The 100 Word Stories Podcast

Welcome to the Weekly Challenge Number One Hundred And Eleven, 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 selected by me, and I went with One.
The excellent theme music is by Guy David
VOTING

Which stories were the best from Weekly Challenge #111?
	Elisson of blog d’Elisson
	ArnimasX of Second Effects
	Steven the Nuclear Man
	Guy David from Guy David dot com
	Hotspur of Hibernia on the Skids
	Femme Bleu
	Mike
	Eva Moon from The Lunatics
	Anima Zabaleta
	Tom from Footnote Podcast
	Almo
	Thomas
	Sougent from SL Adventures of a Southern Gentleman
	Justin from Space Turtle
	Planet Z
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Go ahead and listen to them and then vote for your favorites (multiple selections are allowed):

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ELISSON

It”s a simple concept, really.
Sh”ma Yisroel, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad. Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is unique.
Other cultures had their pantheons, packed with gods of every description. All of them loosely modeled on humans and replete with the whole laundry list of human frailties. Envy, jealousy, hatred, lust, greed, you name it. So complicated. And so wrong.
“All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the best one.” William of Ockham said that. My idea, of course. Everything”s my idea, at the end of the day.
One God. That”s Me. What could be simpler?

ARNIMAS

It wasn’t my fault. It was his. He didn’t mention me, even though I deserved credit. Maybe all the credit!
Oh, those years together, working day and night. A team like no other, we made the impossible real and the possible incomparable. I could ask for no better.
Until last night. The speech began as I expected, telling the tale of the magic we created, but ended without mentioning me. Not even once!
I had no choice. He deserved it.
And now I am the only one left.
They are coming for me now. I’d better reload.

STEVEN

You scream over the echoes of the bomb: “Call 911!”
Two rescue breaths, just like in the book, move down. Find the
xyphoid, ignore the twisted shape of his ribs and push push. Ignore
that this kid had shoved in front of you, ignore his shrapnel and his
burned flesh on your hands. Push push. Move back up, head-tilt-
chin-thrust. He’s young, no lines on his face, then the sirens and
wounded wail in chorus, remember breathe, breathe. Fingers on his
neck, feel for a pulse, feel for breath on your cheek. C’mon, any
pulse.
Just a little heartbeat.
Just one.

GUY DAVID

They knew The One would come, eventually. The Book said so. It was the book of truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Meanwhile, they built glorious temples to his name, contrived elaborate ceremonies and sacrificed the first born of anyone who dared to defy the ways of The One. Still, he didn’t come. They waited. He didn’t come. They waited. He didn’t come. They waited. He didn’t come. They waited. He didn’t come. They waited. He didn’t come. They waited. He didn’t come. They waited. He didn’t.
After 4000 years of waiting, they started a new religion.

HOTSPUR

I love dancing with you.
Your eyes light up as we glide gracefully around.
I love dancing with you.
Your loving smile is the envy of every guy in the room. Heh, those bums.
I love dancing with you.
For one brief moment the loneliness seems to go away.
I love dancing with you.
We make a wonderful couple. Don”t we?
I love dancing with you.
Sure, I”m a brokedown drunken ballplayer with one leg
And you”re a dime-a-dance girl I pay to dance with,
And maybe it”s your job to be so friendly,
But I love dancing with you.

FEMME BLEU

I was pure fascinated when they told me in high school that computers were binary. Remember the time that Boris Spassky took on Big Blue, man versus IBM supercomputer playing a game of chess? Man won! What is binary? Ye either have a zero or a one. It is either black or white, yes or no. What about maybe? What about shades of grey? Maybe is possiblility. When I get lonely I feel like zero, when happy I feel like 1, with my companions .5, .3 .8 the inbetweens. IBM lost the chess match because it couldn’t do maybe!

