Author: R.

Welcome to the 100 Word Stories podcast at oneadayuntilthedayidie.com.

This is the Weekly Challenge, where I post a topic and then challenge you to come up with a 100 word story based on that topic.

We’ve got stories by:

• Charlie
• Jeffrey
• Lizzie
• Richard
• Munsi
• Serendipity
• Tom
• Norval Joe
• Tura
• Planet Z

CHARLIE

I had feathers for one day, and then all was back to normal. There were bright blue, feathered wings, fluorescent red ones on my breast, with a shiny, black bib, while yellow and orange ones crowned my head. I was free, and I was a big-really big-bird. I took the liberty of flying over city hall and waiting for the mayor to step out of the building and start walking to his car. I was ten feet above and swooped in, laying three feet of cable on his head, shoulders, and Italian suit. I flew away, quickly, chirping and clucking.

#2

I nocked the arrow, checked the feathers, and took aim on my target, releasing breath as I did. My target kept moving, and I was losing confidence that I could hit the apricot without sending the Carbon Express, Maxima, RZ, Select shaft through my cousin’s forehead. I steadied myself, moved out of my default mental space and into a mindful frame of mind, simultaneously relaxing the fingers of my string hand. As I was taught, I did not know when the arrow was going to be sent. I only heard the sound of the arrow as it cut the air.

#3

The first time Walt Air took me up for some in-flight checks, we flew the Cessna Twin. We simulated a right engine failure and restart with feathered prop. We had plenty of altitude to do this exercise and there was little traffic on our Southern leg from Walt’s to the Seattle area. My instructor, Buster, was a calm young man, and very attentive to procedure and detail. I tossed my cookies on my “shutdown secure” check list. I used his when I ran through the procedures. When signed off that day, Buster gave me the papers and two sick bags.

JEFFREY

Blue
by Jeffrey Fischer

Listening to the right piece of music, even just a few phrases, can make the spirit feel feather-light. Music can evoke the past, tap into a variety of emotions, revitalize the soul, lift one out of the doldrums.

Then the darkness descends again. Instead of feeling free, one is anchored by lassitude. Everything seems pointless. One’s loathing for other people is surpassed only by one’s self-loathing.

Grimly, one finds the playlist, the one with those songs, and, hoping against hope, presses the start button. The sense of well-being may not last forever, but this moment is all that matters.

Early One Morning
by Jeffrey Fischer

You caress me with the tips of your fingers, so lightly it feels like the brush of a feather. I keep my eyes closed, wanting this waking moment to continue. Your fingertips move along my arm, then across my bare chest. I allow myself a smile. “Oh, honey, that feels good,” I moan.

“Did you say something to me?” your voice calls from a distance. I open my eyes. A huge spider pauses on its way across my torso, its eyes staring quizzically at me. I leap out of bed with an undignified “Oh shit oh shit oh shit,” flicking the creature off me.

LIZZIE

Feather Brain?

“Hey, feather brain, wake up!”
Peter straightened up and tilted his head to one side, then to the other.
“I’m awake.”
“What’s your task for today?”
“I don’t know.”
“Go to the Task Dispenser and press a number.”
“I did.”
“And?”
“I accomplished it.”
“You were sleeping. How could you have accomplished anything?”
Peter searched his pocket and produced a crumpled slip of paper he handed to the robot. It stated “Take the day off”.
The robot stormed away in a fit of rage, screaming.
“Who hacked the Task Dispenser again? If I catch you, you’ll be sorry. I swear.”

RICHARD

Feathers!

I’m all for the advancement of science and the debunking of myths in favour of hard facts, but sometimes science can go just a little too far.

Warm-blooded dinosaurs I can handle: Even brightly coloured, spritely dinosaurs I can manage; but, when science asks me to believe that dinosaurs were covered in feathers, then as far as I’m concerned, science can take a running jump.

I refuse to accept the notion that T-Rex was just some overgrown version of Tweetie Pie – it’s just wrong on every level.

And it’s ruined the idea of Jurassic Park for me, forever!

MUNSI

Her Bangs
By Christopher Munroe

Her bangs feathered out to either side of her face like the wings of some majestic bird…

Some mythical creature, both immeasurably powerful and graceful beyond imagination, beautiful enough to reduce a grown man to gasping, awestruck tears and yet terrifying in its ability to put your world into sharp perspective.

Against those bangs, other hairstyle couldn’t compete.

Against those bangs, nothing else in life could be said to have meaning…

I liked her hair, basically.

It suited her.

I don’t know if she’d had it cut or was just styling it differently, but whatever she was doing, it worked…

SERENDIPIDY

They say that peacock feathers are unlucky, but I suppose people will believe any old superstition if they want to.

Personally, I don’t believe a word of it… Have you ever known any misfortune come to someone as a consequence of such things?

Oh look… You’ve spilled the salt!

