoga and meditation; and whenever there is any money left over from his healthcare-related quests, he goes to wine tastings and searches for foodie-related bargains. Before the pandemic, he spent many years gaming various travel-points systems and wrangled many free trips to Europe. He is divorced and has no children, no pets, no real estate, no stocks nor any other assets beyond the $550 in his savings account. His career peaked in the early 2000s when he did comedy gags for a radio station and had about 10,000 listeners per week. However, currently, he may have as few as five active readers on any given day. He no longer has the stamina to promote his work and only finds new readers through ran...

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      Book preview

      Khrushchev's Second Chance - Mel C. Thompson

      *

      KHRUSHCHEV’S SECOND CHANCE

      Mel C. Thompson

      Copyright © 2008, Pleasant Hill, California

      Copyright © 2023, Lafayette, California

      Mel C. Thompson Publishing

      3559 Mount Diablo Boulevard, #112

      Lafayette, CA 94549

      melcthompson@protonmail.com

      *

      Cover Image And Graphics Credits:

      Vector_diagram_of_laboratory_mouse_(black_and_white).svg.png

      This work was used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share alike 4.0 International license. It was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons in December of 2013 by the author of the work Gwilz as a line drawing. The white coloration (which we inverted to black) was contributed by the user Ilzolende. Technical note: The image came as a transparency.

      Hammer_and_sickle_red_on_transparent.svg.png

      This is a public domain work downloaded from Wikimedia Commons. It was first uploaded to the site in 2007 by an author named odder who sites his source as the Flags of the Soviet Union Between 1955-1991. He includes the note, "albeit Red instead of Gold. Technical note: The image came as a transparency.

      Soviet Gray Background, Mouse Inversion, Hammer and Sickle Placement and White Cut-Out Text

      The graphic designer, Mel C. Thompson, opted for a dark gray page background within the palette of the LibreOffice Draw module (which he refers to as Soviet Gray). He then, using GIMP image processing software, inverted the white mouse into

      a black mouse. Since the background of the mouse illustration was transparent, it was easy to place the now black mouse onto

      the Soviet Gray background. The next task was to then place the transparency of the red hammer and sickle onto the mouse’s back. And finally, an open-source font called Liberation Serif was placed on the cover in the form of white cut-out text.

      Warning: See the Wikimedia Commons pages for these symbols for a full list of countries where these symbols are illegal or their use is highly restricted. (This consists mostly of former Soviet republics and so-called Soviet satellite nations.)

      *

      Special thanks to Anna Wolfe for her proofreading and editorial help.

      Special thanks to Steve Cosgrove who wrote the poem that appears on page 39 and who hatched the idea for this unlikely book.

      *

      This book is dedicated to the late May Metzger, my biological mother, who passed away in Hemet, California on February 29th, 2012. She lived most of her life in hiding and legally changed her name to Patricia Lane in order to escape the past which always hounded her. She lived her last years going by the name of Patricia Lane. When I last saw her in person, Nikita Khrushchev was still alive.

      *

      Table of Contents

      1. Avalokiteshvara And The Great Void

      2. Sensei In Mexico

      3. A Simple Man In A Modest White Room

      4. A Visit To Brahmá’s Heaven

      5. Hanuman Offers Some Explanation

      6. Our Hero Awakens From His Dream

      7. Then A Knock On The Door

      8. Krishna Tends Bar

      9. The Secretary of State’s Unpleasant Visit

      10. Eisenhower Has A Little Talk With The Speaker

      11. Sensei Becomes A Security Guard

      12. Khrushchev Meets Another Poet

      13. Run!

      14. A Staring Match That Would Have Lasted An Eternity

      15. Stopover In The Kingdom of Heaven

      16. A Rural Hospital In Latin America

      17. A Conversation Between Two Soldiers

      18. Afterword: Short Story About A Short Story

      *

      Chapter 1

      Avalokiteshvara And The Great Void

      Return to Table of Contents

      May 2, 2008

      After Nikita Khrushchev passed away, he found himself before an incomprehensible throne. It was the abode of the Great Bodhisattva of Compassion, Avalokiteshvara. Before this throne were approximately one billion monks. Circling this great altar were tens of millions of dragons, angelic singers, demons, multi-headed trumpeters and multi-armed drummers. The number of dignitaries, masters, illuminati, scholars, kings, emperors, knights, princes, generals, servants, soldiers and other world saviors was simply beyond all ability to enumerate. Although the display itself was perhaps a light-year across, one could easily see an open field of emptiness around it spreading into infinity in all directions. It was the great void, the ineluctable emptiness that pervades all forms, sensations, aggregations, sounds and emotions in the universe.

      Khrushchev blinked a few times, looked around indignantly and then looked again toward the throne, appearing to vaguely disapprove of the surroundings. In short, he was utterly unimpressed and wished to get right to the heart of the matter. Avalokiteshvara peered out from the impenetrable cloud of his enlightenment and nodded his head wistfully.

      Where am I, and what is expected of me here? demanded Khrushchev bluntly and curtly.

      Avalokiteshvara replied, Oh, I see, so no one briefed you.

      Briefed me? said Khrushchev in an impatient tone. For your information, I am the Secretary General of The Communist Party of The Soviet Union. If there is to be briefing done, it shall be me who briefs you.

      You may be in a bit over your head here, noted the Bodhisattva. After all, this altar alone is the size of the entire Russian Federation times ten thousand.

      Yes, indeed, countered Khrushchev, but it all wreaks of Capitalist sensationalism and self-indulgence. I have never heard of this nation, but, after we overthrow those consumerist stooges in the West, we’ll come and liberate this country too. The International Workers Movement knows no boundaries. And, as of now, I find that I am not moved by all of this hocus pocus. Now please tell me where I may go to exit this little theater and return to my duties as General Secretary.

      I’m afraid we’re not on the same page here, said Avalokiteshvara gently. "You seem not to realize that you are

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