Their Connection (a short story)

Decades ago,

in a different time

and in a different space

was the last time they met.

She had changed 

the colour of her hair

but not the colour of her soul.

That was radiant as ever,

just like her eyes.

She remembered him

but not his name.

Names were not important

at the time and place

that they once shared,

just like their connection.

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Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon

Are your fears justified?

Quiz question: how many people where killed by trans people? Close to zero. So why are people afraid of trans people? On the other hand: people who changed gender somewhere in the course of their lives have all the more reason to be afraid of people who are afraid of them: Dozens of transgender and non-binary people get killed a year. In America alone. Hundreds more are beaten. Thousands more are being discriminated against.

Here's a list of reasons The People (meaning stupid, white conservatives) are afraid of and the respective number of people that actually die from said reasons, worldwide:

Transgenderism: zero (Not counting suicides amongst them and the killing of transgenders)

Homosexuality: zero (Not counting gay people being murdered because they are gay)

Bisexuality: zero

Having dark skin: zero (It's a misconception that people with dark skin are dangerous because they have dark skin)

Sharks: eight (approximately on average a year. Worldwide)

Wearing facemasks: three. Maybe. Tops.

Vaccins: twenty. (Based on the three people in America who most likely died because of an anti-covid vaccin)

Communism: zero ('Communism' doesn't kill people, some communists kill people)

Socialism: zero (See above)
Islam: zero (See above)

Antifa: ten (No hard figures can be found but it's possible that people got killed in 'antifa' riots)

Terrorism: 16,000 (including 300+ by white, rightwing extremists. In America alone)

Now that we have established that the reasons Trump-supporters, racists, anti-vaxxers, covidiots and other dumb people are afraid are really not that lethal, let's look at what dóes kill people. Approximately and worldwide:

Heart disease: 12 million

Hunger: 8,5 million

Stroke: 5 million

Obesity: 4,5 million

COPD: 2,5 million

Covid-19: 2,2 million

Respiratory infections: 2 million

Flu: 650,000

Malaria: 600,000

With Covid-19 being the number one cause of death in America and number three in Europe, one can't help to wonder: why are conservatives more afraid of wearing a facemask (three deaths a year) than they are of catching Covid-19 (over 2 million deaths a year)?

Here's an interesting article for those who want to learn a bit more.

You may have noticed that death from overweight (obesity) is on the rise and even kills more people than the coronavirus does. Amongst children obesity surpassed starvation in the numbers killed. While a third of all produced food is destroyed instead of eaten. 

Perhaps we shouldn't worry about wars (they didn't even make it into the top ten of causes of death!) and not even Covid-19, although it ranks number five. Perhaps we should worry about the food lobby putting way too much sugar, fat and salt in our food.

Besides all that's mentioned: what is really the most dangerous thing we can do? I'll give you a second to think about that.

The answer is: being born. You see, everyobody who does that eventually dies.

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Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon

To be (a short story)

She didn't think so herself

but her eyes formed a glimpse

into her captivating soul

and he knew not

of a more invigorating smell

than that of her unwashed hair.

Sometimes he could not grasp what moved her

but hoped she allowed it to be him.

Because that's what drove him in his new life:

to be satisfied with 'to be'.

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Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon

We have become numb. Can we change?

It's quite easy to bump into someone in the streets who looks at a phonescreen instead of watching his or her surroundings. I like to actually bump into them and start a conversation. 

Enthousiastically I will tell them about this amazing hub I discovered: 'It's just like the people you are chatting with are actual people! There are millions of challenges on multiple levels. The games and puzzles range from extremely simple to practically insolvable. You can see well rendered explosions, smell burned rubber when you witness a car chase. There are playgrounds for children, special 'bedrooms' for adults (if you get my drift. *wink*). Sounds amazing, right? Just one caveat: your avatar has no extra lives.'

'Great! What's the app called? I'll download it right away!'

The sad thing is, quite a few people will actually go to The App Store or The Play Store to find an app called 'Reality'. Those in power love the fact we have become numb. As long as we find instant gratification through an application on our smartphones, we don't seem to care about the world around us.

Can we change? Sure. All we have to do is put our phones in our pockets and not ask Siri but a local resident for directions to a nice restaurant in Paris.

Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon

Dinner (a short story)

On arriving home he found a note in which he was invited to come over to her place.

He was just about to ring the bell when the door opened. 

His heart pounding he pushed the door open wider and entered.

The living room was lit by no more than candles 

that were placed in a circle on the floor. 

In the middle sat a girl in her early 30s. 

Dressed in a grinlike smile and a new négligé.

The garment concealed little and he was flooded by warm feelings. 

As he walked slowly toward her she kept looking at him with a sweet smile.

They didn't exchange any words. None were needed.

They didn't make time for dinner.

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Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon

The value of social media during lockdown

It was March 2020 and a killervirus swept the planet, resulting in worldwide lockdowns. Social interactions became limited. Very limited. Bars, clubs, restaurants closed and parties became virtually non-existent. Tough times for extravert people. Like me.

So I turned to social media to stay in touch with friends, colleagues, family members and even neighbours. I was lucky to have met a lovely lady just before the lockdown who agreed we would only hug eachother and no one else.

