- Richard
- Lizzie
- Tom
- Serendipidy
- Norval Joe
- Planet Z
LIZZIE
The omnibus edition included three of eight books. The release would take place in a week. However, the printing took longer than expected. The printer kept having to reprint everything. Odd pages would appear. After a few attempts, the editor decided to just print it and see what happened. We’ll say it’s a special remixed edition, he said. Right before the release, the editor leafed through the book. There was nothing wrong. And then he noticed it. There were not three but four books included, all in perfect order. Sometimes, we just have to let magic happen on its own.
RICHARD
Bus Stop
Omnibus… an old-fashioned word, yet so descriptive. A versatile prefix instantly saying everything to know about the object it describes.
An omnidirectional microphone, the sort that can pick up sound from any direction. An omnipresent being, depending on your deity of choice, is a presence that is everywhere around us, (yes, even in the bedroom, where you get up to ‘things’.
And let’s endow our deity with omnipotence, just to round things off nicely.
Have you noticed though how we’ve stopped using omnibus, and now just use ‘bus’?
Because they don’t go any bloody where you need them to!
TOM
The Chevrolet 2037 Omnibus
See the USA in your Chevrolet America’s asking you to call Drive your Chevrolet through the USA America’s the greatest land of all On a highway or a road along a levee Performance is sweeter, nothing can beat her Life is completer in a Chevy So, make a date today to see the USA And see it in your Chevrolet Travelin’ east, travelin’ west Wherever you go Chevy service is best Southward or north, near place or far There’s a Chevrolet dealer for your Chevrolet car See the USA in your Chevrolet. Chevrolet Omnibus seats 160 luxury on gravedigger’s wage.
SERENDIPIDY
My parents were avid readers of horror stories, but they didn’t really have much class.
Rather than spend good money on decent book collections, they’d buy those big, thick omnibus volumes of dubious horror. Unknown authors writing bargain basement trash; but my parents were of the quantity over quality school, and the thicker the collection, the better, in their minds.
I read them all, of course, and I knew right from the start, I could do so much better myself.
But, to write decent horror, one has to undertake copious research.
After all, they do say to write from experience.
NORVAL JOE
When the social worker arrived they all sat in the living room as Sabrina told her story.
The woman closed one eye skeptically. “You’re telling me that this boy’s parents kidnapped you to create a tsunami to wipe out a coven of witches, and then they were carried away in a tornado?”
“No,” Sabrina said. “Only his father was.”
“Well, that makes it all better,” she said with heavy sarcasm. “Let me add that to my omnibus of pitiful excuses. I’ll have to take Sabrina and find a more appropriate placement for her.”
“Please,” Billbert’s mother said. “Wait one moment.”
PLANET Z
The route to my grade school went along a road with a lot of construction. And they were frequent potholes and carve outs in the narrow lanes. Our usual bus driver navigated these rather skillfully. Never driving too fast. However, when they took a day off, the substitute driver was reckless. thankfully, We made it along the rough road easily, but when we turned into a residential area, he hit the speed bumps pretty hard. The kids in the far back were thrown against the ceiling. One broke his neck and died. And I didn’t get home until after dark.