English Short Stories For Intermediate Learners: 8 Unconventional Short Stories to Grow Your Vocabulary and Learn English the Fun Way!

Multiple-choice questions
Select one answer for each question
11. Professor Bidwell was hiding:
a. on an island near Europe
b. on a boat
c. in a mountain cabin
d. on an island in the Pacific Ocean
12. Was Bidwell working for Zafer?
a. Yes, they blew up the hospital together
b. Yes, but Bidwell did not help blow up the hospital
c. It is not clear
d. No
13. Thom left Bidwell alone because:
a. Bidwell could not help him
b. Bidwell pointed a gun at him
c. Bidwell tried to poison him
d. Bidwell wanted to help him
14. What did Titan 2035 think about time travel?
a. It is impossible

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b. It has been done before
c. It is possible with a black hole
d. It is simple
15. Why did Thom change his mind about time travel?
a. He was afraid to change the past
b. He was afraid to change the future
c. He wanted to make everyone else like him
d. He died

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Answers to Chapter 3
11. d
12. b
13. a
14. d
15. c

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5. The Town of Skull Tooth
Chapter 1
The Old West was famous for its bloody history. Deadwood, South Dakota;
San Antonio, Texas; Tombstone, Arizona…there were many dangerous, lawless
towns. In some cases, the town sheriff was the most powerful person. He
maintained law and order.
But, not every town had a sheriff.
Skull Tooth, Oklahoma, for example! Skull Tooth had no sheriff, no laws,
and no rules. It was not civilized at all. Everyone did what they wanted.
Gambling, fighting, drinking, and other vices took place all day and all
night, seven days a week. Most days, somebody was murdered before breakfast.
Or during breakfast!
Yet the town continued to grow every year. And every year, a new criminal
would arrive and try to take control. They would try to become the boss of Skull
Tooth, the boss of everyone who lived there.
To control the crime, you had to be tougher than the other criminals. To
make money, you had to want it more than the others.
That is why the bosses never lived long. They were always killed and
replaced!
Until one late autumn day, Erkek Tex came to town.
The people who lived there, the citizens of Skull Tooth, knew he was bad
news. They could tell when he rode his horse into town. His horse was pale,
whiter than a sheet. His face was tough like leather, his skin tanned from the sun.
Under his nose was a giant black moustache. The moustache dropped down past
his lips. His eyebrows were as bushy as his moustache.
“Where do you think that man came from?” a store owner asked his friend.
His friend owned the bar across the street. The bar was named The Windy Plains
Saloon.

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“He is not from around here,” said the bar owner. “He looks like a
foreigner.”
“Well Marty, what country do you think he’s from?”
Marty raised his hands. He didn’t know.
The store owner looked at Erkek Tex. Tex was tying his white horse to a
post. The sun was setting and the wind had turned cold. Tex took out a small
container. He took some tobacco from it and rolled a cigarette. He bent his head
to light the cigarette. His large brown cowboy hat covered his eyes.
When he looked back up, Tex was looking at Marty, the bar owner. “Who is
watching your bar, if you are sitting over there?” he asked. His accent was very
thick, he sounded like he was from the Middle East. He would never tell anyone
in town, but his family had emigrated from the Ottoman Empire. In fact, his
nickname, “Erkek,” meant “man” in Turkish.
“I try to stay outside,” Marty said. “In my bar, customers take what they
want, and they pay what they want. Otherwise, there is trouble.”
“What do you mean, ‘trouble?’”
“I mean, they have shot the last three owners of The Windy Plains Saloon.”
“Go back to your bar,” Erkek Tex said. “I am going inside. And I don’t like
to pour my own drinks.”
The bar owner looked at Tex. Tex was not a large man, but he wasn’t too
small. He had some muscles, but his body was lean. There were guns on both of
his hips.
“Stranger,” Marty said, “I will go over there, but don’t start shooting people.
I don’t want any trouble.”
“I don’t want any trouble either,” Tex said. “That is why there will not be
any.”
The bar owner who was also the bartender--the man who served drinks--
walked across the street. Inside The Windy Plains Saloon there were a dozen
men. Some of them were playing a game of cards. Some were sitting in chairs at
tables, holding glasses or bottles. A few were sitting at the long wooden bar
counter talking in loud voices. When they saw the bar owner walk in, they
stopped.

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“Get out of here, Marty!” said one of the men at the bar counter. He was tall
and had curly brown hair and a brown beard. His clothes were torn and he
smelled terrible. He stood up from his stool. “We’re putting our money on the
counter. We’re taking what we want to drink, so we don’t need you.”
“That’s alright,” the bar owner said, “I just came to check on things.”
The curly-haired man whose nickname was “Curly” walked over. He put his
hand on Marty’s chest. “I said, we don’t need you. There is nothing for you to
check on. You can leave now.”
Curly’s friend laughed. “Yeah, leave us alone you old man!”
Marty frowned and turned to go back out. But then, Erkek Tex walked
through the doors.
Tex looked at the man with curly hair. “Bartender,” said Tex in a very deep
voice, “I have ridden many miles today. I’m very thirsty. Stop standing around
and go get me a drink.”
Curly spit on the floor. “I am not the bartender!”
“Then where is the bartender? I am tired of waiting!”
Curly pointed at Marty. “This is the bartender, but we don’t want him in
here.”
“That is fine,” Tex said. “If he is leaving, then you can get my drink. Now!”
Curly pulled out his gun and pointed it at Erkek Tex. “Nobody talks to me
like--”
The sound of a gun firing echoed in the bar. Curly fell to the ground dead.
“Who is going to be the bartender?” Tex asked, with the gun in his hand
smoking.
Everyone pointed at Marty.

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Annex to Chapter 1
Summary
The town of Skull Tooth, Oklahoma is very dangerous because there is no
sheriff. No one is in charge. A mysterious cowboy named Erkek Tex comes to
town. He asks Marty, the owner of the town’s bar, to go inside the bar. Tex
walks in. He sees the customers do not want Marty there. One of the customers
points a gun at Tex, but Tex kills him first.