NOTE: I figured out what was wrong with the Yeti AFTER I recorded this. Bad cable. Oh well. Getting a new cable when I get the new system this week.
- Lizzie
- Richard
- Serendipidy
- Tom
- Norval Joe
- Todd Spargo
- Planet Z
LIZZIE
What if I lived right there where the butterflies swayed in the air?
What if I lived right there?
The birds chirped, and flew away.
What if the narrow streets were alive to the brim with color? And not gray with emptiness?
What if the tears didn’t rain down the walls alive with the whiteness of summer?
What if the butterflies weren’t gone, and the birds?
What if I lived there, right there, and not here in the middle of the forest by a sizzling fire?
I want to go back to that small town where the narrow streets smiled.
RICHARD
Arrrrrr…
Captain Blackbeard’s Pirate Themed Holiday Camp didn’t quite turn out as we’d expected.
The brochure had promised ‘adventure on the high seas’, and ‘swashbuckling exploits and drama’, served up with a ‘healthy dash of good old-fashioned plank walking, keel hauling and deck scrubbing’.
Unfortunately, the keel hauling and deck scrubbing were precisely that, and as for our fellow pirates…
A bunch of bloodthirsty Somalian ex-fishermen, who treated us like scum and thought nothing of putting us in the firing line when the navy arrived.
Beats me how they managed to get those five star reviews on Trip Advisor!
SERENDIPIDY
When they told you not to camp in the woods, you really should have listened to their advice.
When they told you it wasn’t safe to be out alone in the wild, you should have heeded their words.
When they said you’d be miles from help, with no phone signal and no means of rescue should you fall in harm’s way, you should have taken them seriously.
Because now, in the darkness, lost, alone and frightened, all of that now makes perfect sense.
But, don’t worry, you’re not entirely alone…
Because I’m here too.
And I’m coming to get you!
TOM
The Camp
The edge of the camp was growing. Each day some half dead child would stand at the fence. Sometime with an adult, more often alone. Most stared blankly with an expression of deep indifference, a total sapping of actionable resolve. A few, not many, still had a fire in their eyes. Mac was called when these faces appeared. He needed that fire and long had learned how to uses that rage to the benefit of the camp. Keeping these children in a group also allowed for successful assimilation, or in the sadder cases extreme relocation. “Greater good,” he say
NORVAL JOE
As Billbert carried Linoliamanda up above the battle he saw that the two camps were vastly different. While the super villains had destroyed the superhero headquarters, the heroes were mostly unharmed and outnumbered the villains by five to one.
Billbert flew Linoliamanda home, landing on her front porch. “When you fell on Benedict Arnold, I thought you were a goner.”
She smiled then clasped a hand to her bloody forehead. “Nothing could make me a traitor to you, Billbert.”
“Thanks, I guess,” he said. “We should probably tell your parents what happened and get you checked out at the hospital.”
TODD
The Yahoo Messenger video chat with my future wife abruptly ended with, “Gotta go!” when the shooting started.
Outgoing orange tracers from the south tower marked an aggressive conversation. An M240B barked a throaty command. An unseen AK-47 wisecracked a response. I radioed QRF when the perimeter breach red flare illuminated the sky adding an exclamation point.
Reaching the tower, I saw the soldier and his Iraqi guard duty buddy assaulting the cement barrier of the civilian dining facility.
“What are you shooting at?” I yelled.
“There are a bunch of dudes running around in there!”
“You mean the cooks?”
Camp Caldwell Coordinates: 33.727597, 45.236648
PLANET Z
We sent the kids off to camp.
All kids should go off to camp.
They will learn many things at camp.
That’s what the state says, that all kids should go off to camp and they will learn many things, so we send our kids to camp.
When we were kids, we were sent off to camp.
And we learned many things at camp.
Sometimes, kids do not come home from camp.
Those are the ones who learned the wrong things.
Or could not be taught the right things.
If that happens, we go off to camp.
And don’t return.