Welcome to the Weekly Challenge Number One Hundred And Thirty-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 A Flashing Red Light.
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):
Anima
There. Mari put a last wrap of electrical tape on the splice and flipped on the main breaker.
Jeff was the perfect prince on their first date, bringing her flowers and complimenting her haircut. Their second date was also good, but it went downhill after that. First it was going Dutch to the basketball game; now, Jeff was your typical boy leech.
Last week, he said he wanted to date others.
What a relief! thought Mari.
Could she make sure no one else would be fooled by Jeff’s charms?
The flashing red light on his porch should be warning enough…
Tom
The flashing red lights reflected off the splitter windshield. He hit the speed dial to Tom. The persistent answered machine pulsed out on income call screened till later. Tom’s attention was drawn to the flash red light on the coffeemaker. “Where the Hell was Jim?” he opening the door to catch a glimpse of red trail lights. Rain pounded down on the porch, but Gloria’s jet rose above the storm. A strobing red light barely visible to both Jim and Tom trail off into the north. Her thoughts were of them, but the flash red oxygen light drove them off.
Mike P
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Andy sat in the dark, eyes fixed on the answering machine by the door. The flashing red light ticked away, like a hospital monitor counting down to the death of his heart.
One new message. One new message. One new message.
Andy knew what it would say. Harriet had also sent an email, a registered letter, and a singing telegram. Every time the message was the same.
“Got the job, moving to Portland. It was fun while it lasted.”
As long as he didn’t listen to the message, Andy could pretend it hadn’t happened.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Guy David
My son rejoiced in his new computer screen. That was exactly what he wanted for his 12th birthday. Maple Story never looked better on his screen. He continued with his game play, face intent with concentration, commenting on his intricate game strategies from time to time. I listened, savoring his young wisdom. Much later, when I finally convinced him to shut down his computer and go to sleep, I noticed the power button was flashing a small red light, and I knew my son would surf the virtual worlds of tomorrow, where he would spend the rest of his life.
Caleb
There’s a flashing red light
That blinks through the night
Illuminating my whole house
Is it a neon sign?
Have I lost my mind
An overturned laser jet mouse?
Maybe it’s a cyborg
A wants me to die borg
Assassinated by some robotic louse
Maybe it’s a fairy
All crinkly and hairy
And wearing a gossamer blouse
There’s a flashing red light
That blinks through the night
Illuminating my whole head
Maybe it’s the end
I’ve gone round the bend
It’s a light to tell me that I’m dead
Hey Shakespeare! Wake up! You passed out on your blackberry again!
Brad Z
As I neared the village destruction upon the lands increased. The villagers had contacted me to save them but it appears that I arrived to late. Ruins filled what was once a peaceful community. In the distance, behind the village, stood the black mountain, home of the black sorcerer and his evil hordes. A mighty howl came from the pair of hellhounds galloping at my side followed by the roar of the giant tiger that ran with them. Battle would begin soon.
The flashing red lights filled my vision as I rolled over.
“Crap, the power went off last night.”
Byz
Christmas was too close! Loneliness, the only prospect on the horizon,
made the confines of his room all the more unbearable.
How long had it been since he’d slept without dreaming, getting lost in
nightmares as old as himself?
His companion, a flashing red light outside his bedroom
window, blinked solidly through the night. Never deserting him for
someone more handsome or with more money. Not like Charlene had.
He wondered how she was. Maybe she was still living and the other guy
hadn’t got sick of her and bumped her off. Maybe she’d gotten lucky even
if he hadn’t.
Ashley
The Perp said, “I’m innocent.”
“Sure,” replied Officer Jenkins. “You flashed ladies wearing only a red blinking light over your crotch yelling eat me I’m wholesome?”
“Not flashed, blinked. I wore a light.”
“Let’s just say the arrest was in the spirit of the law, okay.”
Later at the cell, Jenkins announced, “be sure to show them why you’re here.” Several of the occupants turned, obviously interested.
“You really aren’t going to leave me here, are you?” asked the Perp.
“Absolutely not,” said Jenkins closing the door and heading towards the stairs, “and to all a good night.”
Almo
The ’72 Impala left a plume of dust as it came over the hill toward home. It was an incredible panorama. If you weren’t from there. If you didn’t grow up wishing you could see Wal-Mart instead of sagebrush.
The town was one intersection. Big enough for a post office, a barking dog, a closed restaurant and his house.
He enjoyed telling people where he was from.
“Nowhere,” he’d say. “Nowhere, Colorado.”
That was the best part.
He stopped at the intersection. There was a traffic signal.
“A flashing red light?” he thought. “Progress.”
He couldn’t see another car.
Justin
The console lit up; a blinking red light. God knew it was coming, it was inevitable. While free will was better, it was messy. The tree stood in the middle of Eden, Adam and Eve forbidden to eat of it. They did, though. It was time to go down and see them. Things were about to change forever. At least He had known it was coming. His other idea was to put a red button that would blow up the planet. Unlike the forbidden fruit, a red button would have been pressed far sooner with no tempter required at all.
Jeff Hite
“Hey, what is that?”
“What’s what?”
“That flashy thing over there?”
“You you mean the flashing red light?”
“Yeah that’s the one.”
“Oh that’s usually really bad?”
“Bad? What do you mean bad?”
“Yeah it usually means the engine is about to flame out and we are going to start falling like a stone.”
“Oh yeah? So what does it mean now?”
“Hmm let me see. Oh yeah, that the engine is about to flame out and that we are going to start falling like a stone.”
“Oh ok.”
“Engine flame out… loss of forward momentum…prepare for crash landing.”
“Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
Norval Joe
Higgs Boson aimed his galactic cruiser at the cosmic microwave background.
His new blink-drive harnessed the power of nuclear fusion to slip him through the fabric of the space-time continuum.
The reactor thrummed with energy and the ship disappeared. Like a rock skipped across a pond it winked in and out of existence along the programmed trajectory.
Eventually, the energy dissipated enough for the ship to wink in and coast at sub light speed, while the engine primed for its next ignition.
As he began the ignition sequence, a flashing red light warned, his mission was coming to an end.
Planet Z
I am the Clerk of the Court, as my father was and his fathers before him.
I tend the Justice Machine, the final thread holding civilization together, surviving the Apocalypse left to us from our disagreeable ancestors.
The defendant, the witnesses, and the sheriff give their testimony before the altar.
I then push the button, and we watch the light.
Will it turn green or remain red?
I know the answer. It will be red.
It is always red. It will always be red.
There is no Justice in the world.
There never has been. And there never will be.