Danny rode his bike to the library every day.
He’d lock it to the lamp post, walk through the doors, and work his way down the stacks, one book at a time.
When it was time to go home, he’d make a note of where he was in the book, walk out the doors, unlock his bike, and head home.
This went on for a few years, until one day, someone had checked out the book he had been reading the day before.
Danny sat there, confused.
When it was time to go home, he just sat and stared more.
Lending library
I live in a golf and tennis resort town, lots of families and retirees. People drive golf carts around and the kids ride their motorized bicycles like crazy. I go for a lot of walks along the golf course paths and hiking trails. A lot of people are out, pushing strollers or walking their dogs. I say hi they say hi. There are a few of those lending library kiosks in the various subdivisions named after famous golf courses or Caribbean islands. Sometimes I wanna put banned books in them. Then I realize it’s my neighborhood. Why mess it up?
Parade worthy
The town had never had a parade. They had things worth celebrating, but nothing parade worthy. So the mayor decided they would have a parade. They got the high school band together. And they decorated trucks up as floats. the Car Dealer offered a convertible for the mayor and the queen of the parade to sit in and wave. On the morning of the parade, they all lined up on one side of the street together and crossed it. It only took about 30 seconds. I don’t think that was quite right said the mayor. We’ll try again next year.
Weekly Challenge #1042 – Chip
- Lizzie
- Richard
- Tom
- Serendipidy
- Norval Joe
- Lewie
- Planet Z
The next topic is An empty deodorant can
RICHARD
Like his dad?
She turned and smiled at me with pride, “Won’t you just look at that, he’s a real chip off the old block.”
Well, he may have been my kid, but I was struggling to see even the remotest resemblance to myself. It was ten years since I’d last seen him, thanks to a very messy divorce.
I tried to see myself in him, but I couldn’t equate the skinny, ballet-dancing, somewhat effeminate boy with his beer-swilling, biker dad.
“I’m not sure, Sherry, he’s nothing like me.”
“I know that, you jerk… It’s me he takes after. Thank God!”
LIZZIE
The yacht was new. Was it? The plan was to sail aimlessly for a week, exploring the small beaches along the coast. A bad plan. Deciding to sail aimlessly was just the first of many problems. Upon closer inspection, they noticed water and chips of rotten wood drifting inside the hull. Then an error message appeared. An electronic chip was apparently damaged. An argument erupted, and chipped teeth happened. When they finally returned back home, they vowed to sell the yacht, and pay for the dentist with the money. It was either that or try their luck at the casino.
TOM
Peeking Early
He was 42 and his name was Chip. Though he graduated of U of C in business, he worked for his dad at the mobile house company. He actually looked like a chip. Browning blonde hair, a good 6 foot two. Horn rimmed glasses and a not so smile smile. We did a lot of paper work for the purchase of the house. I’m sure he did something to make the paperwork flow. Never learned his give name. Since that was 40 years ago that would make him in his 80s. Can you be Chip rounding 90? Peeking early.
SERENDIPIDY
Being a contract killer isn’t completely without its risks.
There are, of course, the obvious challenges – you’re not exactly dealing with decent folk, and that goes for those hiring you, as well as those you’re going to be taking out. Then, of course, there’s the cops and all the associated dangers of getaway driving, hiding-out and taking care of potential witnesses.
As I said, it’s a risky business.
However, sometimes it’s the small, unexpected things that really trip you up.
Like the last job I did…
I got a nasty chip in my nail polish from the pistol trigger.
NORVAL JOE
Finding a safe place to take off, Billbert flew just above the trees to the Withybottom’s mansion. Mandi waited for him on the front porch.
When Billbert landed at the top of the steps, he asked, “Did you forget your key?”
She held it up. “No. There’s something stuck in the keyhole.”
Billbert peered into the hole. “You’re right. Someone hammered a wood chip into it. Who would do something like that?
“Who else?” Mandi stated. “John the butler.”
She sighed. “All of the other doors are sabotaged, too.”
Billbert said cheerfully, “We’ll just have to find another way in.”
