Welcome to the Weekly Challenge Number Two Hundred and Eight, 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 Vacation Time Is Over!
VOTING
Go ahead and listen to them and then vote for your favorites (multiple selections are allowed):
Listen to the very end of the podcast to hear a special “Keep It Brief!” Listener Challenge!
Fake Banjo Wielding Midget
The sea licks the beach and moans. A sea of half naked human forms stretch as far as the eye can see. I stretch my legs on the sand and sigh, taking a last look as I wield my banjo. I could stay here forever but it’s time to leave. My master wants me to read your stories you lazy schmucks. Why couldn’t you record it yourselves? Why did you have to spoil my vacation? And my master… why can’t he read those stories himself? Why does he have to make me do them? Life is hard for a slave.
TJ
The weather was beautiful, and then I went on vacation. Gray, rainy days, winds that threatened to blow my umbrella inside out like a Buster Keaton routine. Spent most of my time inside shoveling out the DVR, napping, nursing a cold. It’s certainly been relaxing, but as my vacation comes to a close, I find it’s been disappointing, and I’m ready to get back to work. They’re ready for me, too. I’ve been gone four days and they’re already making huge mistakes on my feature pages. Maybe if I return to work I’ll feel better and the weather will improve.
Jon
`Of course I’ll behave myself, silly billy.’
`Then I’ll have to trust you. Have a safe trip.’
I don’t trust you.
I kiss her goodbye through half-closed window and drive off into the dust. It’s baking hot this time of year and I’ve not found a mechanic worth a damn to fix the creaking AC. Electronics and computer guys I can find, however, and know enough myself to pay a fair price.
I trust my surveillance.
So before she returns with smiles and stories and trinkets, I’ll know what measure to take.
Trust is an obsolete term for incomplete information.
Zackmann
To bad vacation 2021 has ended. My favorite part was TJ’s Podcasting Hall of Fame even if it was a side trip between seeing my parents and a dinosaur dig. The virtual reality displays were so cool that I almost had to change my boxer briefs when the Nocturnal jumped out at me from behind the Scott Sigler display. I wonder how they got Lawrence Simon’s VR cat to shed. I was surprised that Tony C Smith loaned TJ the StarShipSofa Hugo award. The grandchildren loved Doctor Floyd 3D vidcast . Finally, The rolls at the Crescent station tasted great.
Steven
A long time ago, Best Beloved, when the tree people returned from
their vacation, they were very tired. They’d gone to the Bahamas, and
it was a very long walk back.
So when the tree people got home, they wanted to sleep. But they
couldn’t. The mostly hairless apes that lived next door kept them up
all night long. The apes were making babies really loudly.
So the next day, while the apes slept peacefully, breathing clearly,
the tree people returned the favor. That night, the apes’ noses were
too clogged to make babies.
And the tree people slept peacefully.
Justin
With the shades of summer closing and the doors of balmy weather sealing tight, the hotel would not be full for some time. Room Nineteen felt the loneliness set in. The hotel staff never let room Nineteen unless all other rooms were filled. Still, Nineteen got to savor the warm comforts of company a few times a year. People slept so long and deeply in the room and left Nineteen feeling satisfied, but soon after there was that yearning for more. But, alas, winter has come. Time to hibernate, to conserve energy and wait for the next meal to come.
JRadimus
Some of the workers had demanded a meeting with Boss Grant. They were threatening to ‘unionize’. He was having none of it.
“Tell me what’s so bad about this place? Do I beat you? Starve you? What?” he asked.
“No, Sir, Boss Grant,” they quickly replied. “We just want these ‘weekends’ we’ve heard about.”
“Oh, come now,” he eased. “You don’t want ‘weekends’. If you didn’t work for two days, how would you like coming back? You wouldn’t.”
They slowly nodded.
“So, you agree ‘weekends’ would be a bad thing, right?”
None of them could think how he was wrong.
Trish
The vacation was over. She enjoyed the times that he was gone. Her life was calm and peaceful. She had gotten used to it by now: the doctors, the hospitals, the medical tests, the inevitable diagnosis of Pancreatitis and uncontrolled Diabetes. She would even know how long he’d be gone according to what the test results were. What she would never get used to was the way he treated her; the mood swings, the violence; one more reason why none of it was his fault. But eventually the phone would ring. His test results were normal. He was coming home.
Anima
Once I dreamed of office work. I’d watch paralegals and clerks traipse downtown streets in short skirts and high heels while I dug the dirt out from under my nails. I wanted to have a job where new Carhartt bibs were not considered the height of fashion. The nice thing about construction was when you’re were “moneyed up”, or tired of employment, you bought a plane ticket to the nearest beach. And the typical job ended before the boredom set in.
5 years ago, a friend gave me a break, and helped me get into sales.
Norval Joe
Willem sipped his wine, then spoke into the delicately blown goblet, “Felipe du Carril has invited me to his chateu on the riviera.”
He glanced sureptitiously at his companion.
Johan dug dirt from under his yellow fingernails with the tip of his dagger, and said, “Don’t fret. I have been wanting to visit a spa in Sweden. They say the women,”
He was interrupted as a man burst through the door. Blood dribbled from twin holes in his neck. HIs eyes glowed red.”
“Holiday’s over already?” Willem asked and set the goblet on the table.
Johan sighed deeply and nodded.
If I win…..asleep at the wheel.
Planet Z
Instead of buying an expensive trip to Europe, Alice wanted a virtual one.
Everything is digitized and neurostreamed, a computer-based world in which you can’t tell the difference from the real one.
Artificial intelligence provides the French, the Germans… everyone.
For two weeks, no worries or stress. And you’re completely safe, stored in the rendering facility and subjected to neurostimulator workout routines.
Eat and drink all you want, and still lose weight!
Amazing.
Big Ben tolls. Two weeks are over, and the hotel begins to fade.
And… I’m fading too.
Oh no. I’m going back to the storage vault.
No……