Thursday, August 29, 2013

100 Words a Day 368

He heard the unmistakable sound when he opened the door. The aliens shoes, occupying the space normally reserved for his, made him certain. Unthinking, he shut the door, retreated back down the lonely hall, finally taking refuge in the elevator. He was benumbed as he descended, arriving on the first floor with a shudder running through his body just as the elevator ground to a halt.

He had suspected for some time. Hearing the confirmation was more than he could take.

When he stepped out into the cold, January weather he was shocked by how it contrasted with the steamy apartment.

100 Words a Day 367

He crept from the bed, careful to keep the covers undisturbed. She shifted slightly as he stood, but did not wake.

He went about preparing for his day in a silence broken only by the sizzling of breakfast. He perused the paper as he ate. After, he deposited the dishes in the sink when he finished, being sure to give them a quick rinse.

Before leaving, he returned to the bedroom. Bending over, he gave her lips a kiss that was as light and warm as the sunbeams that were just beginning to stream through the cracks in the blinds.

100 Words a Day 366

Felix’s business was very successful. He retained many practices that had fallen out of favor with other pharmacists. Whenever possible he mixed children’s medicine in lollipops or sweet lozenges for example. It was a little more expensive, but parents appreciated how much easier it was to get their kids to take medicine. He also knew all of his customers, and their children, by name. From when he was young, his father taught him the importance of things like that.

He had inherited the practice from his father when he retired, just like his father had inherited it from his grandfather.

100 Words a Day 365

I felt my lips part in a smile that reflected hers, coy and knowing. Her eyes, normally reflective pools of beauty, were luminous, and my breath fled. I felt my heart’s anxious beat as our lips drifted closer, tension tightening my chest. Her smile widened as our noses touched, I saw a flash of a giggle in her eyes. Our noses caressed for another moment before we moved even closer. Staring into each other’s eyes, we dared one another to move. When our lips finally met, it was an instant between two moments and the whole world ceased to exist.

100 Words a Day 364

We locked eyes when I looked up, driven by an unaccountable urge. She smiled at me and I returned it before going back to making notes. The bus jolted, wrenching my pen from my hands, and casting at her feet. She returned it with a shy smile that I again reciprocated. She must have felt emboldened, because she asked me what I was writing.

“It’s an outline for a novel,” I replied.

“That’s so cool!” she exclaimed. “What’s it about?

I related the plot with some trepidation, assuming she would find it uninteresting. Her interest was evident in her eyes.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

100 Words a Day 363

The coffee cascaded out of the pot and filled the plain, white mug, splashing off the bottom before settling in a warm, brown pool. It failed to recover from being unceremoniously agitated as it was again disturbed by a breath of cool air that caused a fresh ripple across its surface. The coffee eventually settled, the only movement the aromatic steam, floating silently upwards, that the coffee released as it cooled. After an indeterminate amount of time, the coffee was hoisted into the air, its vessel upended so that it could flow down the lightless throat of the sleepy maker.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

100 Words a Day 362

Greg deposited the check at the ATM. At the end of the transaction it spit out a receipt with a balance greater than he had ever had. He’d quit his desk job that morning, told them not to bother scheduling him for the next two weeks even. Then he had called his friend’s mom. She’d helped him out a lot when he had needed it; so he invited her to dinner to thank her. Obligations completed, he decided to splurge. Unfortunately for the reader, after being as poor as Greg had been, splurging involved buying a new pair of pants.

100 Words a Day 361

He walked out of the office with a light step, knowing he would never have to walk back in. His lack of a next job caused trepidation to rise within. He could find temp work though. Words like hate, loathing, repugnance, and asco pushed that worry back down, before settling themselves in the pit of his stomach.

The need for rent and food provided him the incentive he needed to get up in the morning and look for a job, though he hated looking. The bile that rose when he thought of his old job sustained him when he flagged.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

100 Words a Day 360

As you can see, I’m nearing 365 entries. I would say rapidly, but things have really been stuttering. Because of that, if you haven’t seen it, I made a Twitter account, @darthkwandoh, in case getting a tweet about updates is easier than checking the blog every so often.

The plan is to move back to daily updates, but I don’t expect that until October, which is when I will have internet.

Also, someone commented that they wanted to see a full story made out of entry number 234, so that will be the basis for my NaNoWriMo entry this year.

100 Words a Day 359

“I can’t believe you read that text!” she exclaimed, her face turning red from laughter and embarrassment.

“You asked me a question, and when I turned it was right there,” he replied.

She rolled over to the far side of the bed, hiding her face with her body and cradling it in her hands.

“You weren’t supposed to see that.” She was again overcome by laughter and, shaking, rolled off the bed, hitting the floor with a thump.

He sat in a stunned silence, not sure what to do.

A hand appeared, and after a moment, a voice. “I’m okay.”

100 Words a Day 358

The sound of water running through the pipes in the wall woke me and I knew my mother was preparing breakfast. Stretching, I came more fully awake, blinking and running my tongue around my mouth before swallowing and dispelling the dryness that had accumulated there in the night. I threw the covers aside and leapt out of bed. Tearing into the kitchen, I saw my mother adding something to the big pot she always made breakfast in.

