Welcome to the Weekly Challenge Number One Hundred And Eighty-One, where I post a topic and then challenge you to come up with a 100 word story based on that topic.
The topic this week was… was…. um…
It’s Forty!
The excellent theme music is by Guy David.
VOTING
Go ahead and listen to them and then vote for your favorites (multiple selections are allowed):
Josh
Joey plunged the hotdog into the water and watched it expand before pulling it out and cramming it into his already full mouth.
Chewing furiously he imagined himself a viking destroying his enemy, piercing through soggy armor and rubbery flesh with spear-like incisors. He fought only to kill. To send his opponent like its twenty-seven brethren before it, to the bowels of hell.
Joey grabbed the cup and pulled deep, not minding the soggy chunks of bread collecting on his lips before slamming it back down. He braced himself for the melee of approaching challengers .
Only forty more to go.
Eva Moon
Amir stifled a groan of discomfort and shifted his aching bones as much as he could in the cramped quarters, but it provided little relief. How long must I wait? He settled his shoulders against the rough ceramic and occupied his mind with thoughts of how he would spend his share of the loot. Even split forty ways with the other thieves, it would still be enough to make a comfortable life for a frugal man.
At last he heard the shuffle of bare feet outside his hiding place and the sound of the clay lid above his head being slid aside.
The last thing he knew was the smell of hot oil.
Cary
Birthday candles blazing, Pintu leaned over the cake with his ears pinned back, to prevent them from singeing. As he took a deep breath grandpa shouted out “how many is that now?!” Pintu held the captive air. From the opposite side of the room Grandma returned even louder “5”! Pintu still waiting, his little cheeks bulging. Grandpa responded “If he’s 5 then I’m forty!” “Death plus forty!” Grandma shouted over the huddled crowd. “You would know!” yelled back Grandpa. Pintu still hovering over the flaming cake, only his eyes following the volleys. His cheeks turning a patient shade of blue.
ChestMutt
The night was dark and spooky as the kids walked through the woods. All they wanted was a silly scare, but now, in the forty degree weather, all they wanted was home. The fall festival was a hit for them, and they gathered as much candy and food as possible. The sugar rush they were now on made them easily convinced to go through the thick trees in search for the ghostly creature that hid among them. Somewhere, a tree branch snapped, sending them into a sudden panic as they turned and ran the ten feet out into the clearing.
Stephen
In this world, lawyers are real predators. Feral copyright attorneys
hunt the streets. Outside, a patent infringer’s gunship ravages a
corporate skyscraper. The building rumbles, preparing to launch into
low orbit.
I shake my head. The scene fades as I toss the paper – my fortieth
attempt at a believable world – into the wastebin.
I write again, and the world fills in around me. Giant insects buzz,
a velociraptor screeches, and I quickly throw that paper aside.
I pick up my pen again. This time, I write you. Your world, your
cities, your people.
I’m not sure if I like it.
Anima
“If you’d paid Big Louie on time, I wouldn’t have to come visit. Why would a sweet old granny like to bet that kind of money on the fights anyway? You just don’t look the type. What’s that? Hold on, I’m gonna pull of the tape now…”
“It’s not me you want, you goon! I’m Joan Smith, not John Smith!”
“You aren’t John Smith, Apartment 4D?”
“No! he’s in 4T!”
“Eh. Benny, let go the old lady… and remind me to get a new cel phone in the morning, you can’t understand a thing anybody says on this…”
John W.
Red and blue lights flashed behind me. I pulled over, rolled down my
window and placed my hands on the steering wheel.
When the officer approached I could see my reflection in his mirrored
sunglasses.
He spoke in a calm yet firm tone, “Sir, do you know why I pulled you over?”
I didn’t answer. I knew why.
“Sir, you were doing 87 mph in a 40 mph zone,” he said.
Still I did not answer.
He looked in the back seat and said to me, “Follow me, sir.”
We raced off together to the hospital, my wife in labor.
Brad
Once upon a time there lived a bewitched princess that had been asleep for 40 years. Her queenly mother prayed for a hero to come and break the spell. Her mother’s prayers were answered when a valiant 40 year old prince with gold mail and super fast horse fought his way past dragons and swamp monsters and stuff like that to get to her and wake her with a kiss. But then he realized that she was 18 when she fell asleep and that would make her 58 so he passed and married a 22 year old duchess from Notlob.
Almo
Peter slipped on the wet, muddy floor, then slipped heavily on something else. “Shit!” he said, an interjection and a description. He cleaned himself up, cursed the cow, and began mucking out the pen. He looked uncertainly at the hay, which would mildew if they couldn’t figure out a way to dry it out soon.
He caught a movement out of the corner his eye. His father.
Peter’s frustration boiled over.
“Look,” he yelled at Noah. “It’s been 39 days of the same thing!”
Peter glanced at the cow. “If this rain lasts forty days, It’s burger time, baby!”
Guy David
Forty butterflies are dancing on my grave. Forty red flowers are arranged in a circle on the cold stone. Forty paid maidens are weeping for me. I scream “I’m alive, I’m still alive, let me out,” but no one hears. The earth tastes sweet in my mouth. I sob. I’ve been here for forty thousand years. Still there’s no sign of me becoming hungry or tired, forever doomed under a spell to stay alive in my grave, counting eternity. The walls of my grave disintegrated long ago. I’m now part of the soil. I’ll stay here forever. It’s my destiny.
