Friday Fiction: 100 Word Challenge

The Relativity of Time

Rebecca tore her eyes away from the wildly jumping needles on the vicisometer and looked at Dr. Scott-Giles. "Doctor, what's happening?"

"I don't know, Rebecca. This kind of activity is unprecedented." He turned abruptly and left the lab. 

Unsure what to do, Rebecca hesitated before following him out of the building. She knew where he was going; the one place on the Institute grounds that held the key to everything.

Rebecca struggled to remain upright against the sucking wind. She could see Dr. Scott-Giles approaching The Wheel. Then he was pulled in and was gone.

The wheel spun ever faster.

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More Friday Fiction:

Jimmie: Karma Dies Today
Darleen: Untitled
Smitty: Also Untitled (Come on, guys, help me out here.)
April: The Signal
BigGator5: The Demon's Wheel

Friday Fiction: 100 Word Challenge

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting

"Oh, Sissy," breathed Maude. Here comes a handsome one."

Beryl leaned slightly forward as Maude reached to push back the heavy drapery. The movement caught Geoff's eye as he passed by and he looked up.

Tittering coyly, Beryl smoothed her hair. "Is he the one, Mama?"

On the street, Geoff turned back to his friends. "Did you see that," he asked? A couple queer old birds watching us from the window."

Inside, Maude and Beryl settled back to wait for the suitors that never came, just as they had been waiting for the last 75 years. Mama's skeleton was silent.

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More Friday Fiction from...

Jimmie
Darleen
Smitty
BigGator5

Friday Fiction: 100 Word Challenge

The Last Goodbye

Oswald gripped the photograph and let the memories come. Of a small boy with a crippling stutter; the gift of a battered ventriloquist's dummy. Buddy became his best and only friend. Even after all the success, Oswald left him just as he was; just as he loved him.

Now Buddy was dead in a hotel fire. Alone, helpless because of a woman. Red hair like blazing fire. Green eyes like the sea. Oswald had been bewitched and the cost was too high. He let the guilt and grief wash over him and stepped off the bridge rail into the void.

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More Friday Fiction from Jimmie, Darleen, BigGator5, Smitty, April and Becca.

Friday Fiction: 100 Word Challenge

The Spy Beside Me 

Doris sat near the front window of the dingy café, smoking a cigarette and waiting. Why am I here, she wondered. Why should I believe an anonymous phone call?

Before long, the door of the pawn shop across the street opened and Frank came out, carrying a battered suitcase. Not his. Doris checked her watch. The timing was perfect. It's true. My life is a lie.

A seedy little man slid into the chair across the table. “So,” he said, his cultured voice at odds with his grubby appearance. “I have a lot to tell you about your husband.”

More Friday Fiction

From my friend, Jimmie Bise, Jr., Darleen Click, Smitty, Big Gator 5 and April.

Are You Smarter Than a Bumblebee?

You wouldn't think it would be much of a contest, would you?

No one likes bumblebees more than I do. Seriously. It's my not-so-secret fantasy to have a hamster-sized bumblebee as a pet, but that doesn't mean that I have any expectation that I could teach it to sit on command.

Read more at Spirit Driven...

Mourning in America

“A voice was heard in Ramah, Lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, Refusing to be comforted for her children, Because they are no more.” 

Waking up to the realization that yesterday wasn't just a horrible nightmare, imagining how much worse this morning is for the parents of the slain children. No words of wisdom; no words can comfort. Just a bone deep, ineffable sadness.

Your Home is Safe

This is a photograph of my husband attempting to pick the lock to his shop.

Why, you ask?

The short story is that I locked him out of his shop. The one where his 4X4 pickup is parked. Did I mention we have snow?

The long story is this:

When I was packing up Christmas last week, I needed to get into the shop to retrieve the box for our artificial Christmas tree. Which was in the shop. I don't usually have any reason to go in the shop. In fact, since it was built two summers ago, this was the first time I've ever needed anything that was stored inside.

So I rustled up the keys, got the box, packed up the tree, returned it to the shop and locked the door on my way out. Yeah, that's where the trouble started. You see, there are two locks on the door: the lock in the doorknob and a deadbolt. Unbeknownst to me, we have no key that fits the lock in the doorknob. When I exited the shop, I locked the doorknob from the inside, not knowing that, you know, it was going to be an issue.

I was so proud of myself! I had handled the entire job all by myself! Even using the hand truck to move the box (the tree weighs 85 pounds)! And all was right with the world!

Until it snowed on Sunday night and my husband wanted to drive the 4X4 to work on Monday. It wasn't pretty. I felt terrible, but in my own defense, I didn't know that (a) the deadbolt and the doorknob didn't take the same key. Therefore it follows that (b) I didn't know we didn't have a key for the doorknob lock. Plus, (c) if I'd know for two years that I didn't have a key for the lock, hey, I would have called a locksmith before I was locked out.

Which brings us to my husband trying to pick the lock. Sadly, his efforts failed. On the plus side, I know he's not moonlighting as a cat burglar. And your home is safe, at least from this would-be lock picker.