MIKE

Standing on the gallows, Zeke reviewed his decision to decline the hood; yeah – good call. He wanted to see it all: the warden’s last glance at the direct line to the Governor’s office at five seconds before midnight, then his nod to the executioner; that officer tightening his grip on the lever, his knuckles turning white as he pulls it; then the upward leap of the opposite wall. He’d heard you went from ‘drop’ to ‘stop’ in about a second – guess we’ll see.
The clock’s second hand swept past the 10 – game time. Glance – nod – grip – pull – and: one Missisippi…

EVA MOON

“That’s one.”
Peering over her boss’s shoulder, Alma saw the blue screen of his new
laptop. Crashed. Bummer. She returned to her desk. Like the laptop, it was
her first day on the job.
A moment later:
“That’s two.”
She could hear the jab of angry fingers. She winced in sympathy and
continued working.
“That’s three.”
She jumped at the sound of breaking glass. When she looked through the door
she was aghast. Her new boss stood by a shattered window.
“My God!” She exclaimed, “That’s insane! It’s 35 stories down! You might
have killed someone!”
He turned, glaring.
“That’s one.”

ANIMA

One, and one, and one more.
Not much more, or much less
Is it three?
The relationship: a man and a woman, and an ex?
Candles burning on a cake, or the number of legs on your old dog.
Or is it one hundred eleven?
Episodes in a podcast,
Iron bars penning up the guilty.
Or maybe hashes on the calendar, counting days to vacation”.
It certainly means something to your computer, but that’s only half the message.
As I see it,
There is only one, standing alone”
Reflected between funhouse mirrors, ad infinitum.
There is only the one.

TOM

He spun the chamber, but only once. The muzzle resting against his temple. Slowly slowly the pressure from his finger transferred to the trigger. One in six he thought, good odds, a reasonable level of risk. That silly song from Chorus Line was playing in the background.
“Ya she”s the one,” he said
“Say hello to my little friend.” she said.
“You”re the one that I want”
“There can only be one.”
“One is the loneliest number.”
“One enchanted eve BLAM,” he slid to the floor.
“One fine day I”m going to BLAM,” she slid to the floor.
Fuckn Zombies

ALMO

The red LED shows Five.
Johnson looks at the wires, one red, one white. Sweat forms on his forehead.
Four.
A drop of sweat falls from the end of his nose. He glances at the schematic.
Three.
No good. He can’t make sense of it. The writing might be Chinese.
Two.
He closes his eyes. He trusts his intuition. He selects Red.
One.
He pushes the power button on the new plasma TV.
Nothing.

THOMAS

We were embedded, all ten of us; moving cautiously three miles along the Song Ma to the
Ham Rong bridge, or roughly translated, the Dragon’s Jaw.
Go destroy it.
We knew it wouldn’t be easy.
Ted and Jimmy bought it stepping on mines. Boomer, Matt, and Pyle were picked off by a sniper before we got him. Suddenly, we came under heavy fire. Sarge cashed in first. Then Eddie and Bruce… Cut down by the VC. Joe and I were pinned down when a piece shrapnel took Joe.
Leaving only one left… me.
I’ll go out guns blazing. Semper Fi.

SOUGENT

“I want one.”, said Eno. “One what?”, asked his only brother Neo.
“I want one of them there Jimmy Buffet CD’s, that one right over yonder.”.
“That one is mighty expensive, Yer gonna need ta get yerself a job ta pay fer it”.
“I already got me one, why ya think I’ve been looking like a darned zombie fer?”
“Oh, yeah, y’all got a job at one of them cereal factories.”
“Yeah, it’s a killin’ me just sittin in one chair all day long, but it’s taboo ta get up til that there whistle blows at one o’clock”

JUSTIN

For the first time on Tuesday, my first and only wife gave birth to our one and only child. This will probably be the one and only time I write shameless father bragging on the 100 word stories podcast full of the cutest baby you have ever seen. How cute is she? Think of the cutest baby girl you have seen and imagine how cute she is, add about fifty-five times that amount of cuteness and you will know how cute she is. This isn’t even really a story but it has a cute baby in it, so who cares?