She gave me a radiant smile. “Good morning,” she said with the unfettered love that only a mother of a young child knows.

100 Words a Day 357

We were seated at the dinner table, the long one with the leaves, eating with the Jeffersons from down the street. My parents had been friends with them for years. I was forced me to sit across from their daughter, Stephanie. She was about my age and I couldn’t stand her. At least, that’s how dinner started. We traded barbs across the table and received strange expressions from the adults. Unlike in the past, neither of us were reprimanded. As the night wore on, I found her comments more infuriating, but discovered I wanted her approval rather than her scorn.

100 Words a Day 356

“Alex we need to talk,” Jessica said, filling the air with tension.

“Okay,” he said, oblivious to the aforementioned tension.

“I want to stop sleeping together.”

“Oh,” Alex replied, a look of confusion, with a hint of pain, visible on his face for an instant. “Why?”

“You’re a lot of fun to hang out with and all. And playtime is a lot fun, but I’m just not feeling it anymore.”

“Oh…Why?”

“I don’t know exactly. I’m just not,” she replied, the lack of surety heavy in her voice.

“I thought we were having a great time. What’s changed?” he asked.

100 Words a Day 355

“Look Diane, I think we should cool things down a little. I’m feeling like things are getting too serious.”

“What do you mean?”

“About which?”

“Both.”

“I think we should stop sleeping together. It’s feeling too much like a relationship and I want to be unattached and I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I’ll be fine Jack.”

“I want to believe you, but I would feel terrible if something happened. I just think it’d be for the best.”

“How is it like a relationship, Jack? What do we do that is remotely couple-like?”

“Well, like, kissing goodbye and stuff.”

100 Words a Day 354

The telephone woke him, the high-pitched tone rattling his brain. He struggled out of his bed sheets, reaching his phone in time to miss it. He set the phone down as a wave of nausea undulated through his abdomen. He staggered back into the soft mattress.

After a moment he realized she was gone.

He sat up, fighting to keep the room still. He couldn’t find her. After a moment he noticed his TV was missing. Confused, he looked around, several things were gone. His roving eye eventually found his clock. If correct, he had been asleep for several days.

100 Words a Day 353

They lay in bed with the TV on, neither speaking. They ignored the rerun, lost as they were in their own insecurities.

He felt unsatisfactory, inadequate, failed. It wasn’t that he wasn’t enjoying himself; he just didn’t have that same urge to go the distance and so worried she was unsatisfied.

She was worried she wasn’t pretty, or that she was doing something wrong. She was satisfied, but felt like he wasn’t and she didn’t know what to do about it.

So they both laid there, personally satisfied with the experience, but terrified they had left the other person wanting.

100 Words a Day 352

He pushed the cart slowly down the aisle until he could serve the first passengers. He quickly became absorbed by the process, remembering drink orders only long enough to dispense them.

The cart trundled along, Steve almost unaware of the drinks and pleasantries he was serving. An angry man broke his trance:

“There’s too much ice in this. You guys charge an arm and a leg for a ticket and then stiff on the drinks!”

“I’m sorry, sir” Steve replied. “If you want I can give you a glass with less ice or I can give you the whole can.”

100 Words a Day 351

The office gave polite applause when they announced who had received the promotion. Anyone familiar with the group would have noticed the strained undertones. No one liked Thad. A silent groan had reverberated through the office when his named was announced. He was hard enough to work with as a colleague; everyone was dreading having him as a boss. No doubt his abrasive attitude would grow coarser and his tendency to be demeaning more pronounced. When the director ended the floor meeting his voice was replaced by the agitated hum created by numerous discussions of the implications of the promotion.

100 Words a Day 350

Jessica sat on the porch, head in hands, rocking in her grandmother’s squeaky chair, and stared down the lane. The humidity made her outfit cling with an insidious stickiness that defied all escape attempts. She wanted to be at work. It was air conditioned and her friends would be there. Maybe Vlad, the new boy with the unusual accent, would be there. Instead she was stuck on the porch, waiting for a package. It was the last day they would try to deliver it before returning it to the sender, so she had no choice but to sit and wait.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

100 Words a Day 349

“Get the blasphemer!” was all I heard before my eyes were blinded by pain. After a moment my vision returned. I felt a throb at the back of my head. Probing with my fingers, I discovered a tender lump and a small gash. Turning I saw a pack of Grellists advancing towards me with a determined stride. I stood frozen, idly noticing a bloody rock a few feet in front of me. As they neared, I saw their faces twisted in bestial fury. My eyes widened and I sucked in a breath, turned, and fled as fast as I could.

100 Words a Day 348

“How do you like the potatoes?” Neil asked Veronica.

“Oh, they’re good,” she replied absently, not noticing how he leaned forward and seemed to hold onto her every word.

She went back to the conversation she had been having with Courtney, and ignored Neil. He waited another moment to see if she would say anything before leaving.

