Free Fiction: ‘Til Death Do Us Part

I’ve uploaded another of my stories from back when I was writing fiction. This is my first sale and first published piece, Death Do Us Part from Alternate Kennedys, Tor, July 1992. Mike Resnick was the Editor. It was a science fiction anthology, so of course I wrote a horror story about President Jack Kennedy and a certain demon that made his life interesting. Sold in 1991 this story’s now over 20 years old, but I think it holds up well. The references are all ancient history for a huge chunk of the population, but it connects with a really interesting part of history in a different and I think funny way. Excerpt: “Bobby, if you ever, ever say ‘What could go wrong?’ to me again, remind me to have you killed. Now, what happened? This was supposed to be a nice, quiet, uneventful vacation and re-union with my wonderful, caring wife?” The President grimaced. “At least she’s home again. Hope you like puce. That’s the color of the wallpaper going in the Lincoln room.” “Forget the wallpaper, Jack. Remember that war you told me to start when we were looking for a distraction on Monroe?” “Now that you mention it, I do.” “We forgot to call it off. Congratulations, Jack. We’re the parents of a major nuclear crisis. You, me and Khrushchev.” “You set this up with the Russians?” “No. He’s doing it on his own. We’re just blowing it up onto the front page where everyone will see it.” “Oh, Jesus, Bobby. He’s a hard-nosed bastard. It’s not going to be easy to get him to back down. Nukes in Cuba.” The President rubbed his eyes. “You don’t suppose I could get Adlai to impeach me now, could I?” “Not a chance, Jack. You’ll have to deal with this one.” “Damn. You know what’s worse?” “What could be worse than nukes in Cuba?” “Jackie insisted on separate bedrooms.” Read the entire story over in my writing area. enjoy!