Author Gerard

BRAIN HOOK © 2025 By Gerard Thornton   The man’s eyes opened with a flutter.   It took him a moment for his surroundings to register.    His vision focused on an overhead fan that was spinning lazily in the heavily shadowed room.   He was lying flat on his back on some type of bed and wondered if he had fallen asleep.   Although the room was familiar to him, he struggled to associate his surroundings with his immediate predicament.   Before he was fully lucid, he was greeted by a woman who walked over to him. Her expression looked somewhat impatient, as though she had been waiting for some time for him to awaken.   She was instantly recognizable to the man, although he was having difficulty placing the name at the moment. “Well, hello there, nice of you to join me,” she said, the mirth in her voice not quite matching the somber, cautious look in her dark eyes.   The man attempted to rise, but an unseen force kept him supine.   ...

  THE CURSE OF THE JOHN HENCH By Gerard Thornton                                 The ship graveyard was a somber sight, even in daylight.   Here was the place where the dinosaurs of shipping lay dead and dying.   Every manner of vessel, from wooden barges and lighters to tugboats and once-swift ferries lay crowded together, some leaning into each other as if to offer support.   Masts and spars stood in tangled disarray, nevermore to hoist cargo or sail.   This place marked the graveyard of the iron elephants of a lost age.   The ships were left here, forgotten, their massive engines long cooled and rusted into solid iron blocks.   The two boys put down the handful of rocks they had collected when they heard the old man begin to shout.   The sound had startled them, as they had expected the old s...