PLANET Z

Late last night, Monsignor Radcliffe sat in his study, reading Plato.
The clock began its chimes.
Midnight.
He checked his watch. Sure enough, the clock was running fast by a few seconds.
Radcliffe stood from his chair, walked to the mantelpiece, and picked up the clock.
The window shattered as he tossed the noisy clock out into the street.
The old priest was shocked to hear a scream.
He looked. It had hit a streetwalker and killed her.
Radcliffe sighed. The clock was worse that he’d thought.
In a matter of seconds, It went from striking twelve to striking one.

Welcome to the Weekly Challenge Number One Hundred And Ten, 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 selected by Steven the Nuclear Man, who is going for broke with Jobs.
The excellent theme music is by Guy David
VOTING

Which stories were the best from Weekly Challenge #110?
	Cybster DJ from Cybster DJ
	Tom from Footnote Podcast
	Steven the Nuclear Man
	Guy David from Guy David dot com
	Justin from Drabblecast
	Elisson from blog d’Elisson
	Almo
	Hotsput from Hibernia on the Skids
	Thomas from Mostly Harmless
	Craig from Wash The Bowl
	Anima Zabaleta loves If you were a Zombie!
	Mike
	Planet Z
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Go ahead and listen to them and then vote for your favorites (multiple selections are allowed):

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CYBSTER DJ

One of my first DJ jobs was in a skating rink back in 1986. My standard look was a red shirt with the sleeves rolled up one turn, a narrow black leather tie, black stretch jeans and nike hi-tops. My hair was dark brown, long enough to reach the middle of my back and blow-dried in such a way that it boofed out like Gene Simmons from Kizz. Well it goes without saying that I was a hit with the ladies and I would often come down out of the booth during songs to fraternise. Yeees, those were the days.

TOM

The monkey avatar had had many jobs. Christ, he was 3000 thousand years old. He liked to think his best work was Deuteronomy, but some argue the Patriot Act was a work of pure genius. Sadly time was running out for the 100th monkey carpal tunnel syndrome and prespeopia were limited his job opportunities. He took another draw of single malt, the midgets quarters were cramped under the staircase in the Houston home. He was ghost hacking a 100 words a day. “A Jobs is a Job,” his mum would say between writing breaks of the Ramayana. Zombies Oh fuck

STEVEN

Now.
PFC Fenti flinches, but there is no explosion. The driver glances at
him, then watches the road again.
Now.
Nothing. Bullets fail to come streaking from the windows. Simmons
lights a Camel – irony is cheap here – and blows smoke in Fenti’s
face.
Spielberg would consider that a cue; the insurgents do not. Tense,
boring minutes pass. A drip of sweat falls from Fenti’s head onto his
weapon.
Now.
No bullets. No IED. Nothing.
He says it: “Remember, it’s not just a job…”
When the left side of the hummer goes in flame and shrapnel, it’s
almost a relief.
Now.

GUY DAVID All In One RSS FEED!

The Chirapa needed to study the humans. They worked on improving their personal cloaking devices and used them to make themselves appear human. They walked amongst the humans and discovered they used currencies called “money”. Some of them argued that they could get jobs as humans for some of that currencies, which would enable them to purchase human computers and study them through the internet, which was just starting out back then. The elder Chirapa thought it too risky and decided they should build their own computers. Chaketo Chirapa, all grown up now, was put in charge of the project.

JUSTIN

Everyone wants to sell things these days the easy way, without a permit. It is my job to make sure this does not happen. We really don’t need unlicensed goods roaming the streets, ending up in who knows what hands for who knows what purpose. The tax consequences alone are a good enough reason, as well. No making money under the table when I am around. If you so much as write down an idea to sell something I’ll be on you, watching. The time has come for righting these crimes, starting with that little girl at her lemonade stand.

ELISSON

Ron had trouble holding down a job.
He was fired from the zoo after they caught him spanking the monkey. Even worse, there was evidence that he had also been whipping the lizard.
He lasted less than a week at the Tyson processing plant. Someone discovered him in the process of choking the chicken, a job he was unauthorized to perform. The SPCA was outraged.
All of this changed when Ron interviewed with the Staunton Amalgamated Chess-Piece Manufactory. He was hired, quickly rising through the ranks, eventually becoming CEO.
For nobody could wax a bishop as well as Ron. /Nobody/.

