Stirrings Three novellas by Craig B. Smith Stirrings: Every morning, in cities across America, people arise to the dawn of a new day, sometimes to the ringing of an alarm clock, sometimes awakening to some other stimulus. In Martin's case it was shouting he heard outside his hotel window. How was that possible? His hotel room was on the 11th floor. To the couple necking in a car on Mulholland Drive, it was pink glow of dawn that reminded them that the night was over. For Shirley, music from her clock radio meant time for coffee before catching a bus to work, although the thought of going to the office depressed her. For an immigrant Vietnamese boat woman, morning labor pains meant her son was going to be born an American citizen. Chris, waking at 5:00 P.M. knew it soon would be time to hit the streets again, avoiding the police while trying to find a customer for the evening that would not beat her up. On a remote mountain hillside, a bobcat hunting quail perked its ears at the sound of a pickup truck carrying a man and a boy as it drove on a dirt road in the valley below. Elsewhere, Mr. Kobayashi sipped tea and reflected on his good fortune in meeting Thomas Ellesmere. Eight people, living vastly different lives, each wishing for a better day, wondering if dawn will see the stirrings of new hope, a happier life, a love found or reaffirmed. What if, in some unfathomable way, their paths cross? Fantasy Boutique: Shirley broke the mold and left her dead-end job, went back to college, earned a degree against the odds, and fell in love. On the verge of a new life, a vacation was warranted and she flew to a Caribbean island to relax and contemplate the future. Wandering along pristine beaches and in small shops in the village, she found a shop called Fantasy Boutique. There the proprietress shocked Shirley with a prophesy that she might realize her dream-an unspoken fantasy that Shirley had not voiced-while on the island. A boat sailed into the harbor with a stranger on board, but then sailed out again. So, it seemed that there was nothing to the prophesy, until a ferry arrived with Martin on board. The Night is Far Spent: Thomas Ellesmere grew up in Honolulu, attended Stanford University, and then joined the Army. At Schofield Barracks in Hawaii in the summer of 1941, he married his childhood sweetheart before shipping out to the Philippines. Six years later, after combat in the Philippines, a stint as a POW, and several years with the occupation forces in Japan, Thomas returned and entered MIT as a graduate student. His wife had divorced him during his long absence overseas, but he found Elsa Ramsey in her art gallery in New York after graduating from MIT and going to work for IBM. Thomas was recruited to work for a computer science company in California, saw a different future in the explosive growth potential of small computers, and decided to start his own company. He called Elsa in New York and asked her to fly out to California for a few days. "Why?" she asked. "So we can shop for a wedding dress," he replied. Under Thomas's guidance and with his partner David's technical skills, the company grew and soon was in key partnerships with former enemies in Japan and Germany. Thomas recruited Akira Kobayashi as Chief Financial Officer and made other strategic hires. As the company grew, some dissension among the employees threatened its success. Elsa succumbed to cancer, leaving Thomas wondering how many more blows he could sustain. When David also decided to move on, Thomas created a new operations manager position. The woman he hired to fill that position ultimately transformed the company and gave Thomas back his life and dreams.
About the Author: Craig B.Smith is the author of Efficient Electricity Use, (2nd ed.) Pergamon Press, Oxford, England, 1977, named "outstanding academic book of the year" by the American Library Association's Choice magazine; Energy Management Principles, Pergamon Press, Oxford, England, 1981; and How the Great Pyramid Was Built, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., 2004, Extreme Waves, which tells the story of giant ocean waves and tsunami, Joseph Henry Press, 2006, and Lightning: Fire from the Sky, which describes the origins of lightning and its risk to humans. His novels include House of Miracles, a story set in the backlands of Brazil in the 1960s, and Stirrings, three novellas. His education includes a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University and a M.S. and PhD. in engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles. He lives on the Balboa Peninsula, Newport Beach, California.