Author: R.

• Lisa
• Tom
• Richard
• Lizzie
• Serendipidy
• Norval Joe
• Planet Z

The next topic is COMMENT

NORVAL JOE

Billbert wandered toward his English class wondering who the red-haired girl might be, and why she would be spying on him. He didn’t think he’d ever seen her before, but she was clearly a student at the school.

Behind him, someone said, “I should teach you a lesson.”

Billbert wondered who they might be talking to when another someone grabbed him by the shoulder, spun him around, and snarled, “Are you ignoring me?”

The bully who had harassed him before was flanked by his two goons.

Not far behind them, a girl with red hair and freckles watched, obviously interested.

RICHARD

— Hooked! —
Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish, and he’ll disappear every weekend, come rain or shine, to sit on river banks and neglect his family and responsibilities.
When he’s not actually fishing, he’ll be spending his time in bars and pubs, bragging about the size of his catches, and boring anyone who cares to listen about ‘the one that got away’.
Tasks at home will be left incomplete, the wife and kids left to fend for themselves, he’s never there when he’s needed.
Please, never teach a man to fish.

SERENDIPIDY

I always wanted to teach.
Whilst my contemporaries wanted to be nurses and vets, I’d already set my sights on becoming a teacher, and so, that’s what I became.
Kids are great. Those young minds: so malleable and enquiring. Like sponges ready to soak up knowledge and concepts.
Perfect receptacles for receiving my special indoctrination.
Thousands of them passed through my hands, my mini-acolytes and disciples, all of them being primed and made ready for the Day of Reckoning.
And it’s coming soon.
So, you’d better watch your children, because, come the hour…
They’ll be coming to get you!

LIZZIE

She would always hold a book and ask the kids to “read” from it. On each page, nothing but a few smudges and a handful of lost letters. The kids would then come up with a story. She would write it down on the blackboard, making everyone cringe and giggle when the chalk squeaked. The story would be copied to a notebook which would find its way onto a bookshelf. The next day, the same old smudges, the same old lost letters would inspire a new story. She hoped the kids would remember this for the rest of their lives.

LISA

Working Late
Ambulance Staff, Nurses and Doctors bustled around the bed. The surgeon was on call. Her Husband, whilst working late, had somehow had a car accident. She watched the monitors, the staff fuss around him, someone was saying they couldn’t save his leg
And then another victim of the RTA arrived on a trolley: his passenger.
Unrecognisable beneath the blood. But blonde.
Blonde, like the hair she’d found in their bed; she’d wanted to teach him a lesson he’d never forget but thought maybe he’d already learnt something tonight and left him and his mistresses to sort things out for themselves.

TOM

Luck of the Irish

My great grandfather came from Cork. He was from a long line of doctors stretching back into vailed time. He was not interested in the healing ways; he was into making money. No better place to make your way in the world was Chicago in the 1800s. Did very well for himself. That’s until he and a bunch of his fellow traders on the mercantile exchange tried to corner the wheat market. They came damn close, but no banana. Which try I’m not famously rich and do not prowl the hall of the powerful and connected. Better off for it.

A Calling.

I thought I had a calling in my youth. The choice in my faith was Dominicans, Franciscans, Jesuits, Benedictines, Carmelites, Salesians, Cistercians, Trappists. In the 70s all the orders were happily open to bring you into their flock. I chose the Augustinians because I thought my calling was to teach. The Tolentine Seminary was two miles from my home. Augustinian’s priests said mass at my local church. I took the application tests down the street at St. Rita’s. In a tiny clerical error, I ended up not attending minor seminary. I never became a priest, but did become a teacher.

PLANET Z

Those who can’t do teach, and you would think Mr. Johnson the shop teacher’s missing fingers and eyepatch would prove it.
But the guy used to be a zookeeper, and he had a nasty habit of doing things with the animals that you’ll never find in the brochures, and a rather feisty and proud wolverine let the guy know that no means no.
Some say that he’s also got a bad habit with the cheerleaders, and one bit off his fingers and poked out his eye, but as long as he keeps his hands on the bandsaw, I’m okay, really.

• Richard
• Lizzie
• Serendipidy
• Norval Joe
• Planet Z

The next topic is Teach

If I overlooked your story for this week, just send it to me with an admonishment and I will get it up on the feed in its own exclusive post.

LIZZIE

“I don’t want to know what you do with those humans. All I know is that when you come back, you can hardly function. You keep yelling Die! Die! Die! and you want to have a plant-based diet for weeks. And there’s no point in coming up with excuses. It was the trip. It was the pollution, it was the weather. There’s always something. This time, you had a drawing of a blond. A blond! So, I want a divorce.”
“A divorce?! Have you been reading the books I brought back with me again? We don’t even have marriages here!”

RICHARD

— A Little Less Conversation —
“Put a cork in it, will you?”
Jeff looked at me, a little shocked.
“Dude, I’m just expressing an opinion.”
“Yeah, but you’ve been expressing the same opinion for the last ten minutes, and I haven’t had a look in! You’re aware that a conversation is a two-way activity, right?”
He rolled his eyes, then gestured for me to contribute to the conversation.
After some thought, carefully considering all the nonsense that he’d been spouting, I came to a conclusion.
“OK”, I said.
“What? Is that seriously all you have to say?” he demanded.
I nodded my head.
“Yep.”

SERENDIPIDY

The products I use are all planet-friendly, plant-based and vegan.
It’s not that I particularly care about the environment, but when it comes to marketing, they really bring in the customers.
Just adding the word ‘recyclable’ to my beauty products can boost sales by fifty percent, and – better still – I can double the price and they’ll still fly off the shelves.
They will of course, still kill you, eventually.
They’re stuffed full of carcinogens, poison and chemicals, even though they’re naturally-sourced.
I can’t put all that on the packaging though, despite being true.
And business is booming!

NORVAL JOE

When the counselor dragged Sabrina away Billbert wandered on to class. Passing a display window by the admin office he saw a number of new photos pinned onto a cork board. There were more than 100 pictures from sporting events, club meetings, and other student functions on the school grounds. He found two pictures of him with Linoliamanda and one with Sabrina.

In each of the pictures there was also a girl, clearly watching them, or maybe just him. He’d never seen her before. She had dark red hair and more freckles than anyone on the Pacific Coast should have.

PLANET Z

Tracking cases is really important for my job
Some people track their cases with a whiteboard, writing new cases on the board and adding notes for status updates.
Others track them online with fancy tracking tools, linking notes and sharing them and running reports.
I use a corkboard with post-it notes, moving new cases from the top to the bottom and adding flags and bubbles to them with additional notes.
And yet, I still miss a few publishing windows or updates.
Just like I did with my white board and online tracker.
But at least the cork board looks cool.