Shell Game: A Novella

A Short Story by John Lutz

Excerpt

The lowering sun was like a red eye peering over the pine trees on Gray Mountain, into the quiet band room. Hans Jorgan had been the music teacher and band director at Allville High School for ten years. He was forty- three and had given up his aspirations to compose Broadway musi-cals. It was, he often told his colleague and lover Ella Smith, a time in life for reality. Usually Ella would misinterpret his statement and turn the conversation in the direction of marriage—her notion of desired reality.