Short Encounters

Curtz Jackson introduces his first collection of short stories involving brief meetings between individuals having life-alternating impacts. The selections consist of drama, science-fiction, crime, and paranormal.
In the first story, "Tom's Homeland," an American visitor ventures to an international land he's utterly unfamiliar with, lost in the congestion of local travelers at a busy airport. Tom must make contact with the one person who will change his life forever. A familiar hometown yearning will connect them.
The missing romance of a lonely man is on the verge of being answered in the second story, "Hard to Digest." The online courtship Freddie has been enjoying with a beautiful, foreign woman is about to be realized. Before he can take her into his arms, Freddie gets a time-sensitive call for action to save a life.
In "Ring," the third story, a divorcing woman is contacted by her unborn daughter from the future. The daughter, Dilly, brings with her a grim warning pressuring her mother, Teasel, to make the most difficult decision of her life.
In "Relocation," Sandy aborted a critical mission commissioned by her government. She lost her citizenship for the choice to live a renewed life in an advanced civilization. All is well until Sandy is called to return home. Her romantic attachment to Henry complicates the upsetting request.
The sixth story, "The Escape Artist," presents a single parent's dilemma. What will happen to Gary's 9-year daughter, Stacy, if he is taken in custody for a federal offense his family obligated him to support? The dreaded answer comes closer when a curious FBI agent takes an active interest in Stacy's school art - and her father.
In the final story, "The Arrow," escaped convict, Pistra values directing his young son, Hector's life than freedom. No question why he is willing to take risks, harm, and possibly murder individuals to abduct Hector. He is dangerous, cunning, and physically intimating. Nothing seems to halt him except for an unexpected opposer, whose simple argument may cease Pistra's destructive path.
These insightful stories in this collection a reader may treasure re-reading because the lessons of human nature continue without a due date.