Weekly Challenge #339 – Circle

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 Thirty-Nine, 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 Circle.

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

• Michael
• Tura
• Thomas
• Jeffrey
• Rahel
• Munsi
• Singh
• Serendipidy Haven
• Zackmann
• Tom
• Kimianne
• Lizzie
• Botgirl
• Bonchance and Sevi
• Cliff – Uncle Monster
• Norval Joe
• Danny
• Steven the Nuclear Man
• RedGoddess
• Planet Z

The next weekly challenge is on the topic of chain.

And if you want to spam your social networks with this episode, use the Share buttons at the end of the post… this obligatory cat photo should help make the Internet go faster:

---

MICHAEL

I hid in the shadows when the circles from the sky came and offered us death (16) (deep beastly alien voice)(5 words)

Now… death would be kind…. (21)

My world is broken… lost…(26)

I am alone …….(29)

Vengeance flames my soul…I insist….my purpose…Arghhhhhh…… hear my rage …. (40) (said fast )

I will feed on mountains of your mutilated corpses (50) (Spoken aloud with rage)

…It seems they hear me…(55)

It is time…(58)

No more shadows…(61)

Come to me sky circle things…You shall be the first….(72)

The first to bare the sufferings for your actions….(81)

Don’t worry…..I will sustain your life(89)

Your sufferings shall be great(94)

Come closer….(96) (pause)

C..L..O…S…E…R (said slowly)

Arghhhhhhhh…….You’re mine (100)(loud in rage)

TURA

Look at the sucker, walking down the street without a care. It’s not like I have a choice, doesn’t he know this is a bad neighbourhood? I grab his jacket and show the knife, idiot doesn’t hand over his wallet, so I have to stick him, don’t I? Must have got an artery ‘cos he just falls down hurry clap all his pockets but nothing there NOTHING shit idiot’s dying blood everywhere run for it run car slams into me—

Look at the sucker, walking down the street without a care. It’s not like I have a choice… is it?
——–
Christian theology is strange. Did you ever wonder why Satan was cast out from Heaven?

Because he refused God’s command to bow to Man.

But Man was created a little lower than the angels, so why must the angels bow to Man?

Because God was incarnated as a man.

Why did God incarnate as a man?

Because he intended to redeem Man from his Fall.

Why did Man Fall?

Because he was tempted by Satan.

Why did Satan tempt Man?

Because he desired revenge upon God.

Why did Satan seek revenge upon God?

Because Satan was cast out from Heaven.

THOMAS

Sarah Glacé walked the circle of bricks in the big meadow near the Louis’ house. It was on private property, and the largest labyrinth open to the public in the area. Sarah removed her shoes as a gesture of reverence, and to feel the brick underfoot as she walked slowly to the center and back out to the entrance. As she walked, her breathing slowed, but her sight and hearing magically heightened in sensitivity at each step. As she reached the center, she was startled for a moment, as the sky grew brighter and clouds moved away from the sun.
#

The members of the science club were a tight-knit circle of gadgeteers, engineers, and hackers. Meeting once a week at member’s workshops or garages, the club began collaborating on building a large, 3D printer. Each of them contributed time, materials and money for critical parts, and soon the printer was being tested. Choosing to build another 3D printer as its first project, they loaded the printer with thermoplastic stock, turned it on, and left it to work. Monday morning, sixty printers were built, each in the process of building another printer, until the walls of the workshop were pushed apart.
#

Conrad was a clown, running with a circle of friends of even lesser intelligence and sense. The gang of four was a circle of jerks. They would spend hours at the bus stop, spitting, vandalizing property, yucking it up with sniffs and snorts as they made fun of people waiting for the bus. One day, they made fun of Big Betty. Betty’s hoodie had been hand-lettered with “Bring it, weenie”. They taunted her, yucking and snorting until she pulled the device out of her belly bag, aiming at their throats. From that moment, the circle could only make chirping noises.
#
We gathered at The Red Eye in the Center of The Head Retreat to form our Autumn drum and dance circles. The drum circle was formed outside the dance circle, while the dancers jumped, swayed and moved until they fell into a trance or passed out from dehydration. The campfire died quickly because the only wood we had was from a few, broken palettes and some of Mrs. Kincaid’s lawn furniture. Nancy Creamcheese wanted to show off her brand new bosoms, so she stripped to the waist and scared most of the small children, the dogs and the older men.

THOMAS

Circle the Wagons
by Jeffrey Fischer

“Circle the wagons!” Ralph cried as he piloted the big RV into a space.

Tess sighed. “We’re not on the prairie, surrounded by Indians, Ralph. We’re one of only three RVs in a camp site just off the interstate. For Christ’s sake, you can see a Wal-Mart from here!”

“Geez, I’m not stupid. I know where we are – drove here, remember? Can’t a guy get into the spirit of things, thinking we’re on an adventure instead of cruising in an air-conditioned bus with all the amenities of home? I don’t see anything wrong with ending the day with a call to circle the wagons, like our pioneer forefathers, worrying about waking up surrounded by Indians.”

