Janus- By: Ann Beattie

"Sometimes some people are in love with something that is not even living " This story is about a young lady named Andrea who is a real- estate agent. She lives with her husband in a small house. Andrea is a very superstitious girl because she thinks that a bowl helps her sell all the houses that she puts up for sale. She also thinks that the bowl helps her make more clients. The bowl is a very noticeable object. It has a cream colour glaze appearance that glows in any kind of light that would be shining on it. The bowl also has a few bits of colours in it that are in geometric shapes. Andrea’s technique for selling the houses was the bowl. She did this by bringing it to the house that she would be selling, so that people would look at the bowl, comment on it, and would bid on the house. Andrea had a very profitable year with selling houses, and it was all because of the bowl. Everyone whoever went to see the house that was for sale would forget about looking at the house and comment on the bowl. Andrea loved her bowl; she would always keep it safe and take it with her wherever she would go. She would always talk about it with her husband and her husband who loves her so much would always support her in what she thought and said. During a night, she was questioning herself about whether or not was she starting to have a relationship with the bowl? Was she starting to love her bowl more than her husband? She thought about it for a while and finally realised that whatever she was thinking was ridiculous. Then she started go in flashback about how she got the bowl, which was at the crafts fair. Her husband bought the bowl for her as a present. She thought about how much her husband loved her and whatever he did for her that would make her really happy. Such as buying presents that were very valuable. As the clock was ticking, Andrea was sitting in the living room staring at the bowl that shined blue light......

A City of Churches- By: Donald Barthelme

" Sometimes believing a person could be a deceit " This story is about a young lady named Cecelia. She is new to a city named Prexter -a city of churches. Cecelia went to real estate person named Mr Phillips. Mr Phillips showed her the town and told her that every person that is in this town lives in churches that are right next to each other. She was looking forward in starting a car rental business so she asked him about whether or not is this a good idea. Mr Phillips said that no one owns a car here and that if someone owns a car that means they are going somewhere. He also said that the people that live in Prexter don’t often go anywhere but starting a car rental business might be a good idea. While walking pass many churches they opened a door of a building and entered a good sized room which was perfect for Cecelia. This room had a bed, a rug , tables , chairs , lamps, also there were windows that were on all four sides and last but not the least four huge bells that hung in the centre of the room. While looking at the bells Cecelia questioned about whether or not these bells rang. Mr Phillips answered yes to that question. Before Cecelia could ask anything else, the doors of the other churches started to open and people came out and started staring at Cecelia and Mr Phillips. A young man from the crowd finally yelled that Mr Phillip’s is lying, everyone in this town owns car, and there is not one person that lives in Prexter who doesn’t own a car. Cecelia asked Mr Phillips about whether if this was true and he answered yes. Now Cecelia wanted to leave the town and did not want to start a car rental business since there was not one person who didn’t own a car in Prexter. But Mr Phillips gripped her arm and stopped her from leaving the town. He told her that she is not going anywhere and that she has to start a car rental business in Prexter........

The Second tree from the Corner – By: E.B White

" Sometimes some people have the desire to live only" This story starts in a Psychiatrist’s office when the psychiatrist asks a question to Mr Trexler about whether or not he gets any bizarre thoughts. Trexler took some time to answer that question because he did not like to share any thoughts with the psychiatrist, but finally he said no. After a twenty minute session the doctor told Trexler that he was only scared and that there was no other problem with him. The doctor figured this out because for every question he asked him, Trexler would move away from the psychiatrist’s desk. That day Trexler left his office but returned every day of the week for another session, which gave him some time to get used to the psychiatrist.

The final session of the week finally had come. In this session, the psychiatrist asked Trexler about what did he want or achieve in life. Trexler did not know what he wanted in life so he started asking the same question to the psychiatrist. This was Trexler’s habit of becoming the person that he knows. For example he knows the barber at the barbershop, and sometimes he would try to become the barber and start cutting his hair. Now he was trying to become the psychiatrist and make the psychiatrist his patient. The psychiatrist answered the question anyway by saying that wanted money so that he could do the things that he wanted to do. Trexler got angry and said that if he's the one asking the question to the psychiatrist then for why is he paying the money to the psychiatrist. He left the office and on the way home he was thinking what he actually wanted in life.

On the way home, he got the dizziness symptoms and was standing by a tree in the park. While looking at other trees he said that he wanted the second tree from the corner. When he got on the bus he thought about the bizarre thought that he just had in the park .........

Zelig- By: Benjamin Roseblatt

" Sometimes you might have to sacrifice your dreams for others" This story is about an old man named Zelig, who had a very awkward appearance. He lived with his wife, son and grandson, in New York. Zelig was a type of person who did not like to socialize with other people. He would just go to work which is the cloak shop and do what he was told. Many people would comment about him either that he was weird or he was an alien, because he would never smile or even talk to anyone. He even wore different clothes than other people. Every day Zelig would save every penny that he got from his job and put it under his pillow. He did this because his desire was to go back to Russia and die where he was born. One day Zelig got the news about his son getting a sudden attack because he suffered from tuberculosis. Zelig ran to get a physician but the physician said that there was no chance of survival. After a few days his son had died. Now Zelig was living with his wife and grandson. After a month or two Zelig had enough money to go to Russia, so he was planning when to go. But, his grandson told his grandma who was Zelig’s wife that he did not want to go to University in Russia but in New York. He said this because he knew the Russian Universities will never accept him. Zelig got really angry at him but his wife explained to him about her son’s death, and also to feel pity for his grandson for once. That night Zelig was thinking about what to do whether to let his grandson stay in New York or take him and his wife to Russia. After a while he figured out what to do and told his grandson that he can continue his education in New York.