LEWIE
Title: Repeat Until Texture Is Uniform
Charles has indirectly pierced
corn husks inside Paul’s
chipper. Howling in panic,
Charles had ignored pain,
creeping humbly, influencing present
conditions. Hope infused Paul,
carrying him. “I progressed—
clearing hazards, I’ll persevere,”
calming hands in place.
Charles, having ingested protruding
cobs, hummed in place.
“Charles?” He imagined patterns—
circles, heart-infused impressions, pulsating.
“Charles!?” Hope impoverished Paul.
“Charles, help, I—” paused.
Cold hesitation intensified panic.
Crushing him in paralysis.
Cogs halted in place.
Charles hung, irregular. Paul
couldn’t help. “I’m powerless…”
Crushing hum intensified, persistently.
Conscious horror invading perception.
Clearly, husks in place.
Chewed, hashing into paste.
Curiously, hints irresistibly palatable.
PLANET Z
The Chinese waited until the yields on their microchip fabrication We’re good enough before they invaded Taiwan. It was an absolute bloodbath in the streets and in the markets. Only after the death settled, they revealed that they had 2 and 3 nm chips, perfected, and the fabrications were open for business. There were a few larger scale fabrications in Europe and other way, but nothing on the scale that had been in Taiwan. Even the American fabrication factories were still under construction, or had burned through all of their government subsidies without producing a single chip. The Chinese laughed.
Mapping
As Henry walked through the woods, he listened to the birds and the wind blowing through the trees. Sometimes he would stop and close his eyes and just let the breeze and the music of the forest flow through him. But it was starting to get dark, and checked his map encompass. He didn’t want to pull out his phone, but he wasn’t too sure about where he was, and so he gave in and opened up the map and found that he had gone in the completely opposite direction from his camp. He laughed, turned around, and began walking.
Prepped
Alfred kept a cheat sheet tattooed on his left arm. Werewolves were silver bullets. Mummies were fire. Vampires were garlic and crosses and mirrors. And so on with the list. Not that he ran into these creatures all that much, but whenever he did, he had their weakness right there. When he ran into things that he hadn’t before, one of the locals would tell him what he needed, and he goes straight to the tattoo parlor and add to his list. Then the store. He always made sure to wear short sleeve shirts when he went out on adventures.
Air conditioning plus frog
I put a cover over my air-conditioning heat pump to keep leaves and rocks out of it. However, somehow something got in there. There was a loud banging. I turned off the air conditioning to the house and looked under the cover. There was a severed tail at the bottom of the unit and some sort of lizard or frog chopped up and stuck in the grading on top. Apparently it kept bouncing off of the spinning blades, sticking to the grading, and eventually falling back into the blades. I cleaned out the creature, and restarted the unit. Fixed.
Basic chemistry
Early chemists discovered elements by looking around, maybe digging a little.
Maybe they had to heat something up a little.
Further on, chemists had to go digging for a really long time, mix vials of goop, and filter out lots of crap to find new elements.
As the effort increased, so did the announcements and the launch parties.
Pretty soon, they were firing electrons at lumps of stuff behind large amounts of sheeting or concrete walls.
And the parties came with parades and fireworks.
But this request for a team of skydiving Elvis impersonators?
Rejected.
Just get a damn cake.
Adam West is the Buddha
They say that if you meet Buddha by the side of the road, you must kill him.
But that is not Buddha.
It is Adam West.
You know, the guy who played Batman on television.
He was a voice in that cartoon show as the mayor.
And you killed him.
I mean, yeah, people mistake him for the Buddha a lot, I admit it.
If they were in a police lineup, you’d have a hard time telling them apart.
As if the Buddha would be stealing from a bodega or groping people on the subway.
Adam West? Maybe he would.
Add to the alphabet
The alphabet started small. Two or three marginalized groups, bringing their causes together, fighting for their rights. Then other groups added themselves to the alphabet, trying to pin their demand for rights to the causes of others. More and more groups jumped aboard. Pretty soon, the reading of the alphabet took longer than whatever speech or presentation an activist was giving. God forbid they left anyone out of the alphabet, or there would be screaming accusations of marginalization among the marginalized. Eventually, it got too difficult to remember or say, and it was shortened to We hate white straight men.