“Ralph, you’re hopeless.” Tess went to bed in a huff.

The next morning, she woke early and decided to stretch her legs before Ralph got up. She was amazed to see the RV park full of vehicles. She asked the site manager what drew them here.

He pointed to a sign that read “Welcome Patel Family Reunion!” “Them folks come from all over the country – we even got some from as far away as Bombay! Don’t know how they drove here, though.” He chuckled at his own joke.

Ralph would never let her live this down.

RAHEL

The Golden Circle
by Rahel Jaskow

“Here, watch this.” The woman tapped the couch beside her, and the little red tabby cat jumped up and burbled.
“Would you like some skritches? Want a cuddle? How about a tummy rub?” The red tabby cat arched her back, yawned and flopped over on her side, purring and kneading the air with her front paws.
The woman and her friend took turns massaging the cat. A few minutes later, the cat curled up and went to sleep.
“She looks like a fuzzy golden ring all curled up like that,” the woman said. “Sometimes I can’t resist whispering, ‘Precious…. Precious….’”

MUNSI

Inside the Circle

By Christopher Munroe

They circled us, cheering, as we circled one another, knives at the ready.

I don’t know how to fight, but when he accused me of insulting his honor I refused to apologize. Why should I? It was just a joke!

Still, I didn’t expect him to turn up to the duel, and when he did I was worried. Especially since, from what I’d heard, he DID know what he was doing.

Still, no backing down now…

So I pulled the pistol I’d tucked into the waistband of my pants, and shot him.

…always bring a gun to a knife fight.

SINGH

Circle 101

Chris Mooney-Singh

I walked. In circles. I got hypnotized like a chicken to a chalk line and my footsteps made ring after ring in the sand. First, like a Zen monk raking the stone garden of Kyoto; then, steady as Giotto drawing a free-hand circle for Pope Benedict IX. But my circles got smaller, smaller until, I came to a full stop at the heart of zilch.

Seasons passed. I turned grey as stone. The bumps and sockets are my eyes, mouth and nose tuned to the wind and rain. Yet, my mind? It’s still crammed full of the same old burning questions.

SERENDIPITY

“What is the sound of one hand typing?”

Surely that wasn’t right? – I looked quizzically at the bald guy, sat in front of me, clad in orange robes.

“Ahhh?…”, I ventured.

“Life”, he said, “is a circle – from the day we arrive on the planet, and blinking, step into the sun.”

The nagging doubt in my mind grew.

He smiled at me, reaching out with his hand…

“My son, never forget that material wealth is an illusion from which we should seek freedom. That concludes today’s teaching. Fifty dollars, please!”

I paid up.

Since when did enlightenment become so expensive?

ZACKMANN

“What are you doing at that desk?”
“I found this drafting book and I am designing my dream home.”
“What is that circle by the rectangle?”
“It is a giant phallic symbol that holds kimchi for cows.”
“What?”
“I mean a silo since the rectangle next to it is a barn because my dream home is sort of a hobby farm.”
“What about the big circle around all those buildings?”
“Oh, that is the moat the sea monster lives in. The small circles are fruit tree, isosceles triangle a dragon landing strip. Like I said this is my dream home.”

TOM

A circle is a degenerative ellipse. Yup right up there on the corner with the guy in that questionable overcoat. But how does this happen, you may ask Tom? Well that has to do with a 2nd degree equations, the adventurous landscape of conic sections. Ok, you slept through your entire 2nd year of high school algebra. Try this, take an ice cream cone cut it perpendicular to the point you get circles. If your angle of incision is the slightest bit off you get ellipses, in fact 99.999% of the cuts you can make will give you not circles.

With me so far. Good. If you want to make an ellipse with out the mess of chopping up an ice cream cone, try this, take a fixed loop of string and rotate it around two fixed points maintaining ample about of outward pressure with an appropriate drawing implement. Now to have two fixed points those points must have some reasonable distance between them. Math guys call these points foci that is plural Latin for ya. When the foci degenerate to a single point the ellipse becomes a circle. How truly sad for it. Care for a Walnetto my dear?

KIMIANNE

Circle

The healer traced the sacred circle around the young woman who sat cross-legged at his feet.
Spirit had whispered to him late last night, “Be ready.”
He grimaced…not at the command, but at the nebulousness of it.
It didn’t matter; he was always at the ready.
The girl had tears streaming down her delicate face. It wasn’t from any emotional outburst, but from the intense smoke coming from a sage bundle. It’s good that she cries now, he thought. Tears… with girls there’s always tears. He’d tell her soon.
He chanted ancient words of protection. They would need them.

LIZZIE

In the dark, he walked slowly touching the damp walls to find a way out. His hands stretched forward surveying the cold path. The maze seemed to expand mysteriously, endlessly. To the left, to the right, lightheaded and lost, he tripped over rocks that fell from crumbling walls. Was I here before? In twists and turns, he walked into blind alleys again and again. Yet, a perpetual string of decisions pushed him forward to find the exit. One more, only one more turn. Would it ever end? For him, it did. And he was actually still quite tasty, they thought!