Be a dear and grab a peacock feather to brush it up – there’s one in the cupboard under the broken mirror, near that open umbrella, just beneath the ladder. Careful you don’t trip over the cat.

And if that doesn’t bring you bad luck…

I’ll punch you in the nose!

TOM

Cheap Chopped Chicken Feathers
Season 4 | Episode 21

When I was small we had these blue stripped pillows. They were stuffed with chicken feathers. Often the point of one of the feathers would poke out of the cloth case and scratch you on the face. Only way to get rid of the feather was to pull it out. Little by little the pillow deflated over the years, till they weren’t much of a pillow at all. Mom switched over to crumped foam. Those totally sucks, so I laid major coin for gooses down. Now I got Tempur-Pedic, very comfy. Don’t real miss the feathers, time marches on.

NORVAL JOE

“So it sounds to me like all of you are on the same side,” Mandy said. “With Polecat being your mutual enemy, you could start your own super hero team.”
“I don’t think so,” Monkey Boy said. ” Ferret was supposed to eliminate Cherry Cola–we can’t trust her. Last time I worked with Cherry Cola, she deserted me and left me a captive to team Horse Feathers.”
“Team who?” Ferret asked.
“They’re a loosely knit group of semi-comedic anti-heroes which I’d infiltrated, until Cherry turned her back on me,” Mickey said. “No. I don’t think we’ll make a good team.”

TURA

Feathers
———
Nothing can beat playing golf with golfballs you made yourself. To begin, get a stone of goose feathers from your local goose farmer– this will make several hundred golfballs. Take a top-hatful (the traditional measure), pound them with a beechwood mallet, and when they begin to compact, add a trace of bezoar gum to bind the mass. Finish the core with a coat of naturally drawn indiarubber solution in turpentine.

Part two of this series will show how to hand-stitch the leather cover.

Hipster Hobbyist: the magazine of ways to spend your leisure in backbreaking labour of no economic value.

PLANET Z

The philosopher asks: Which falls faster, a pound of feathers or a pound of lead?
Because of air resistance, the pound of lead would fall faster, right? The feathers catch the air and flutter slowly to the ground.
But not necessarily.
If you use a hydraulic press to mash the feathers into a ball, it fill fall rather quickly.
And if you hammer the lead into soft thin strips, they will flutter to the ground like feathers.
In the end, it’s not what something is made of, but how you shape it.
Well, that, and how you interpret the question.

Welcome to the 100 Word Stories podcast at oneadayuntilthedayidie.com.

This is the Weekly Challenge, where I post a topic and then challenge you to come up with a 100 word story based on that topic.

We’ve got stories by:

• Munsi
• Jeffrey
• Lizzie
• Charlie
• Richard
• Tom
• Serendipity
• Zackmann
• Norval Joe
• Tura
• Planet Z

MUNSI

Meanwhile, at the Commissioner’s Office
By Christopher Munroe

“Let me make myself clear…” he told me, and then vanished.

Which, to be completely honest, I found more than a little bit smug.

I mean, okay, we get it, you have powers beyond those of mortal man, powers that include among others mastery over your body at the molecular level, to the point that you can turn your physical form completely transparent, allowing light to pass through you and rendering yourself invisible to the human eye. We’re all very impressed.

No need to be a dick about it, though, right?

I swear, sometimes superheroes are more trouble then they’re worth…

JEFFREY

All Clear
by Jeffrey Fischer

The “all clear” notice came but no one left the shelter. We recognized the engine signature of the bomber we called Adolf. He thought he was clever: when his fellow Heinkel pilots dropped their payloads, Adolph did not. As the squadron flew back to the Channel, he would return to drop his bombs, hoping to catch people on the streets. That surprise worked exactly once, after which everyone listened for Adolph to go for good before returning to the surface.

Adolph was too clever for his own good: his fighter escort departed with the rest of his squadron. The fourth time he pulled his trick, the RAF made short work of him.

I Can See for Miles
by Jeffrey Fischer

They say that on a clear day you can see forever. Thursday was exceptionally clear. The weatherman said visibility was “unlimited,” so I put the adage to the test.

The mountain range, 20 miles away and normally enveloped in haze, was crystal clear. I looked farther. I could see individual craters on the Moon. I could see Pluto, with its delusions of being a planet, and the galactic center, and clusters of galaxies beyond our own. I saw to the Big Bang, the moment of creation, but still I looked farther. I stared into the face of God – and he stared back, mouthing, “I see you, Jeffrey.” Oh, shit. I closed the blinds and hid until the day turned cloudy.

LIZZIE

A small window allowed him a narrow view of the world. He liked that. A seagull flew by every now and then. And he just did his job.
That night, he didn’t do his job; that’s what the money was for. In sheer darkness, he turned a blind eye. He sat down, his back towards the money piled up on the table.
The next morning, when he read the news, he climbed to the top of the lighthouse and jumped. In his mind, he became a seagull flying in a clear blue sky, carrying that kid who had been kidnapped.

