Welcome to the Weekly Challenge Number One Hundred And Eleven, 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 selected by me, and I went with One.
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):
ELISSON
It”s a simple concept, really.
Sh”ma Yisroel, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad. Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is unique.
Other cultures had their pantheons, packed with gods of every description. All of them loosely modeled on humans and replete with the whole laundry list of human frailties. Envy, jealousy, hatred, lust, greed, you name it. So complicated. And so wrong.
“All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the best one.” William of Ockham said that. My idea, of course. Everything”s my idea, at the end of the day.
One God. That”s Me. What could be simpler?
ARNIMAS
It wasn’t my fault. It was his. He didn’t mention me, even though I deserved credit. Maybe all the credit!
Oh, those years together, working day and night. A team like no other, we made the impossible real and the possible incomparable. I could ask for no better.
Until last night. The speech began as I expected, telling the tale of the magic we created, but ended without mentioning me. Not even once!
I had no choice. He deserved it.
And now I am the only one left.
They are coming for me now. I’d better reload.
STEVEN
You scream over the echoes of the bomb: “Call 911!”
Two rescue breaths, just like in the book, move down. Find the
xyphoid, ignore the twisted shape of his ribs and push push. Ignore
that this kid had shoved in front of you, ignore his shrapnel and his
burned flesh on your hands. Push push. Move back up, head-tilt-
chin-thrust. He’s young, no lines on his face, then the sirens and
wounded wail in chorus, remember breathe, breathe. Fingers on his
neck, feel for a pulse, feel for breath on your cheek. C’mon, any
pulse.
Just a little heartbeat.
Just one.
GUY DAVID
They knew The One would come, eventually. The Book said so. It was the book of truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Meanwhile, they built glorious temples to his name, contrived elaborate ceremonies and sacrificed the first born of anyone who dared to defy the ways of The One. Still, he didn’t come. They waited. He didn’t come. They waited. He didn’t come. They waited. He didn’t come. They waited. He didn’t come. They waited. He didn’t come. They waited. He didn’t come. They waited. He didn’t.
After 4000 years of waiting, they started a new religion.
HOTSPUR
I love dancing with you.
Your eyes light up as we glide gracefully around.
I love dancing with you.
Your loving smile is the envy of every guy in the room. Heh, those bums.
I love dancing with you.
For one brief moment the loneliness seems to go away.
I love dancing with you.
We make a wonderful couple. Don”t we?
I love dancing with you.
Sure, I”m a brokedown drunken ballplayer with one leg
And you”re a dime-a-dance girl I pay to dance with,
And maybe it”s your job to be so friendly,
But I love dancing with you.
FEMME BLEU
I was pure fascinated when they told me in high school that computers were binary. Remember the time that Boris Spassky took on Big Blue, man versus IBM supercomputer playing a game of chess? Man won! What is binary? Ye either have a zero or a one. It is either black or white, yes or no. What about maybe? What about shades of grey? Maybe is possiblility. When I get lonely I feel like zero, when happy I feel like 1, with my companions .5, .3 .8 the inbetweens. IBM lost the chess match because it couldn’t do maybe!
MIKE
Standing on the gallows, Zeke reviewed his decision to decline the hood; yeah – good call. He wanted to see it all: the warden’s last glance at the direct line to the Governor’s office at five seconds before midnight, then his nod to the executioner; that officer tightening his grip on the lever, his knuckles turning white as he pulls it; then the upward leap of the opposite wall. He’d heard you went from ‘drop’ to ‘stop’ in about a second – guess we’ll see.
The clock’s second hand swept past the 10 – game time. Glance – nod – grip – pull – and: one Missisippi…
EVA MOON
“That’s one.”
Peering over her boss’s shoulder, Alma saw the blue screen of his new
laptop. Crashed. Bummer. She returned to her desk. Like the laptop, it was
her first day on the job.
A moment later:
“That’s two.”
