From “Jim is not here anymore…,” a tale in Pebbles in a Stream:
The water was very hot but he kept it running and the heat kept rising. His skin, despite the golden tan, was turning red and purple and the shower was almost completely filled with dense steam that made it difficult for him to breathe. He stood facing the shower head and let the almost boiling water beat at his chest forcefully so that his nipples became swollen and painful. When he could no longer bear it anymore, he turned the water off and stepped out of the tub holding the coarse towel in his hands, afraid to dry his sweltering body. The heavy vapor made the bathroom foggy and his vision flurry. He almost slipped on the sleek surface of the floor and groaned in pain when his wet thighs hit the shower door. Wrapping the towel carefully around his muscular shoulders, he sat down on the toilet and suddenly began to laugh. It was funny, really hilarious after all, that he, a champion swimmer and diver, the macho man who women looked at admiringly, had of all things, breast cancer.”
Ideas can come from many places. Sometimes the unconscious plays a part and it materializes in dreams as well as long forgotten happenings that the author might have known or recreated from vestiges of stories remembered or imagined in the past. All these stories in Pebbles in a Stream have been my benign companions or foes, both demanding my attention and insisting on being shared with others. The reader will find a variety of stories that might entertain or even horrify with themes that have not been exposed yet and enjoy the variety and unexpected surprises to be shared.
People are interested in love stories since love is an emotion that encompasses the world, even the universe, and in many ways fires up other feelings. Love can challenge and overcome other sentiments, but it isn’t always victorious. The stories deal with personalities, some strong and some weak, the way that humans are created and brought up. Many tales can be considered unusual, dealing with exceptional topics and characters.
The author has envisioned and experienced many of the situations described, and has told them the way that they happened, saving their true message without trying to introduce controversial characters or situations that would not benefit the narrative. And finally, it has to be mentioned that some of the stories were created, so to speak, while the author was either falling asleep or even in her dreams.
Three Short Stories from Pebbles in a Stream
Once a Snooze
Carbon Paper
Stitching Away …
About the Author
Nadia Grosser Nagarajan was born in Czechoslovakia and educated in Israel and the United States where she received a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of California at Berkeley. Nadia has lectured on Jewish culture as well as 19th century European literature. She has published two previous books: Jewish Tales from Eastern Europe (Jason Aronson, 1999) and Pomegranate Seeds — Latin American Jewish Tales (University of New Mexico Press, 2005). Pomegranate Seeds was honored in 2005 as runner-up in the ‘The National Jewish Book Award for Sephardic Culture.’ Nadia lives with her husband, and they have two sons and two grandkids.