“Neil has the same pride in those simple potatoes that people from a small town have for their incidental participation in a historical event of minor importance,” Amelia remarked to John with a hint of sadness just below the surface of her expression.

100 Words a Day 347

He held off believing until the check cleared. Once the money was in his account he allowed it to hit him. When he saw the amount, the elation made him almost lose his seat. As the sensation faded, it was replaced by the heavy realization of what he had agreed to. It was what he wanted to do, but the possibility of failure weighed heavily on him. That turned to determination, to succeed and never wake up hating the coming day again. He finally settled on happiness. It was a happiness so intense he not only cried, but became nauseous.

100 Words a Day 346

“The whole thing was pretty weird,” Lawrence told Danny.

“How’s that?”

“Well, we got back to her place and she offered me a drink.”

“Okay.”

“Then she goes, ‘let me slip into something more comfortable,’ disappears and comes back in a lacy number and asks me what I think.”

“Sounds awesome, dude.”

“I don’t know man. It was hot or whatever, but it seemed weirdly scripted, like she’d gotten it out of a textbook or something. Anyway, the whole night felt like that. Even when I was leaving the next day, it was like being in a movie or something.

100 Words a Day 345

She made an elaborate breakfast the next day. People didn’t do that in his experience. As he was eating, he realized she must love making breakfast. Pancakes and hash browns he asked for, and that was what he received. She even made the pancakes from scratch without making a mess.

After breakfast she invited him, coyly, to stay, but he had things to take care of. Someone owed him some money, and he meant to collect. His demeanor changed as he reached the sidewalk. The look of contentment was replaced by one of cruel determination. He seemed a different person.

100 Words a Day 344

When I was a boy learning to kill, they told me to thrust my sword deep into my enemy’s bowels. I’ve since learned you shouldn’t unless you can cleave the man in two. I learned that lesson in my first raid.

I was facing another youth who, in retrospect, had the same lanky, awkward movements as myself. His first thrust was ungainly and I sidestepped easily before burying my blade deep in his innards, where it lodged in the bone.

I had my foot on his chest, pulling furiously, when I saw an ax preparing to descend on my skull.

100 Words a Day 343

A wide circle formed around the man, greater than a step and a sword length, and I was impressed. A man who could inspire such caution, or fear, in troops so covered with death must be an adversary of worthy proportions indeed. He was so drenched in gore I could not make out even the color of his skin where it was left bare by his leathers. He sprang forward like a jackrabbit, closing with one of the men and lashing out like a scorpion with his cruelly barbed sword. The man cried out as the sword stung his neck.

Monday, August 5, 2013

100 Words a Day 342

The road was smooth and straight. The car’s wheels hugged the asphalt and the driver watched the featureless desert scream by. The interior of the car was quiet; the only sounds were the radio, playing the Eagles, and the air conditioning, blowing cool air on the driver’s face and legs. One hand rested on the lowest point of the steering wheel. The other was placed on the shifter, not because she was preparing to change gear, simply out of habit. Her foot stayed steady on the accelerator, cruise control was for wimps, as she reached forward and moved the dial.

100 Words a Day 341

The voice on the radio faded. It got quieter and quieter until it was barely a whisper. Then the battery died and there was silence. The silence was then replaced with the terror of utter solitude.

The sound of water dripping from a leak in the pipes filled his ears, blocking out the noises of the urban wild that filtered through the small window. That regular sound, the drip-drip of the water, would have gone unnoticed in the bustling workshop that had been here before.

John was totally alone. The broadcast had been recorded, but it was better than nothing.

100 Words a Day 340

The trees were just hazy shapes emerging from the heavy fog.

“Wow! It looks just like LotR!”

I turned to my little brother and rolled my eyes: “you are such a nerd sometimes.”

“What?” he exclaimed. “It does!”

I shook my head and we lapsed into silence. As we sat, the fog rolled slowly forward, engulfing the shadowy trees. It worked its way up the hill, creeping forward as though hoping to avoid notice.

Eventually it reached the deck we were standing on. We looked down at it as it swallowed up the posts supporting floor, its tendrils twining upwards.

100 Words a Day 339

He finally screwed up his courage and walked towards her. His heart knocked out several hard reps for each unsteady step. His legs were shaking. The other sounds in the room faded, drowned out by his footfalls, which echoed loudly in his ears. He felt like a condemned man walking towards the gallows.

She was standing alone, the friends she was with having gone to the bathroom. He tried to go quickly, but ended up hurrying, bumping into several people. Untangling and apologizing, he found himself next to her. It was his chance. He opened his mouth and began speaking.

100 Words a Day 338

He awoke on the verge of vomiting. Staggering out of bed, he dragged his doubled-over torso to the bathroom. Hands on knees, he stood over the toilet as his stomach coiled and twisted. The sensation of imminent vomiting slowly faded and he sighed with relief. Straightening up, he stumbled back to his bedroom to turn off his alarm, which was blaring. Still dizzy, he leaned against the wall while his head settled and his shallow breathing normalized. Thinking back, he wondered what he had eaten. After a moment it hit him. It was Monday; he had to go to work.