Weekly Challenge #312 – Hugs

Welcome to the 100 Word Stories podcast at podcasting.isfullofcrap.com. I’m your host, Laurence Simon.

This is Weekly Challenge Number Three Hundred and Twelve, 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 hugs.

And we’ve got stories by a lot of people:

Tura
Thomas and his new book!
Katja
Serendipity Haven
Almo
Chris Munroe
Lizzie Gudkov
Logan Berry
Tom
Guy David
Sevi by Bonchance
Zackmann
Cliff
Steven Saus and the books at Amazon!
Botgirl
Danny
Red Goddess/TalkMarie
Norval Joe
Planet Z

And if you want to spam your social networks with this episode, use the Share buttons at the end of the post…

Obligatory photo:

The more people see this on Google Plus, Facebook, and Twitter – the more explaining you’ll have to do with your loved ones, coworkers, and parole officers.

---

Tura

I saw someone offering “Free Hugs!!” on the street. Well, that’s money lying on the table, I thought. But when I offered “Hugs, $1 each!!” no-one was interested.

So I built a hugging machine. Put a coin in the slot, get a hug. That did better, until I nearly got sued for injuries.

So I covered it with fur and turned up the strength. “Are you man enough? Test yourself against the Bear Hug!!” Every machine I install is pulling in a thousand dollars a day.

Peace and love is all very well, but it’s sex and violence that sells.

Thomas

The Tedesco sisters always competed. They competed for the bathroom, boyfriends and grades. When they were older, they competed in business. Shirley opened a massage parlor behind the library. Monica opened a handsome little counseling and Asian carpet boutique in a nearby mall.

Shirley’s business, Tugs and Hugs, was on the police watch list. Monica’s Business, Rugs and Hugs seemed totally respectable and in compliance of local law.

More rubbing and grinding went on at Monica’s business than Shirley’s in spite of appearances.

Monica would “counsel” her clients for a few minutes, then hug them like they’ve never been hugged.

##

Few of us know the derivation of the hug. The hug was first used by the Northern Greeks, and almost spontaneously, they were the first humans to stick out their tongue to signify dislike or jealousy.

The Greeks ran around in light, linen garments, and were constantly in a state of chill during the winter months. They initiated hugs or dispensed hugs as a means to stay warm, and it became a habit.

Among the Greek aristocrats, the hugs were dispensed freely–without consideration of the temperature. Many of the more flamboyant aristocrats spent hours hugging friends and their manservants.

Katja

Months of wiping shit. Spoon feeding. Sponge bathing. One conversation
on repeat.

Daydreaming of a pillow to the face. Death was waiting. No witnesses.
The ambulance wouldn’t even come anymore.

This wasn’t a call for the paramedics.

“Uncover her and open the windows. We’re sending someone.”

Sticky summer afternoon. You lose track of time. Every minute – check
for breathing, check for heartbeat. The family couch lulled me and she
took her chance and slipped away.

“Thank you,” I said, chicken arms dangling around me, as I dragged her
flat and centre onto the pillows. Our first hug.

Serendipity

This is why I rarely go to church and, if I do, I always aim to arrive late.

Today, my timing is way off!

Crossing the car park, I keep a low profile; head down, as I make my way to the entrance… but I’ve been spotted.

Inevitably, it’s a colourful, chunky guy wearing an equally colourful chunky sweater – ‘Jesus loves YOU!’ it proclaims in woollen script.

He spots me and breaks into a big bearded grin.

Resigned to the inevitable… I’m engulfed in a great, scratchy, coffee-breathed, stale sweat-tainted bear hug.

Christian hugs: The devil’s greatest friend.

Almo

The deafening roar of the engine was followed by the squeal of tires as Nelo and I watched Jimmy start to race down the canyon road. I wanted to be a driver and Nelo said we could stand up here and watch. Jimmy was the best.

“See how he hugs the curves then shoots to the outside?” Nelo said.