Basrai
She asked, with her broken English: “Today, for tea, bring beef home.”
“Beef, for tea?”
She smiled broadly: “For tea, today.”
“You’re not kidding.” I gasped.
“For tea. You don’t know?”
I shook my head. That was the price for entering into a crossed-culture marriage. Your digestive system would, sooner or later, be compromised by strange customs. I imagined the slice of beef floating darkly in the sweet, aromatic Indian tea. She called it tchai.
“I am not drinking tea with beef, especially on my husband’s fortieth birthday. Please.”
“Forty. Your husband forty. I cook good. Not beef with tea.”
Lynda
Come one, come all, gather ’round and see the clockwork kid, the wonder of the modern age! Built by robots on a faraway island forty years ago, a group of opportunistic pirates couldn’t let a good thing go to waste so they brought him here, to entertain you! Wind him up and he’ll weave you a unique tale guaranteed to blow your mind!
You’ll be dazzled by his wit! You’ll marvel as he interacts with the fiercest of jungle cats! You’ll drool over his delicious bread!
Run, don’t walk! Don’t even wait for the bus! Witness the magnificent clockwork kid!
Justin
The weary dung beetle pushed upwards. Rail fell, it pushed. Snow covered the ground, onward to pushed. Food was scarce, yet it pushed upwards still. Jobs came and went, hurricanes and sickness, but still, the dung beetle pushed up, higher and higher up the hill. Many years passed, as did friends and family. How long will can the beetle go on? Wait, there, is that the top of the hill? Just a little bit further now. Forty years the beetle toiled, pushing the turd uphill and now, with a final heave, the crap started going downhill. Happy birthday Laurence Simon.
Norval Joe
“Ok, you were right about the rain, only forty days and nights and we’re afloat. So maybe God is talking to you. But what’s with the sheep? You bring two of each of the other animals, why so many damn sheep? And why do we need to keep them in our bedroom? I know, I know, the whole arc is crowded and they did made good pillows at first, but there’s sheep crap everywhere. I’m not putting up with sheep for another day, let alone forty. You better do something about them or you and the sheep are going overboard.”
Ishtar 1
40 feet till I can be free.
My body can feel it, muscles loosening,
The skin slightly sweating in anticipation,
a smile on my lips.
Why am I reacting like this? It’s Friday afternoon.
The end of the work week. All I can think about is
the Freedom of what I am about to do.
20 feet till I can be free.
My Coworkers tell me goodbye, little do they know
it will be. They try to stop me, ask questions. Reports,
forms, evaluations, baaaah. Can’t they see it all means
nothing?
Ishtar 2
Eyes follow my movements, no one can figure out why I am so happy.
I’m standing in the courtyard at work, surrounded by my coworkers.
Gods they think I’m flipping out.
I smile at them and ask them to wait a moment. I can explain everything.
I slowly unbutton my blouse; light is shining from my eyes.
I can feel the skin of my back ripping away. The crowd goes silent.
In that instant, I feel the ultimate freedom. I’m hovering 10 feet up.
My body has changed, fire on my skin, dragon wings, oh the freedom of flight.
TJ
It’s been 40 years, so go out! Celebrate! Even if you spend the entire day inside, however, the very rotation of the planet carries you about 17,600 miles. This is about 6.4 million miles in a year and nearly 257 million miles in 40 years.
Forty trips around the sun have net you an additional tour of some 23.5 billion miles through the solar system. In that time, the sun has traveled approximately 173 quadrillion miles around the galaxy — at whatever endlessly relative speed that’s moving through the universe.
So seriously, if it’s your 40th birthday? Relax. You’ve earned it.
JRadimus
“” Forty
“Today’s forecast calls for unseasonably wintry weather, with a chance of freezing rain before sunrise and after sunset, mostly cloudy all day, with a high of 40.”
“Thanks for the reminder.”
–
“Ma’am, Do you know how fast you were going?”
“No.”
“You were doing 40 in a 20. I can’t ignore that.”
“Yes, Officer…I’m sorry.”
“I’m still gonna write the ticket, ma’am.”
She sighed.
–
“That was some cut. How’d it happen?”
“I dropped a vase and missed; I cut my hand and foot on the glass.”
“Well, you’ll be fine, now. Forty stitches, though.”
“Thanks.”
Some birthday. Guess which one? “”
Dedric
Each day the programmer goes for a walk around a pond to relax. He sees a man playing a flute. It echoes over the water and fills his ears with musical joy. A gathering of large fish are often seen swimming close to the man playing the flute. Ideas fill his head about a fairy from the woods that turned his wife into a fish, and that he plays only to lure his lost love back to him. It is a silly story without an end or a purpose. After forty minutes, the programmer returns to a life of stress.
Planet Z
The last thing Michael remembered was a warning to drink plenty of fluids and rest.
He woke up feeling great… forty years later.
He screamed.
“Your chart says you drank an herbal remedy,” said a face on a floating monitor. White nurse-robots floated around it, going in and out of Michael’s vision.
Michael tried to remember.
His roommate was reading a thick leatherbound book he said once belonged to his great-grandmother.
“Cures everything,” he had said.
“Where is that asshole?” said Michael to the screen.
He heard a yawn from the next bed over.
And a scream.