Maple Street Short Story

Maple Street wasn’t exactly Giles’ expected destination. With almost naïve optimism and ambition, he had set out from his home planet, Acheon, to transverse the universe, but he soon became grounded, both literally and figuratively, by one stray meteor which collided with the ship. This kind of astronomical accident would be no problem for any competent space traveler of course, but no one had ever really called Giles anything of the sort. In fact, when the Intergalactic Space Travel Center denied Giles his license, they used the terms “inept,” “clumsy” and some other unscrupulous comments that Giles did not like to dwell on and hoped to escape. But as the ship tumbled and shook, he could not help but to reconsider the merit of those statements. Dodging the odd planet and bypassing the intergalactic bypasses, the ship sailed through the universe like a silver ball in a galactic pinball game and Giles could not help but to resign himself to yet another failure. Dejected, Giles

While his captor did not prove to be extensively intelligent, Giles had grown inexplicably fond of its endearing curiosity and uncomplicated joy. It looked at Giles in a way that he had never been looked at before: with admiration. Giles had unknowingly crashed into its life, bringing adventure and a visitor into its life of quiet isolation. To leave it alone once more would be to fail the last person who looked at Giles with wide eyes and a smile. Turning back to his ship, Giles inspected his remaining equipment and determined that the rockets and propulsion system remained at full power, and simply needed something to support. Considering the creature again, he determined that the rockets weren’t the only thing that needed to support something. No, the creature could not stay on Maple Street as much as Giles could not stay on Acheon. Giles would free