by Robert Gillis, 1985

An excerpt from one of my earliest stories, “The Abucs Scenario.” (1986) So if John Matthews really was, as he claimed, a member of an advanced extraterrestrial race bent on conquering Earth, what would he do? Well, go on “Nightline,” of course!

AND NOW, NIGHTLINE WITH TED KOPPEL IN WASHINGTON

“Good evening. Tonight, live from the Hidatios Prime, the mother ship of his battle fleet, we have the newly self crowned ruler of Earth, John Matthews.”

Haunted Titanic: A ship of screams

by
The unsinkable Lauren Bitar
and
Captain Robert J. Gillis

Lauren Bitar and are I close friends and are very involved in certain community service group, and their number one fund-raiser is a spectacular haunted house, at which Lauren and I run a haunted room each year.

So Lauren and I got to thinking (never a good thing) and decided that as obsessive fans of the movie “Titanic,” we would commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking by co-chairing the 2012 haunted house as “Haunted Titanic.”

By Robert Gillis
Written 1987-1988

Historians note:

Back in the 1980s my friends and I (especially David, JB and I) liked to write stories featuring ourselves in science fiction / Star Trek type scenarios. This is one such adventure.

As we went our separate ways to college, writing these silly stories was one way for us to keep in touch and continue the madness. There are a billion in-jokes and “you had to be there” moments in this one but I’m not changing a thing — this is how we were.

by Robert Gillis, 1985

More excerpts from Abucs Scenario, as Tripp tries to unravel the mystery that is JB — and unravels in the process. Note that these are excerpts from a larger story taking place at our high school in the early 1980s. And to anyone who asks, “What’s JB really like? This is what JB is really like.

The next morning, a junior named Tripp sloshed through a typical Boston downpour and made his way to the computer room, which was deserted, save for one lone figure, typing away.

by Robert Gillis, 1985

Another vignette from “The Abucs Scenario.” Dr. Robert Gillis has a meeting with an old, omnipotent friend. Any resemblance to the same scene in “2010: Odyssey Two” is entirely deliberate.

Doctor Robert Gillis paused for a moment to view the spender of New Hampshire’s White Mountains. He was forever thankful that the frenzied wave of progress of the late eighties and early nineties had somehow missed this beautiful village. Certainly, the hover cars and solar homes were signs of the times, but this area still managed to hold onto the “hick” quality that Gillis liked so much.

Another vignette from “the Abucs Scenario.”
Tripp encounters JB’s robot, and David gets a new toy. (1985)
by Robert Gillis

As he headed for the lab, Tripp was, for a brief moment, very happy. With the exception of yesterday afternoon when JB used the computer to open, shut and lock the computer room door, nothing unusual had happened to him. He was about to increase the volume of his Sony Walkman when static flooded his headphones, and he heard the word, “Bloop!”