Dozens of people I was in contact with I met one by one: sharing coffee, fears and thoughts while sitting - 6 feet apart - on a park bench or in my garden. Others I saw only via videocalls or contacted via texting on different applications.

I never realized with how many people I only stayed in touch via Messenger or Instagram Direct Message. Until the Facebook algorithm decided to lock me out of my accounts. I received a ban 'for three days' for supposedly publishing a 'sexually explicit' post. Which I didn't. Or perhaps it was because I wrote about a burlesque show. The flyer for that show contains some semi-nudity. Other times the Facebook A.I. told me that my account was disabled because someone complained about my posts but my favourite reason Facebook gave me was that my account was discontinued 'for reasons unknown'. That makes it all clear, doesn't it?

For my daily portion of social media I turned to Twitter where I became more active than I was ever before. I found a new way to challenge my skills as a writer (click) and made a couple of hundred new online friends. Good times!

I did a little research and soon found out I'm not the only one who lost access to his account without much hope of retrieving it.

My guess is that the Facebook Artificial Intelligence went rogue. Explaining the outage of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp for six hours, beginning of October 2021. That several Facebook employees could not leave or enter several rooms at their headquarters during that time because someone decided it was a good idea to connect the electronic doors to their own Facebook-servers had me in stitches and reminded me of Dick Maas' movie 'De Lift'. Done again in English as 'Down':

The most likely scenario is that someone holding a grudge reported my Facebook account. The A.I. automatically suspended that account 'pending an investigation'. There are no people at Facebook momentarily actually investigating claims and after 30 days the acount is disabled without the right to appeal. 

Why anyone in their right mind would report a Facebook account that did not actually break the Facebook rules? No idea. The person could be an angry and childish ex, simply bat shit crazy, mentally very confused of really, really bored. Or a combination thereof. Your guess is as good as mine. 

All my posts, my photos, my reactions, my Messenger messages, contact data, acces to my mother's 'In Memoriam' page, group memberships, likes...gone. Only the Facebook A.I. has all that data now.

Anyways: I'm back on Facebook as well as Instagram with new accounts. Ready to connect with the world again. If you missed me on those social media platforms, please feel free to add me again.

Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon

Food for thought (a short story)

Yes, he was drunk. How else did he get here?

If he had been sober he would never have knocked on the door of her hotel room.

Without alcohol in his system he would never have dared beg her for a night kiss.

When he stood in front of her she had just taken off her clothes. 

The blue-grey ensemble looked really good on her. He liked what he saw very much. 

And yet he woke up in the room next to hers. The room of her best friend. 

As it turned out he was sharing (and apparently had shared) 

two single beds pushed together with two other young ladies and an other young man.

None of them were prepared to tell him what had happened that night

 but the twinkle in their eyes gave him food for thought. 

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Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon

In countries with more guns, more people are murdered

When there are too many people in Africa, deny them food and the means to grow food. You know they will die from starvation. When there are too many people in America, make them buy guns. You will know they will use them to kill eachother.

In 2020 30% more Americans where shot and killed than in the precious year. Still not as many as in the 80s and 90s but still over 20,000 people in the United States of America were shot to dead. Murdered. In 2020 alone.

On average 5 out of 100,000 people in America end up getting murdered. In The Netherlands it's one tenth of that: 1 in 200,000 Dutch people gets murdered.

How terrible those figures may seem, even the USA doesn't make it into the top 20 of countries were people are most likely to get murdered. 

Is there an evolutionary advantage to killing other people? Do men kill more than women or are women simply less often caught? Libraries full of books have been written on the subject 'Why do we kill?'

There is no simple answer. But perhaps we could try and find out why Amercians are ten times as likely to kill eachother than the Dutch. Could the gun lobby have anything to do with it? As in 'more guns equals more shootings'? Hint: we don't have an active gun lobby in The Netherlands.

Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon

Cherish (a short story)

The man next to him showed him his fresh scars and told him that he had been a retired CIA agent for almost two years now. He waited till the man next to him stopped bragging about secret operations that he once carried out for his government.

When his travel companion was finally asleep he ventured a look over his right shoulder. Two seats further back and on the other side of the isle of the bus she sat.

'-flowers-flowers-' reverberated in his head. Part of the lyric of a romantic song that suddenly came to him.

Earlier that day they had discussed through body language that any action that was to take place would have to take place now. In the dead of night. They were behaving like the excited young twenty-somethings they felt they were. And which in fact they were.

It was pitch-black because the bus was driving through a stretch of desert land. The last lights, belonging to a roadside cafe and pump station, had been left behind some two hours ago.

The soothing hum of the motor had lulled most passengers to sleep. -flowers-flowers-. In the back a junkie lay rambling and profusely sweating. He hadn't had a shot for too long. A man in a fisherman's hat seemed to be reading but hadn't turned a page in at least 20 minutes and had probably dozed off as well.

This was their chance. The friend she was travelling with and who sat beside her was snoring softly and he took his chance. 

-flowers-flowers-

Seldom before had a kiss tasted so delicious and so forbidden.

The address she gave proved to be false. But the memory of that kiss was one that he would forever cherish.

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Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon