Winton

Winton got a basketball scholarship to a really good state college. They expected him to be a basketball. The staff wizard in the physical education department spiked Winton‘s Gatorade with a transfiguration potion. By the next morning, Winton was a basketball. He spent four years in the equipment locker, occasionally pulled out for practices. Once, he was a game ball. But it wasn’t a special game. Or the team all would’ve signed him and put them in the trophy case. After four years, they changed them back. Oddly enough, he was the only member of the basketball squad to graduate.

Weekly Challenge #1061 – Fringe

The next topic is PICK TWO
Borderline
Stairwell
Hood
Challenge accepted
Porn star

RICHARD

Oh Brother!
I was clearing out the basement recently and came across a box of old tat from the seventies.
Amongst the Fleetwood Mac and Abba cassettes, a Rubik’s cube with half the stickers peeled off and an old lava lamp, were some seriously dubious items of clothing.
A pair of cowboy boots, frilly shirts and a fringed denim jacket. What on earth was I thinking back then?
More to the point, what on earth were we all thinking?
I carefully packed it back up and labelled the box with my brother’s name.
Sibling rivalry, still going strong after all these years.

LIZZIE

“This is not a fringe. It’s a tassel.” Her boss went on and on about the virtues of fringes in modern furniture. She thought modern furniture was mostly practical. Except for that armchair she inherited from the neighbor who moved to Africa right after redecorating the place with the “most modern furniture in the world”. It did look quite cybernetic, except for the armchair. “You keep it”, he said. And she did. That was when she decided that she’d have a tassel over a fringe any time of day, much to her boss’s aggravation. Viva Las Tassels! Be a rebel!

LISA

A Date to Remember
It really was going to be a date to remember.
Elaine had fancied Vidal for ages. They were going to the new place in town that was already booked up for the rest of the year.
Sally was putting a hat on when her room-mate, Paula poked her head around the door.
“Do you really need a hat? That dress is smoking and it’s still boiling outside.”
“It’s hat or fake my own death,” Elaine removed the hat to reveal a half fringe half haystack, “I thought I’d trim my hair.” Paula quietly put the hat back on Sally’s head.

SAMUEL

As the black smoke gradually releases its grip from the once green meadows of Hampshire, one’s eyes can hardly rest upon this scene of devastation. Ash covers the smoking dirt where luscious green grass had thrived only months prior. The oaks that once lauded over these lands are so suddenly reduced to char-scarred skeletons. An eerie silence settles over this place, with even the birds holding back their breath. It’s like nature itself has cast a spell on all sound, knowing that the damage is already accomplished. And so even the earth itself lays in quiet respect for the fallen.

TOM

Fringe

When the plague hit critical, they blow the bridges. Not to be out done the County blew-up all the roads coming in to the county. No one I mean no one was coming to save us. We were now living on the fringe and life got very simple. The grapes gave way to wheat, and cars were replaced my horses. Somehow one guy got the electric grid running an hour a day. Folk started making simple motors. Churches filled and classroom became places of hope. I taught a generation of kids algebra. Those kids truly built back a better world.

SERENDIPIDY

I guess you could say I’ve always hovered around the fringe of society.
You know: the sort of people who tend to fall off the radar, ignored by polite society and generally looked down upon by most.
All of which, works very much in my favour.
Nobody really cares about the odd murder and mutilation where those are concerned. Comes with the territory and it’s no real loss.
And that pretty much gives me free rein to pick off whoever I want, whenever, and however I feel.
I won’t get caught.
Because I’m on the fringe too.
Under the radar.

NORVAL JOE

The social worker appeared ready to leave, but when Billbert’s mother spoke to her, she settled back onto the threadbare couch.

Billbert felt his mother’s influence kick in when she said, “I realize that we are on the fringe of what you consider a normal family for a child’s placement. But if you look at her background, and our history with her, you will see that she belongs in our home. Most importantly, she wants to be in our home.

The woman’s eyes appeared glazed for a moment, then she said, “I think you’re right. I’ll make the appropriate arrangements.”

PLANET Z

Professor Bailey had some pretty fringe theories, if you want to be polite about it. He’d stand at the lecture hall door, screaming about Jewish bankers, and the queen running drug smuggling operations. His long greasy gray hair wild around his ghastly face, his bony fingers in all directions, his arms waving madly. Why did the faculty hire him? He was a good gardener. Oh, did you think he was an actual professor? We’re not sure what his real first name is, but he says his mother named him professor. As long as the top Aries look good, who cares?

Tree trunk

When Charlie went home from school, he liked to take the shortcut through the woods. It was quiet and peaceful, and when it was raining, he liked how the rain would gently fall through the leaves. He liked to walk by the tree where he had stabbed that bully, Adam, and then watched him bleed to death. Adam daily beat him up for his lunch money. Charlie told his father. And his father gave him a knife. They buried the body in the woods and nobody ever found it. Charlie smiled, patted the tree trunk, and continued his way home.

Button backwards

I didn’t find the movie the curious Case of Benjamin button all that interesting. I find it rather confusing. But I found it a lot more enjoyable playing it backwards. Because Brad Pitt ends up being a completely normal guy surrounded by a world that’s talking backwards and completely fucked up and running backwards until as an old shriveled baby. He’s shoved up his mother‘s vagina. Which for a horror movie is a really messed up twist ending. I’d have given it four stars, just for the audacity and maybe the weird titillation from such a scene. Two thumbs up.

