Welcome to the Weekly Challenge Number One Hundred And Seventy-Six, 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 On the line.
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):
Justin
Steve’s entire research grant hung on a thin line. The slightest failure would topple it over and ruin his chance at research. The music industry would revolutionize marketing if it had a way to quantify a bands target market. His first test was to see if his apparatus would indeed measure a certain quality of a specific musical genre. In the back of a hole in the wall he attended a show of the emo punk band Razor Winged Butterfly Kisses. With the needle deep in the red, he discovered that he could indeed measure a band’s anguish in angstroms.
Norval Joe
“You’re gonna let me win.” Ed threatened the five other boys.
Each put a toe on the line and waited.
“Bang.”
Ed sprinted forward. Tim knew the bigger boy would soon fade.
Halfway around the quarter mile track Ed slowed. Tim moved to pass. Ed’s elbow to his nose put him back in place.
On the final stretch Tim went wide with a burst of speed. Blood ran freely from his nose. He shot past Ed to the finish line.
No one cheered or patted him on the back
PE was over. It was back to the classroom for math.
TJ
One definition of insanity is doing a thing repeatedly, expecting different results. As Carl fled the auditorium, pursued by bloodthirsty mob, it seemed insanity as well to perform the same act to the approval of one audience and the inflamed outrage of another. Their applause thundered on the line “Couple it with something – make it a word and a blow” as Mercutio in “R&J.” Less so in an increasingly awkward swordfight in “Hamlet.” And while his wife seemed to approve at home, the reaction was markedly different upon his delivery of them in comic breakaway doublet. Shakespeare for Kids indeed.
Guy David
“Enil enohp eht, Enil eht no” said the inscription. “What does it mean?” asked Suzy. The archeologist raised his glasses to his forehead and said “it’s in some long forgotten tongue.” He looked at it again, turning the strange writing this way and that. Suzy took a peek over his shoulder. The scribbling began to turn and move. It glowed slightly, then rearranged itself. The inscription now said “Sorry, but we’re not in right now. If you care to scribble a message we’ll be sure to get back to you as soon as possible.” “Some things never change” said Suzy.
Anima
Malicious little imp.
You stand, teetering on the brink of innocence, a smile curling your lips. However, the evil glint in your eye belies your true nature. You raise your right leg, left toes on the line, ready to hopscotch me into a nervous breakdown. Will it be now? Or now? Or now?
I hear my own mother – “Just wait ‘til you have kids of your own, – you’ll see.” I should have listened.
The bandages have hardly been off a week… Why must you and your faerie friends sing that song?
Step on a crack, break your mother’s back…
Lynda
Look at them down there fiddling with their shiny things–totally not real blackberries, by the way. Harvey chipped his beak on one of those things in April and he hasn’t been the same since.
They think they’re tweeting? They don’t know the first thing about tweeting! When we sit up here on the line, we’re one with the whole world, able to send out the alarm for worm sightings or where to get bread with one sound.
Well, here comes what you get for not looking up and admiring the bird over your head!
HA! I just pooped.
Planet Z
I called the operator and asked for help.
“It’s an emergency,” I said.
She said “Please stay on the line while I connect you” but it sounded like “Please stay on the lion.”
I looked around for a lion.
None nearby.
I pondered hanging up and calling someone to ask where the nearest lion is, but I didn’t know who to call to ask about lions.
“One moment please” said the operator, and then, after a brief series of clicks, I heard the unmistakable roar of a lion.
I hung up the phone.
Good.
Now the damn movie can start.