Weekly Challenge #1038 – The noisiest place in the universe

The next topic is Bubble wrap.

LEWIE

Title: Silence Has Teeth

Alone.
In the dark.

It is a cruel punishment. No one else around. Left to your thoughts.

With people, you could tell them to quiet. Alone, there are none to silence. The mind never stops talking.

It remembers every wrong, every injustice, every moment no one believed.

The silence feeds it.

“Shut up!”

There are no consequences, only echoes. A mind can waste away arguing with itself.

When the universe is quiet, the mind becomes the noisiest place in existence.

“Please stop.”

There is only one task left.

Not escape.
To make peace with it.

“That’s enough, Warden.”

Good night.

LISA

Our House
Growing up our house was actually in the Guiness Book of Records as the noisiest place in the universe. My twin sisters fought constantly: screaming matches followed by raucous fights which usually ended with tears and a door slamming. My brother played the trumpet. Badly. Dad always had the radio on and would sing along whether he knew the words or not. Mum, well, Mum was, understandably, out a lot. So, I never knew how blissful quiet was until I left home and experienced an empty house for the first time and heard the sound of my own contented breathing.

LIZZIE

This is the noisiest place in the universe, he said. There was absolutely no sound in the tunnel, except for their voices. She winced. You can’t hear it? He’s nuts, she thought. Look! Two small figures appeared. Who?! He pointed up. They said that this is the noisiest place they have visited. They had to hide in this tunnel. They were going nuts out there. Let’s go for a ride. And they all did, to the quietest place in the universe, where everyone waved. She wasn’t sure whether they waved hello or goodbye to the noisiest creatures in the universe.

RICHARD

In Space

Remember the tag line for the movie, Alien? ‘In space no one can hear you scream’.
Scientifically sound, of course: soundwaves can’t travel through the vacuum of space, but that troubles me.
Just how many screams are reverberating around up there? And who on earth would be screaming?
What else is going on in space that we can’t hear, but we really should be concerned about?
Is there some gigantic interstellar PA system booming out a message that humanity is doomed, issuing vital instructions to ensure our survival?
Or maybe there’s nothing, at all.
A silence so profound, it’s deafening.

TOM

A fine and quite place

Ra woke to noise. Lots of noise right down to the rumble of radiation. A rain of tachyons beating down, it was enough to drive a god crazy. The big bang was hecka loud but it was over pretty fast. All this matter in the center of the Milky Way made it noisiest place in the universe. So slowly at first by faster later Ra move his tiny sun 10,000 light years to the low rent section housing of the Orion arm. Ra went back to sleep … until someone started to ping in the dark forest. “Not good,” he thought.

SERENDIPIDY

Welcome to my mind.
Quite possibly the noisiest place in the universe, not that you could possibly know that, if you weren’t me.
You don’t hear the constant voices; the shouting and screaming, urging me to burn, kill and destroy. You don’t hear the rush and thunder of the blood coursing through my veins, or the ringing in my ears that never stops.
You know nothing of the thoughts that continually clamour for attention.
You don’t hear any of it. Nothing whatsoever.
But I do.
And it’s unbearable.
Mostly.
You see, I can make it stop.
With bloodshed, and pain.

NORVAL JOE

Sabrina continued reading the diary. “Two of you have been sufficient thus far. Now, a third with power must join. Your quest takes you to a place, louder than all others, where time is limited, and the drive for success approaches the boundaries of speed.

“There, you will meet a fourth to lead you on.”

Billbert looked at the girls. “What’s the loudest place on earth?”

Sabrina shrugged. “They aren’t launching space shuttles anymore, so, how about an airport?”

Mandi shook her head. “They’re loud, but there is no drive for success. I think the place is a NASCAR race.”

PLANET Z

By the time the cryogenically preserved crew arrived at their destination, scientists invented faster than light travel. So instead of the colony ship arriving to an empty world, civilization had been founded and flourished. The colony ship had been programmed to launch the terraforming drones on arrival. The current residents of the world were not pleased about this, and they destroyed the colony ship and its drones. The ships flaming wreckage landed in the ocean, and a few coastal cities suffered tidal waves. There were a handful of cryogenic pods that survived somehow, but they were quickly smashed to pieces.

