Short stories 1

  Short stories by Costas Axelos

Costas Axelos

 


Being
A Chinese sage walks with his disciple. They cross a bridge.
- What is the being (or the essence) of the bridge? Asks the philosopher's apprentice.
His teacher looks at him in surprise and with a push he throws him into the river.
The search

A man wandered the world throughout his life in search of the philosopher's stone that would turn the most vulgar metal into gold. He wandered through mountains and valleys, dressed in a sackcloth tied to his body by means of a belt with a metal buckle. Whenever it seemed to him that a stone could be the stone, he rubbed it against his buckle and was forced to throw it.
One afternoon when he was very tired, he came to the shack of an old peasant woman and asked her to eat and drink. The old woman questioned him, and after having listened in silence, she noticed her buckle and said:
"Poor man, you have thrown the precious stone, have you not noticed that your buckle has already turned to gold?"
Death
Once a Chinese Mandarin proposed this measure to the governor of a province, who soon adopted it. At the moment when the victim had to rest, his head on the heel so that the executioner could cut it off, a decked knight galloped up and exclaimed: Stop! The Sire has granted its grace to the condemned to death! In that moment of supreme euphoria, the executioner cut off the head of the happy mortal.


The voices of silence
Atomic energy has finally been released and has destroyed all human life on the planet. Only one inhabitant of a Chicago skyscraper has escaped. After having eaten and drunk everything he had in his refrigerator, read, seen, watched and listened to his ideal library, his imaginary museum and his royal disco, desperate to see that he was not dying, he decides to suppress himself and throws himself into the void from the floor forty. Just as he passes the first-floor apartment, he hears the phone ring.
A father and a mother centaurs watch their son romping on a Mediterranean beach. The father turns to the mother and asks:
- Should we tell him that he is only a myth?
Love

A German student goes to a dance one night. In it, he discovers a young woman, very beautiful, with very dark hair, and a very pale complexion. Around her long neck, a thin black ribbon, with a knot. The student dances all night with her. At dawn, he takes her to his loft. When he begins to undress her, the young woman tells him, imploring him, not to remove the tape around her neck. He has her completely naked in his arms with his little band on. They love each other; and then they fall asleep.
When the student wakes up, he looks, placed on the white cushion, the sleeping face of the young woman who continues to wear her black ribbon around her neck.

 With a precise gesture he undoes the knot  and the young woman's head rolls on the ground.
The language


Seven inhabitants of Atlantis go for a walk: a poet, a painter, a priest, a bandit, a usurer, a lover and a thinker. They arrive at a grotto. "What a propitious place for inspiration!" Exclaims the poet. "What a splendid subject for a painting!" Says the painter. "What a favorable corner to pray!" Chanted the priest. "What a dream location for a hideout!" Declares the bandit. "It is a superb safe!" Murmurs the usurer. "What a refuge for my love!" Dreams the lover aloud. "It's a grotto!" Adds the thinker.

What about this? From an know!

1.      The term cope came from England Constable on Patrol.

2.     Cows have best fiends within their herds.

3.     There are one million ants to every human in the world.

4.     The cost of raising medium sized dog to the age of 11 is 6,400.

5.     The lion in the original MGM logo killed its trainer.

6.     There is more than 25,000 km of neon tubing in the signs on the Strip and downtown Las Vegas.

7.     The game of badminton used to be called Poona.

8.     High-heeled shoes were originally designed for male aristocrats.

9.     During the time of Peter the Great, any Russian man who wore a beard was required to pay a special “beard tax”.

10.  Ants are so strong; they can lift 50 times their weigh.

11.   There is no word for yesterday in the Eskimo language.

12.  Five kilos of diamonds are found each day on our planet. That is a total of 274000 carats.

13.  Magpies are the only on-mammal to recognise themselves in the mirror.

With affection
Ruben