Beautiful morning

It’s another beautiful morning. The administrators have a whole folder, full of beautiful mornings, and they load one for all the customers. Sometimes, they might toss in a rainy day or a cold day if it’s been too nice out for too long. And they finally gotten the rendering for the clouds, right. Before it was far too easy to see the shapes the artist had used. A rabbit. An angel. A bunny. And so on. Now the clouds look like clouds. Maybe they just photographed clouds outside. Anyway it’s a beautiful morning and I can’t wait to enjoy it.

Landlords

It was about 50 years ago that the flying saucers appeared in the skies. Of course, they said they came in peace, and they offered everything we wanted. Here’s disease, clean energy, the end of want and poverty. They set up shrines in every city. Occasionally, people would be allowed to visit and they’d return with the latest technology or gadget or medical breakthrough. And then, every one of their gifts stopped working. And the shrines turned out to be terraforming centers. When turned on. The world changed. Humanity died off and the guests became the new landlords of earth.

Farmers market

Farmer Smith was a strange little man, dressed in purple robes and a black top hat. He set up a tent at the farmers market every Saturday, laying out the most unusual fruits and vegetables. They looked similar to bananas and oranges and apples and cherries, but he said they were foreign varieties that he had grafted in order to grow domestically. Which makes sense. I’ve seen photos of bananas and mangoes that grow around the world and they look nothing like the boring yellow ones we have here. He always sells out, packs his table, and tent, smiling wide.

Georges

Bless his heart, the Lake George Foreman named all of his sons after himself. I mean, if you want to do that, OK, but when they grow up to be the mayor, governor, congressman, Senator, vice president, and president, you’re not doing the country any favors. Some people on the press would use their numbers like fifth and fourth. Others just use their titles. In the end, nobody really cared since they all ended up doing a really good job and were reelected time and time again, and retired into various jobs in the community. Except for one, that jerk.

Weekly Challenge #1060 – Omnibus

The next topic is Fringe

LIZZIE

The omnibus edition included three of eight books. The release would take place in a week. However, the printing took longer than expected. The printer kept having to reprint everything. Odd pages would appear. After a few attempts, the editor decided to just print it and see what happened. We’ll say it’s a special remixed edition, he said. Right before the release, the editor leafed through the book. There was nothing wrong. And then he noticed it. There were not three but four books included, all in perfect order. Sometimes, we just have to let magic happen on its own.

RICHARD

Bus Stop
Omnibus… an old-fashioned word, yet so descriptive. A versatile prefix instantly saying everything to know about the object it describes.
An omnidirectional microphone, the sort that can pick up sound from any direction. An omnipresent being, depending on your deity of choice, is a presence that is everywhere around us, (yes, even in the bedroom, where you get up to ‘things’.
And let’s endow our deity with omnipotence, just to round things off nicely.
Have you noticed though how we’ve stopped using omnibus, and now just use ‘bus’?
Because they don’t go any bloody where you need them to!

TOM

The Chevrolet 2037 Omnibus

See the USA in your Chevrolet America’s asking you to call Drive your Chevrolet through the USA America’s the greatest land of all On a highway or a road along a levee Performance is sweeter, nothing can beat her Life is completer in a Chevy So, make a date today to see the USA And see it in your Chevrolet Travelin’ east, travelin’ west Wherever you go Chevy service is best Southward or north, near place or far There’s a Chevrolet dealer for your Chevrolet car See the USA in your Chevrolet. Chevrolet Omnibus seats 160 luxury on gravedigger’s wage.

SERENDIPIDY

My parents were avid readers of horror stories, but they didn’t really have much class.
Rather than spend good money on decent book collections, they’d buy those big, thick omnibus volumes of dubious horror. Unknown authors writing bargain basement trash; but my parents were of the quantity over quality school, and the thicker the collection, the better, in their minds.
I read them all, of course, and I knew right from the start, I could do so much better myself.
But, to write decent horror, one has to undertake copious research.
After all, they do say to write from experience.

NORVAL JOE

When the social worker arrived they all sat in the living room as Sabrina told her story.

The woman closed one eye skeptically. “You’re telling me that this boy’s parents kidnapped you to create a tsunami to wipe out a coven of witches, and then they were carried away in a tornado?”

“No,” Sabrina said. “Only his father was.”

“Well, that makes it all better,” she said with heavy sarcasm. “Let me add that to my omnibus of pitiful excuses. I’ll have to take Sabrina and find a more appropriate placement for her.”

“Please,” Billbert’s mother said. “Wait one moment.”

PLANET Z

The route to my grade school went along a road with a lot of construction. And they were frequent potholes and carve outs in the narrow lanes. Our usual bus driver navigated these rather skillfully. Never driving too fast. However, when they took a day off, the substitute driver was reckless. thankfully, We made it along the rough road easily, but when we turned into a residential area, he hit the speed bumps pretty hard. The kids in the far back were thrown against the ceiling. One broke his neck and died. And I didn’t get home until after dark.

McCafferty

It was weird how McCafferty just showed up one day at a team meeting. There wasn’t a job posting, there weren’t any interviews. He just showed up one day and he had a badge and a laptop and a parking space. Human resources didn’t remember hiring him, and the boss didn’t remember anything. And he knew the company and the projects and all of our platforms and software and tools perfectly from day one. The next day, he was gone. No one remembered him ever having been there. It made me wonder about my own existence and I’d disappear suddenly.