Dumb fat monkey

When I go for my walks, I don’t wear a headset or listen to music or podcasts anymore. I’d rather listen to the birds, singing or the squirrels chittering or the crickets or the frogs. It’s so much calmer soundtrack than people trying to convince me to think like they do. Instead, I’d rather think like the birds and the squirrels. Although after years of walking in the trees, I couldn’t possibly tell you what they’re saying or thinking. Maybe it’s watch out. A big fat dumb monkey is walking around. Don’t let it cut your tree down this time.

Waiting for Lord Foster

From the void came a wind.
It blew in all directions.
Lord Foster licked his finger and held it to the wind.
He sensed… something…
There. There it was.
The void.
And he walked into the void.
His manservant Drake watched as Lord Foster vanished into the darkness.
He didn’t follow. Foster had told him to wait.
So, he waited.
For hours. Days.
Before he ran out of food or water, he ran out of patience.
And he’d only been hired for the week.
He yawned, picked up his folding chair, and went back to the car.
And drove off.

Danny will dance again

It’s been three years since Danny last danced.
He’s sitting there, on the edge of the dance floor, watching all the dancers dancing.
But day after day, he’ll watch, and then get up and go home.
Without dancing.
The next day, he’s back there at the edge of the dance floor, sitting.
And watching.
Sometimes, he smokes a cigarette.
Other times, he pulls out his phone and calls someone.
Once, a dancer walked up to Danny and asked him to dance.
He shook his head and smiled.
Maybe one day, he’ll dance again.
Or maybe he won’t. Nobody really knows.

Snowball fight

Looking at all the sports at the winter Olympics and all the different competitions with teams and individual achievements, I wonder if they just wanna have a big snowball fight. I mean, it’s winter, you have a bunch of kids, there’s some rivalries, so why not snowball fight? You don’t have to keep score, you don’t need referees and you don’t need rules. And all the equipment you need is a good hat, a good jacket, good boots and snow pants, and really good gloves that keep your hands warm while letting you get a good grip on the snow

Three car washes

I like to get a car wash after I go to the beach.
It’s really to vacuum the sand up from my floormats, even though I wrap my shoes in a towel and put on slippers to avoid tracking sand in my car.
I could do that at home with a shopvac or my dustbuster, but whatever.
Yesterday, I had three car washes.
First time around, the attendant told me the soap didn’t quite dispense, go back around.
Then the vacuum system was offline, so he sent me to their other location.
For a third car wash. And a vacuum.

Box it up

At the end of every contract, they mail out a FedEx label to put on a box to send their laptop back, and sometimes I like to put a little something extra in there like some candy or whatever promotional material they’ve sent me or in the rare cases they’ve acknowledged my existence, the awards were branded hat, or bottle or whatever or tote bag. Especially if it’s a shirt or some other clothing that acts as an advertisement. I seal it all up, slap the label on, and head to the Fedex store to start the next career chapter.

Weekly Challenge #1037 – Dear everyone

The next topic is The noisiest place in the universe.

LEWIE

Dear Everyone,

Except for the guy in the back, in the yellow shirt.

Being of sound body and mind, I hereby declare that you are all immorally dressed. Nobody will receive anything of mine. Except maybe Francis. I haven’t decided yet. I leave it up to the guy in the yellow shirt.

Everyone looked. Nobody was present.

“Wasn’t Uncle Joe colorblind?” Francis asked.

“No.”

“Nancy has a yellow coat!”

“It specifically said, ‘Shirt… and guy.`”

“What’s that even mean?”

A courier stepped in with a package.

He wore an almost yellow shirt.

It was probably the lighting.

“Is Francis here?”

LISA

The Letter
“Dear Everyone.” The letter began.
“By the time you read this I’ll be gone.” For an eight year old he sure was dramatic I
suspected Chat GPT had helped.
We shifted uncomfortably and caught each others eyes. The Mother was inconsolable. The father still hadn’t answered our Calls.
“Don’t try and find me.”
We’d asked if there’d been any arguments, whether he was happy at school. The usual questions but with no explanatory answers.
Then, in he sauntered with a ‘Whaaaaaaat?”
His mother held the letter out asking what it was.
“My homework? To write a serious letter. He smirked.