She could hear the jab of angry fingers. She winced in sympathy and
continued working.
“That’s three.”
She jumped at the sound of breaking glass. When she looked through the door
she was aghast. Her new boss stood by a shattered window.
“My God!” She exclaimed, “That’s insane! It’s 35 stories down! You might
have killed someone!”
He turned, glaring.
“That’s one.”
ANIMA
One, and one, and one more.
Not much more, or much less
Is it three?
The relationship: a man and a woman, and an ex?
Candles burning on a cake, or the number of legs on your old dog.
Or is it one hundred eleven?
Episodes in a podcast,
Iron bars penning up the guilty.
Or maybe hashes on the calendar, counting days to vacation”.
It certainly means something to your computer, but that’s only half the message.
As I see it,
There is only one, standing alone”
Reflected between funhouse mirrors, ad infinitum.
There is only the one.
TOM
He spun the chamber, but only once. The muzzle resting against his temple. Slowly slowly the pressure from his finger transferred to the trigger. One in six he thought, good odds, a reasonable level of risk. That silly song from Chorus Line was playing in the background.
“Ya she”s the one,” he said
“Say hello to my little friend.” she said.
“You”re the one that I want”
“There can only be one.”
“One is the loneliest number.”
“One enchanted eve BLAM,” he slid to the floor.
“One fine day I”m going to BLAM,” she slid to the floor.
Fuckn Zombies
ALMO
The red LED shows Five.
Johnson looks at the wires, one red, one white. Sweat forms on his forehead.
Four.
A drop of sweat falls from the end of his nose. He glances at the schematic.
Three.
No good. He can’t make sense of it. The writing might be Chinese.
Two.
He closes his eyes. He trusts his intuition. He selects Red.
One.
He pushes the power button on the new plasma TV.
Nothing.
THOMAS
We were embedded, all ten of us; moving cautiously three miles along the Song Ma to the
Ham Rong bridge, or roughly translated, the Dragon’s Jaw.
Go destroy it.
We knew it wouldn’t be easy.
Ted and Jimmy bought it stepping on mines. Boomer, Matt, and Pyle were picked off by a sniper before we got him. Suddenly, we came under heavy fire. Sarge cashed in first. Then Eddie and Bruce… Cut down by the VC. Joe and I were pinned down when a piece shrapnel took Joe.
Leaving only one left… me.
I’ll go out guns blazing. Semper Fi.
SOUGENT
“I want one.”, said Eno. “One what?”, asked his only brother Neo.
“I want one of them there Jimmy Buffet CD’s, that one right over yonder.”.
“That one is mighty expensive, Yer gonna need ta get yerself a job ta pay fer it”.
“I already got me one, why ya think I’ve been looking like a darned zombie fer?”
“Oh, yeah, y’all got a job at one of them cereal factories.”
“Yeah, it’s a killin’ me just sittin in one chair all day long, but it’s taboo ta get up til that there whistle blows at one o’clock”
JUSTIN
For the first time on Tuesday, my first and only wife gave birth to our one and only child. This will probably be the one and only time I write shameless father bragging on the 100 word stories podcast full of the cutest baby you have ever seen. How cute is she? Think of the cutest baby girl you have seen and imagine how cute she is, add about fifty-five times that amount of cuteness and you will know how cute she is. This isn’t even really a story but it has a cute baby in it, so who cares?
PLANET Z
Late last night, Monsignor Radcliffe sat in his study, reading Plato.
The clock began its chimes.
Midnight.
He checked his watch. Sure enough, the clock was running fast by a few seconds.
Radcliffe stood from his chair, walked to the mantelpiece, and picked up the clock.
The window shattered as he tossed the noisy clock out into the street.
The old priest was shocked to hear a scream.
He looked. It had hit a streetwalker and killed her.
Radcliffe sighed. The clock was worse that he’d thought.
In a matter of seconds, It went from striking twelve to striking one.