Jimmy’s car slammed the guardrail, which buckled. The car soared before it disappeared.

“What do you do if you want to survive?” I asked.

“You stay a little closer to the center,” Nelo said and he dialed 911 on his cellphone.

Chris

Come in, everybody, help yourself to a seat.

As you certainly all know by now, Johnson’s been let go as of this afternoon and the company is in the midst of an exciting new lawsuit, and so I’ve been asked to reiterate our sexual harassment policy.

We do not, never have and will never tolerate inappropriate or uninvited physical contact among our staff.

Ever. No exceptions.

In that light, effective immediately our “hugs, not drugs” policy will be rescinded. Hugging will be met with immediate disciplinary action.

And drugs, of course, are now perfectly acceptable.

So: Anybody got a hookup?

Lizzie

Alice was the sweet spinster everybody avoided. She had this annoying habit of hugging everyone effusively. She wasn’t weird; she just had a big heart. One day, a gentleman with a similar propensity for hugging moved into town. NO! Two huggers! Running an errand would now take twice as long! Until several months later, the two finally met face to face. To hug or not to hug! He smiled, she smiled and they kissed! The whole town took a sigh of relief. No more extreme hugging and people could now run errands in peace and… fast! Beware of kisses though…!

Logan

When I was a small child, chocolate milk was such a treat that I would drink it out of the glass with a spoon. It would take several delicious minutes that way. Now I pull a bottle of Milk 2 Go (”Laits Go” in French translation) from the shelf in the dairy section of the supermarket and finish it off before I reach the cashier. Glug, glug. Low blood sugar is the culprit, maybe. I still prefer my chocolate in liquid form.

Second best form of chocolate is a cookie from the UK called a Chocolate Oliver. It’s in the shape of a cookie but is really a hard solid real dark chocolate disc on a thin, negligible circle of biscuit. Chocolate milk and Chocolate Olivers– like a hug from a black and white cow. Or the Queen.

Tom

In times of severe financial compression how far you throw your net to seize employment opportunities increases to the point where you can’t see where it falls upon the horizon of an ever darken day. Case in point my new career path comes with a specific dress code, actually its more a uniform, well, truth be told I’m dressed as Seven foot CareBear. I could see the kids kicking, baby vomiting, drunk parents taunts as life draining afflictions of the soul. No, I see them as a challenge to rise to a higher purpose. My job is giving out hugs.

Guy David

H.U.G.S., aka “Hugs” or “Human Ultraviolent Guided Seducers” are our most advanced missiles. Guided by GPS, coupled by face and voice recognition software and hacking the world surveillance cameras using the latest software virus hacks, our missiles can recognize targets miles away. Once recognized, our missiles home in on it, closing in until the target is in plain sight, then they use our latest camouflage techniques, turning into robotic poodles. Our technology is so advanced that it can’t be distinguished from the real thing and the target can’t help stroking it, then the poodle blows up in the targets face.

Zackmann

United Nations negotiators today talked Canadian supervillain Munsi Munsi out of using a device called the Dead Beat Box which would have used the sickest of sick beats to cause sickness and death.
It turns out all Munsi wanted was a super bowl commercial, a few million dollars, and a bag of Hershey’s Hugs.
The Dead Beat Box was sold to the California penal system because lethal injection causes too much suffering for ax murderers. CNN and Fox covered the first execution that ended the moratorium on capital punishment. Too bad they filmed the event with the cameras’ audio on.
zackmann

The innocent young sailor wanted to make his mother proud. His shipmate told him he could get one of the women who work a red light district bar to be a guide and show him the town even help him pick a gift for his mother. He met a sweet woman only a couple of years older than he. They played board games half the day. She always won. After touring the town she took him to a hotel room. “I only wanted to be hugged” he said. Removing his clothes, She replied “Yeah well, You got the package deal”

Sevi

Some crave a hug like a drug
Others shun it reminiscent of a horrid poison
It can fill your essence with a warm glow
Or leave a never-ending chill in your soul.

