A Problematic Prophecy & Other Stories by Stephen Newton
Stephen Newton’s storytelling is like a guide that acquaints readers with what they will soon read in this collection of fifteen fictional stories inspired by the author’s “random, unexplained events I have experienced that have haunted me for decades.” Given this information about how A Problematic Prophecy & Other Stories came to be,readers will want to pay attention to one story chosen to introduce the function of the problematic prophecy within the story itself. Indeed, the world of “A Problematic Prophecy” foreshadows the fictional possibilities through which magical elements cling to actional realities.
“A Problematic Prophecy” opens as Paul Beecham can hardly get through the atmosphere of his son Austin’s death under the burden of his own complicity. He can barely cope following the eulogy that he delivers at the funeral, and robbed of sleep and long, wandering days, he returns home where his wife Claire finds him in “the bedroom sobbing, a faded photograph of his eighteen-year-old Austin on his lap.”
It is not without reason that Newton builds this prophetic story in its eleven pages. Thus, the back-and-forth narrative plays significant roles in the storyline as exemplified in the actions Paul and Claire take: the drive to Florida as had been planned to celebrate Austin’s birthday—he, the purchaser, of three tickets to attend the concert of his favorite band. The trip is difficult for both parents, as if “some unknown thing, a resident dread, that tainted every conversation . . . was likely to lead to an emotional discussion about the events surrounding their son’s death.”
Between the present and the past, the story shifts between the eulogy and the funeral, the trip to Florida, and to the evening Paul hears a knock on the door, opens it, and two officers request an invitation inside when one of the officers informs him: “Mr. Beecham, your son, Austin, is dead. He died from a massive drug overdose.”
Not only does the story open with the narrative of the funeral, the drive to Florida, and Paul’s helplessness, it also moves beyond the first four pages that begins with his attendance at a business meeting where he gives the keynote address. The following day, Crestfield Chemical’s Vice President Carl Murdoch offers Paul a job, which would triple his academic salary. He ponders the offer while walking as midnight closes in on him, but deep in thought, he realizes he is far from the hotel, searches for the way back, and sees a light on a cottage door with the words, “Spiritual Adviser.”
Paul knocks on the door and tells the woman who opens it, “I’m afraid I’ve lost my way and can’t find my way back to the hotel,” a sure sign of foreshadowing what is yet to come to Paul in the days ahead—a foreshadowing built on a turn to the magical realism that permeates the story.
The accidental meeting with the fortune teller late at night takes over the narrative as Paul perceives her invitation as an adventure. Why pass up this opportunity? What future does he have? Orsina, the fortunate teller, asks him, “Do you have a burning question or do you wish to hear what the cards say?” Paul thinks that the cards have something to do with Crestfield, but Paul isn’t prepared for the truth that Orsina tells him.
Upon Orsina’s turning the card closet to her, she reads: “There are things now unfolding that will overshadow everything in your present situation, and perhaps for the rest of your life.” He continues to think the unfolding has something to do with Crestfield, but she forewarns him, “What is strong now will be broken soon enough. The Snake will eat its tail.” He thinks maybe her words are related to Crestfield as a “corporate viper’s pit,” but then Orsina turns over the third card. She sees a young man and she tells him, “He will die soon. There is nothing you can do to prevent it.”
Soon enough, Paul realizes that the snake’s eating his own tail has nothing to do with Crestfield; his encounter with Orsina unsettles him, causing him a lingering dream, nightmares, insomnia. He realizes he will need to tell Austin about his encounter with the “witch,” but when he sees Austin, his son wants to tell his father about his niched software business, and Paul doesn’t get a chance to intervene in spite of his presence with his son.
At the concert in Florida where Paul, Claire and Austin were to meet, Paul falls into a rapture and hears Austin call him. “You go. You go, old man.”
And Paul joins the crowds with all of the rejoicing souls. Magical realism shows up in each of the fifteen stories in the collection. Some stories are stronger in the magical realism factor, but nevertheless, magical realism is embodied in some way, and along with foreshadowing, maintains the magical and the realism as fundamental to each of the stories in “A Problematic Prophecy.”
Writer and independent filmmaker Stephen Newton lives in Southern Appalachia with his wife, Angela, a painter, and their tuxedo cat, Mama. For the past twenty years, he’s been writing fiction about the unexplained and producing documentary films (see below) that explore the causes and consequences of social injustice. Newton is the author of A Problematic Prophecy & Other Stories. His most recent fiction, book reviews, and essays are featured in Drunk Monkeys, Cagibi, The Write Launch, Litro Magazine, On the Run, The Atticus Review, Ravens Perch, and The Lumina Journal, among others. He is currently writing a mystery novel set in the 1970s.
