Altimexis - Stories

The invitation to spend a week of sightseeing in Washington, D.C. seemed like a great idea to Kyle. With his good friend, Seth, interning in Congress, it was a great opportunity for him and his boyfriend to see things most tourists didn't see. Kyle thought he'd fully recovered from the injuries he’d sustained three years earlier, but then a series of encounters forced him to recall a time he’d long thought he'd put behind him.

What do Bar Mitzvahs and food carts have in common? Nothing… unless you’re talking about a precocious young teen with a Jewish boyfriend and a best friend who's half black Cajun and half Asian, and who’s a gifted teenage chef. With a double Bar Mitzvah on the Fourth of July weekend, why not make it a pool party? Oy Vey!

Larry was the son of a famous opera singer and a well-known conductor, but his passion in life was to be a medical scientist. However, when the pandemic waylaid his plans to go to the Bronx High School of Science, instead he applied to LaGuardia, New York's premier public high school of the arts. Just as an intermezzo is a short musical bridge, Intermezzo brings together characters from other stories in the New York Stories series while filling in some gaps. Told from the point of view of Larry's girlfriend, Robin, he learns that sometimes the shortest path to one's goals isn't the straightest one.

In the author’s serial novel, Brilliant Boy Billionaire, Chapter 34, J.J. remembered how he was taken in by the Rodriguez family, seemingly by fate. Known to them as Simon, he learned the true meaning of All Hallows Eve as they celebrated the Day of the Dead and remembered the son they’d lost in Afghanistan. In the end, J.J. learned that his suspicion of having a guardian angel was true.

When Josh and his family moved to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, he knew he'd be helping his dad to renovate their new apartment. It hadn't been touched since the building opened in the mid-1950s and it needed a ton of work. Even so, it cost as much as they got for their old matchbook house in Brooklyn - close to a million dollars - and the only way they could afford it was to gut it and renovate it themselves. Josh was no stranger to handiwork, having helped rebuild after Hurricane Sandy, when he was just seven and could barely hold a drill. Little did they know that this time they'd face a hurricane and a global pandemic.

While attending a Memorial Day 18th birthday party, Seth is asked by a friend's brother about being interviewed for his high school newspaper. The interview brings back vivid memories of serving as a Congressional intern and being trapped inside the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Asher and Seth just graduated from New York's top public high school. With so much to celebrate, their parents throw them a surprise party, where they meet new friends. The son of a black Creole father and an Asian American mother, Asher has developed his own style of Cajun-Asian fusion that has earned him a reputation as one of New York's top chefs. The son of a politician, Seth plans to follow in his father's footsteps. Both boys will begin college in the fall, but first there is an opportunity to help Asher's parents realize their dream of opening new restaurant.

Born with hereditary spastic paraparesis, Simon had spent most of his life in a wheelchair, unable to walk and barely able to use his hands. To his parents, home schooling had seemed to be the only way for Simon to get an education; yet Simon was smart and yearned to be another Stephen Hawking - not to live with his parents until they became to infirm to care for him. He decided to take a chance on applying to the Bronx High School of Science, one of the best public secondary schools in the world. Going to a public high school would be scary, but there'd be new opportunities to live life, and to love.

Like the namesake movie released in 2000, which is set in LA, What's Cooking (in NYC) explores the lives of four families as they make preparations for the Thanksgiving holiday. As with the movie, there is much unexpected drama, but with the added wrinkle that all four families, who are well-known to NYC Holidays readers, are waiting for loved ones to arrive on the same flight from California. When a glitch in Air Traffic Control occurs, anything can happen.

Debbie and Cathy have been in the closet for more than four years, and have less than one more to go to be free of their fundamentalist parents, but a year is still a very long time. (January, 2009)

This is the 17th story in the Naptown Tales series, which can also be found at Awesome Dude and Nifty. Please see the Introduction for important background on the series.