ALMO

Roger grimaced as he dug his hands into the box and felt the slime of raw meat. He pulled out a fatty lump and tossed it over the chain-link fence. Feeding time.
Roger didn’t look anymore. He hated the sight of the flesh being torn and devoured.
“What’s with you?” his partner Leon asked, noticing Roger’s expression. Leon pulled hunk from the box and heaved it over.
“At least you’ve got a job,” Leon said, jerking his head toward the mass of starving people on the other side of the barrier waiting for the next piece.

HOTSPUR

Ten tough jobs.
Dat’s wat de judge gib me. Fo de ‘crime’ of lookin’ at de woman ‘wrong’. Dat’s justice in Yoknapatawpha County. Man need sumpin done, suddenly someone lookin’ at his wife wrong. Still, it’s no lynchin’.
“Hercules, my lad, you are to report to Mr. Ruffin, for duties”
Ruffin, he a hard man.
First, he say, ‘go fetch the skin off’n dat mountain lion dat’s killin’ my cattle.’
Then, ‘kill dat ol’ snake gettin’ in de henhouse.’
Dat’s hard enuf, but dis job?
How’s a body sposed to shovel all dis muck in a day, I asks you?

THOMAS

“Vegas, city of lights, buffets, and slots. Exciting yes , but being a good-luck troll has challenges. Getting dragged out of a purse smelling of Ben Gay and Musk. She then kisses me, sets me on her slot machine. Wanting a miracle, she tells me to work my magic.
“My brother lucked out, cruising and getting tan on a 76′ Gremlin’s dash, while I’m inches from a cigarette, covered in gin scented phlegm. She must have coughed up a lung.
“What? A jackpot! Oh no! Here come more toxic kisses.
“Why do I have to be so good at my job?”

CRAIG

Nice To See You Again
Shakti always woke early, then sat on the the bed doing Zazen.
My eyes would open to Shakti”s smile, she”d say, “nice to see you again.”
My hand would rise to meet hers, I”d pull her back to lay with me, are noses touching, giggling a little as we snuggled closer.
One morning she asked ” how do we take a journey?”
“There is no journey, no beginning, no end, remember it”s arising only” I answered.
Momentarily perplexed she started to ask then let go and kissed me.
Kiya Kiya she whispered through her wet lips, we fell back asleep.

ANIMA

Steven Paul?
Yes Lord?
You have done well for such a minor investment. I apologize for taking away the first company, all on account of a bad wager” Eminence gets so boring, we were just having a bit of fun. But you persisted, tormented a few employees, and look at you now! You’re back at the helm, and you got to fire a dozen CEOs. Creating demand for gadgets people can’t live without is such a nice touch. Indeed, a very lucrative return for the transaction of your soul. So… Jobs… how about a corporate discount on the new I-phone?

MIKE

She loved her job as ‘point man’. Sure, the penalties were harsh: for repeated failure – starvation; for discovery – execution. The reward, though – first to eat – was priceless, and other mouths were depending on her.
Choosing her mark carefully – fat and likely desperate for companionship – she’d provided some, and promised more. Her tale of abuse and loneliness had gained a measure of trust; only the final act remained.
“C’mon, it’s just us girls,” she coaxed.
“Where are they?”
“The park.” Wrong word.
“Too dangerous, girls or no,” he said, and stepped into a crowd.
The young werewolf sighed. No supper – again.

PLANET Z

People say he’s got the hardest job in the world.
I beg to differ.
Guarding him is the hardest job in the world.
I was the top of my class.
I broke cases people thought unsolvable.
That badge meant everything to me because it meant something.
Now, I’m just a babysitter for an old, crazy gimp who calls on his psychic when his mistress isn’t there to get him off.
Have you looked at the First Lady? There’s no veil thick enough for that one.
Once, he made me stand there and watch.
That shit-eating grin of his.
Roosevelt!