8 Short Stories by John Hartig. You can save them for a rainy day, and a coffee. We start out with Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo arguing in front of the Pearly Gates. What do you expect? Saint Peter is flustered. What's more, he has a couple of defunct violinists pop in on him with a few Popes, and he gets, understandably, extremely upset, especially since he has to keep track of who's who while the throng mills around at the Pearly Gates. While we leave Saint Peter dealing with whoever pops in at the Pearly Gates, the author of this collection of 8 short stories, John Hartig, remembers the week in which his mother, Rosa Hartig passed away back in 2012. John sat and read in the room, whiling away the time, immersed in a novel about time travel by Captain James T. Kirk. John's mother occasionally came to consciousness and he held her hand. And so it goes At least, there was time for a coffee break with Harry Rittenhouse when John got back to Vineland. Harry had a dry sense of humour. He lived to be103 years old, waiting for visitors like me to drop into the United Mennonite Home. Two years later, a neighbour across the street, Wilma de Jager, passed away, which is a clear message that time does not stand still for anybody. Not even winning a lottery ticket could cure the problem of time and death. In fact, winning the lottery could be a good motive for murder. Thank goodness, we had Sgt. Benton Wright of the RCMP catch the culprit. Captain James T. Kirk has an unfair advantage, however, with all that futuristic stuff from the 24th century, by using warp speed to sling the Enterprise back to 1901, where Kirk asks H. G. Wells to borrow his Time Machine. Kirk then slips from time period to time period, collecting a total of 6 of the world's best violinists to bring them to the year 2328 for a fiddle contest at the Hollywood Bowl. But let the story tell itself So if you have a cup of coffee at hand, and some time to kill, and it doesn't matter if it's a rainy day or not, sit back and relax and enjoy these little yarns that I've spun for your enjoyment. -- John Hartig 2019
