Seven Endings

1. As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into an enormous insect but luckily for him it was just the pillow upon his belly and the blanket wrapped around his sleepy head.
2. Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I can’t be sure so I’ll go back to sleep. 
3. Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul I am sorry but you are shockingly way too young for me.  
4. Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed there was much spillage and he slipped and broke his neck.
5. It was a pleasure to burn. The fire got too hot so we went inside and continued the party.
6. Call me Ishmael. ‘Ishmael.’
7. Robert Cohn was once middleweight boxing champion of Princeton. Something Hemingway never achieved.

Mark Barkan