BOTGIRL

100 screaming citizens jumped to their feet as the two combatants entered the caged fighting circle. It was time for the main event. A clear knock-out by either party would determine the fate of the nation. After contributing $100,000 apiece for a ringside seat, the studio audience wanted to see blood.

Already breathing hard, sweat glistening on his age-spotted skin, the incumbent looked for his pretty wife in the skybox above the teaming throng. But the holographic image of the moderator pulled his eyes back to the ring.

“Welcome to the 2040 Presidential Cage Match Debate,” she announced.

BONCHANCE AND SEVI

The amateur hunters were beginning to whine. They had been trekking in what they thought a circle through the
trail for over two hours. “When is this beast going to present itself?”, growled a Brit.

Suddenly Mark eye’s saw the clearing in the bush, that lead the pack into a ravine basin.
The hunters relished the moments of needed rest.

Once collected, Mark began to notice the scatted bones. This was the work of an experienced killer.
Mark gave the warning shout, the beast had circled back on them, just as the Brit went down and disappeared into
the brush.

CLIFF

I lined up the shot and waited. My target was working his way up the tree line, exactly as I’d expected. He’d shot one of my team and I was getting ready to get revenge.
“Circle of life, pal,” I muttered as he cleared the brush that had hidden him. I gently squeezed the trigger once, twice, three times. His grey shirt exploded in vivid color. That’s when I felt the impact on my back. I spun to see his son grinning. He’d circled around behind me even as I’d been waiting for his father. Paintball is a vicious game.

NORVAL JOE

The sun had just crested the horizon as Elbownor returned the final piece of the way-stone to it’s place. The company formed a circle around the stone, except for Spleen who cowered by a tree and sniffed the air.
Shareeka chanted a monotonous hymn and drew a horizontal circle in the air over the stone with her finger.
Spleen hissed, “They’re coming. The goblins have found us.”
“Spleen, Join us in the circle, quickly,” Shareeka said and placed the cube on a small circle on top of the restored stone.
Goblins screamed in astonishment as the company faded from view.

We was drivin the heard over the Platt River when them native americans came out of the hollers, hollerin. We circled up all o them weenie dogs and hunkered down behind them little critters and waited for the worst.
We was lucky, we was. Cuz them indiginous peoples were of the flat foot tribe and their totem was the weiner dog.
When they seen us cowering there, fearin for our lives, they done thought we was a prayen to their wiener dog god.
They stayed with us for vittles, smoked some tobackie an went on thier way. Jus like that.

DANNY

“Welcome to T-Moble’s customer service site,” the computer generated female voice rattled into my ear. “Please say what you are looking for, such as, I want to pay my bill, or, I want to change my service.” So I said the following, “Why am I being charged an additional $14.95 a month to use my smartphone as a WIFI hot spot when that was originally included in my plan?” I had this strange feeling I was about to be led into a circle. The computer voice responded, “One moment, please.” Then, a voice responded in Japanese, “Kon’nichiwa, watashi wa dono yo ni kyo wa anata o tasuderu koto ga dekimasu ka?

STEVEN THE NUCLEAR MAN

“You know,” he said, “we’ll see all our pets again.”

I didn’t say anything, just kept walking through the woods. The clearing was just ahead. My other dog pulled at her lead in excitement.

We stepped into the clearing. He continued talking. “I really believe that.”

“I know.” I circled the clearing while he talked.

“I read this really inspiring poem about a rainbow bridge…What are you doing?”

“Lighting candles.” As my match touched the last one, Bifrost shimmered into existence and the world shifted.

All the dogs greeted each other as Valkryies gathered.

I smiled. “Welcome to Asgard.”

RED

Hellene, a wannabe cougar, comes from old money. Many of her socialite friends gossip behind her back. She’s part of the big charity circle in town, fancy galas for the poor and overprized dinners at political fundraisers. She tries hard to do good with her money by supporting public causes.

At the hotel she treats the immigrant maids like trash. Recently, she accused a valet of attempting to steal her car. All the workers avoid her except for Lola. Lola handles all of the Hellene’s. One big circle of white Helene’s Lola can’t even tell one from another any longer.

PLANET Z

Vultures are circling overhead.
I don’t know why, though. I feel great.
Plenty of chips and queso. A gentle breeze off the lake.
“I’m doing fine, right?” I ask Esteban the waiter.
“Absolutely, Mr. Garcia,” says Esteban. “Would you like another drink”
“Yes,” I say, handing Esteban my empty canteen. “I’ll take a margarita this time.”
Esteban returns quickly with the canteen, and I lick the rim of the cap.
Sand not salt
“Esteban?” I say.
He’s not there.
The chips are gone.
So is the hotel.
And it’s horribly, dreadfully hot.
That’s it, Esteban. I’m not leaving a tip.