First of all, thank you to the many readers who bought, and are still buying, the 500 short stories in volume 1. To you and to new readers, I hope you enjoy volume 2. It contains still more stories about people and events that you can relate to or that you know about via media, your own personal experiences, or the experiences of your family and friends. There are also stories that are completely made up! The stories are short—only 150 words long. Many stories occur in, or are about, NYC. All 1,000 stories are online free at eslyes.com. I have a masters degree in Education, and I taught ESL (English as a Second Language) to adults for 20 years in Pasadena, California. So that you don’t feel like you’re buying a pig in a poke, following is one of the 500 stories in volume 2. (For students and teachers, the numbers following each story are: Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Flesch Reading Ease Score, Passive Sentences, Words per Sentence, and Words per Paragraph.)
1039. Long Day, Long Face
His wife asked, “Why the long face?” He said, “It’s June 20.” She said, “Oh, yes. You love sunshine. So on the longest day of the year, with the most sunshine, you’re unhappy.” He said, “Of course I’m unhappy. Because starting tomorrow, the days are going to get shorter and darker.” She said, “So why don’t you just enjoy today? Don’t worry about tomorrow being shorter. You remind me of that guy who, on his wedding day, suggested to his new bride that they kill themselves because they’d never be happier than on their wedding day. It was going to be all downhill from there.” He said, “Well, that guy was an idiot, because he didn’t know for sure. Maybe they’d have a beautiful baby. Maybe they’d get divorced. But I know for sure. The days are definitely going to get shorter, and this day is the cause of it.”
[3.3, 87.9, 0%, 9.3, 150]