RICHARD

A girl’s best friend
This wasn’t going well.
We were shopping for an engagement ring, and she was thinking money was no object, whereas I was very much of the opinion that we were on a strict budget, not that I was prepared to tell her that.
“How about one of these” she said, pointing to some large diamonds.
I looked. They were all so dear, every one of them, without exception.
“Aren’t they a bit ostentatious?” I suggested, “Wouldn’t you prefer something less vulgar… understated, yet elegant, just like me?” I smiled.
“Don’t you mean, cheap and tacky, just like you!” She retorted.

LIZZIE

“Dear Everyone, I…” And that was it. The letter was never completed. The police tried to figure it out. Everyone? Who? What statement would follow that lonely “I”? And where was the author of the letter? The police searched the house. They searched around the house. They canvassed the entire neighborhood. They opened emergency phone lines. The tips were worthless. After a month, the police gave up. A year later, a neighbor received a letter saying “I remember now.” No sender address, no fingerprints, no DNA, no clues. Just that one line, written in the unmistakable handwriting of his neighbor.

SERENDIPIDY

Dear everyone,
This is my manifesto.
Now you know something bad is coming. Any time somebody writes something headed, ‘My Manifesto’, it’s always a very bad thing.
You can almost visualise I’m sat alone in front of my computer, surrounded by loaded automatic weapons, combat knives and a stack of home-made pipe bombs.
You’re already making assumptions about my childhood and how I was bullied at school.
It’s all going to turn out very badly, and basically, you saw it coming.
Coming to think of it, I can’t be bothered writing a manifesto. You already know what it contains.

NORVAL JOE

“It’s a long story,” Billbert mumbled. “I’ll let Mandi explain.”

After Linoliamanda had told her story, Sabrina scowled and stepped toward her. Sabrina raised her hand as if to slap Mandi. Instead, she swiped the magnifying glass from Mandi’s hand.

Sabrina looked through the glass at the items on the table. All the arcane objects disappeared, except for two; the locket and a small diary.

“Hmm,” Sabrina grunted and picked up the diary.

She opened it and began to read, “Dear everyone, or at least, those who are left. You have journeyed this far and now you must move on.”

TOM

Mea Culpa

Dear Everyone:

It is with deep sadness I stand before you as the chief architect of this morning’s disaster. I could easily make the case the times justified the action, but someone most fall on the sword. I have drawn that lot. While history may be kinder than you all with pitch forks and the tastes of blood on your lips let me beg one last request. Safe passage for my family to the green zone. May you know a brighter day.

Secretary Dem Orton Thorwell

The letter was pinned to his suit as he turned slowly in the wind.

PLANET Z

They pulled Sally‘s body out of the river. In her pocket was a note that said dear everyone, but after that, it was an illegible smear. The coroner said suicide, case closed. The next day, three more bodies pulled from the river. The same note in their pocket, dear everyone. On the third day a dozen bodies. the corner noticed that it was the same handwriting on the notes. Was it a cult? A serial killer? Police watched the river, but never caught anyone. this morning, they pulled 100 bodies out of the river, and there’s still more out there.

Keep turning left until you’re right

They say hateful things, The Hateful.
They hate anything that they don’t agree with.
“You disagree with us?” they say. “Then we hate you.”
And anyone who disagrees with that, they call haters.
They claim the right to hate whomever they want to.
And if you call the Hateful haters, well, then you’re a hater, too.
They will hate your employer until they take away your job.
They will hate your bank until they take away your money,
They will hate your family until they leave you.
Until… they realize they are haters. And stop.
Then, they become the hated.

The dictator

When the occupying Army caught the dictator, we announced it to the press.
And the press cheered.
People took to the streets and cheered, firing their guns in the air.
Tearing down posters and pulling down statues.
Burning police stations and army bases.
Destroying all of the books in libraries and schools.
Looting stores and banks.
It was absolute chaos.
The interim governor asked the dictator for advice.
“Sound like a you problem, not a me problem,” were his last words.
His supporters in the prison rioted, and they took over the prison.
Finding his body, hanging in his cell.