They have the power to heal
Or cripple you to the point of death
Love can permeate from the skin on skin
Or force you to hate all that surrounds you.

Sometimes one craves the breathtaking connection
For others they beg for it to not present itself
It can make your soul soar to the greatest heights
Others dream of running from it

The power of a hug…

Cliff

When I started writing for the weekly challenge, I didn’t know how much power it would have over my life. When the topic used the word “Itch”, I got poison ivy. When the topic was “Fool”, I felt like I spent the week being laughed at. When “Sick” rolled around, it missed me but it nearly everyone around me was sick to some extent. And now this.
As ridiculous as it may sound, the current topic of “Hugs” has me absolutely terrified. You see, we’re going to the zoo this weekend to see their newest exhibit: two adult grizzly bears.

Steven

The mecha’s cockpit slides closed. My comrades stand three abreast of
me, our craft hissing as the boilers reach operating temperature.
Through the viewport, the XO signals us by semaphore. The English are
at the far end of the valley. We are to strengthen our artillery and
men emplaced upon the ridge. Our mecha will deny the British this
valley; their only logical move will be into the path of our
reinforcements.

I move my hands, shifting the mecha’s in a giant salute before my
squad moves to the ridgetop.

Surely the English will not enter our deadly embrace.

Botgirl

“Be careful, Shira,” Mira said. “You don’t want to break him.”

“Oh my god, Mira! I can’t keep my hands off of this little guy.” Shira bubbled. “Have you ever seen anything so cute in your whole life?”

“Just remember what happened to Mister Cotton Tail,” Mira warned, shaking her head with a queesy look on her face.

Shira thrust her new plaything high above her head and peered up at him with manic delight. “I’d never squish my cute widdle wuv toy,” she crooned.

Spock’s spine snapped like a twig as he finally comprehended the essential absurdity of life.

Danny

Hugs, well this brings back memories. Memories of the insincere hugs received by ever ex ever dated. Mushy hugs from Mom that reek of the sense, “I’ve come to terms with the fact that you are my only son.” There is memory of hugging my beloved Maltese Danny Lee for the last time just over a year ago when he died. I now reach down and pick up my current dog, a Malti-Mutt named Freddie. What’s the point? Freddie can’t hug back. Then Freddie licks my face, his way of saying I Love You. Hugs aren’t so bad after all.

RedGoddess

Lola doesn’t often hug. She hugs friends on special occasions, or to comfort a good girlfriend after a blindsided break up. Other people seem to hug everywhere. Airports, train stations, restaurants, clubs are all notorious for sudden thoughtless embraces. Most movies include at least one oddly placed embrace. But still, Lola thinks hugs should be reserved for crisis, or only when desperatly needed. Until recently,with the start of an intense romance. She has found serenity in her lover’s bounty of hugs. And needs no reason to open her arms.She realizes now a hug is an extension of heart.

Norval Joe

Owen tried to swallow the lump in his throat as he stood by his uncle. He alone, of the entire company didn’t pitch in to load the equipment onto the heavy wooden wagon. Even the elf prince did his share. “You’d better get your hugs and kisses over now, boy,” the ranger said. “We’ll want to be moving while the day is still young.” “Don’t give him a bad time, Traveler,” Shareeka said. “This is his first time away from home.” “And he’s to be king,” Elbownor, the elf prince, scoffed. “This journey will either prepare him, or kill him.”

Planet Z

Hugo “Hugs” Washington loved his girlfriend very much.

So when he found out she was cheating on him, he killed her and the guy she was with.

Despite mountains of evidence, he claimed he didn’t do it. Said it was a set-up by the cops.

The jury didn’t believe him, but his mother did.

She’d showed up at the trial, sentencing, and the appeals to protest and shout and to hand out bumperstickers and t-shirts.

The problem was, she’d had them printed up with “FREE HUGS” on them.

It didn’t save her son, but she got a lot of hugs