CHARLIE

I wove myself into the upper echelon of the group. My next plateau in Scientology was to go CLEAR. I had devoted seven years to my quest, and twenty thousand dollars in Bitcoin. Clear is the state achieved through auditing and giving up my secrets, my sexual orientation, bank balances, friend’s names and contact information as well as describing the persona that no longer has his own reactive mind. Without a reactive mind, individuals regain their basic personality, self-determinism and, in essence, become much, much more the slave of L. Ron Hubbard, the sci-fi author and captain of the ship.

#2

Until my date, my face was a mass of eruptions, blotches, pustules, and pimples. I thought my life was over, and I would be a map of zits for life, until I heard that going all the way would clear things up. I saved for a cab ride, a fancy dinner and a show with a date. Myrna would put out for all this, so I was sure to have a normal complexion in a couple of days. We did the nasty, my face cleared up in two days, but I got a dose of la clapoir before the weekend.

RICHARD

A cunning plan

Only two things remained clear in Boggin’s thoughts… Firstly, if he just lay here, things could only go from bad to worse. Secondly, he had no idea what he could do in the alternative.

The creeping hands had reached the lip of his pocket. The vague beginnings of a plan crept unwillingly into his mind.

“Stop!”, he rasped, with all the strength he could muster; “There’s nothing for you there, but I can tell you where to find untold riches!”

Quickly, the hobbit described to his captor the whereabouts of the treasure he’d abandoned.

“Interesting”, hissed the creature, “we’ll see…”

TOM

Mad World
Clear was born with electric eyes. Endowed by his creator with a grace of action that brought peace to all who came in contact with his presence. He traversed the globe defusing madness and chaos. “To unlock the harden heart one must be willing to give up their own,” he said. When he was taken the world prayed. When they took his life the world mourned. To every generation a light is given to clear the path. In every generation the darkness grows to obscure that path. Clearly we need to heed the whisper and raise it to a call.

SEREDNIPITY

The test results came back clear.

Of course, none of the surgical team knew that: Those results were currently sitting in the discarded shredded paper bin in my office. As far as they were concerned, I had every reason in the world to be poking around in the patient’s brain.

But I didn’t – it was just something I liked to do for fun… To relieve the monotony of the job.

My assistant held up a picture of a carrot.

“Saxorillabus”, came the patient’s response. I giggled quietly.

Then his heart stopped.

They grabbed the paddles…

“Clear!”

But, too late.

ZACKMANN

So many people are reviewing movies but so many movie titles are used that don’t fit the movie. So for clarity we will change them, like Avatar or more accurately Fern Gulley Dances with Smurfs, We Can We Can Remember It for You Wholesale: Based on the Philip K Dick story that had been wiped from the minds of the creators of Total Recall. John Carter of Mar: a Princess of Mars. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory seems right since it was not a Willy Wonka remake. Tell me which I missed or why I am wrong in the comments.

NORVAL JOE

“Everybody hold on a minute,” Mandy shouted. “Mickey. Clear this up for me. Who are all these people and why do you all have funny names. I mean…Monkey Boy? Seriously?”
Mickey scratched his head. “Honestly. I’m kind of a super hero. That’s why I was late for work today. Polecat and her henchmen were chasing me.”
Mandy turned on Ferret. “Aren’t ferrets and polecats the same thing?”
“Pretty much. Ferrets are like tame polecats. It makes sense, though. We are sisters.”
“You’re sisters?” Cherry Cola asked.
Ferret nodded. “We’re twins. Not identical, of course, and I’m nicer than she is.”

TURA

Clear
———
Having dismissed my servant for his persistent surliness, I tested his replacement by sending him on an errand to the market. I concluded my instructions by saying, “Is that clear?”

“Truly, master,” he replied, “it is as if a window that was begrimed has been made clean! It is as if an old and broken lamp has been repaired and filled again with oil, and its wick trimmed and lighted! It is as if thick clouds have dispersed and revealed the sun! Even so do your most excellent words turn darkness into light.”

I wished for the old servant back.
———
There once was a cobbler who made shoes so fine
That he always had meat on the table, and wine
He was best and he knew it, no need to be humble
But his neighbours would gather to gossip and grumble
“He lives like a lord while for us life’s a bitch”
“We’d rather go unshod than see him grow rich!”
The more trade they brought him the more they complained
And on church days both he and his wife were disdained.
The moral of this is abundantly clear
Big fish in small ponds should eat bread and drink beer.
———

PLANET Z

The guru told Benny to clear his mind, and Benny did as he was told.
When the guru asked Benny for the password to his bank account, he couldn’t remember it.
“Okay, okay… you can remember everything now,” said the guru.
But Benny’s mind was already clear. There was nothing at all in his head.
The guru tried to use Benny’s credit cards to make few purchases, but they all had delivery address safety features.
And Benny’s phone wasn’t one of those thumbprint ID phones.
The guru took Benny’s cash, tore off his false beard, and hailed an Uber ride.