6,807/1,000,000 (0.6807%)

These short stories do not add much to the word count... Anyhow, some nonfiction this week. I haven't felt too inspired lately. I've written some that I haven't posted, and I'm not sure if I will. It isn't "finished," and that, after all, was the goal.

Swimming (100)

She was standing in a pool, waist-deep in the water. Friends and strangers surrounded her. The floor turned slick and she fell, head going under. She flailed, but couldn’t get a grip with her feet on the ground or her hands in the water. Suddenly everyone was too far away, too trapped in their own worlds to realize something was wrong. Her lungs burned as she struggled. She refused to breathe in water, but her body overruled. Her mouth opened; her diaphragm engaged. She awoke, heart pounding, lungs taking in air. She was safe, home. It was only a dream.

Hanging Christmas Lights (100)

We’d get onto the garage’s roof first. I’d climb up our old six-footer while Dad kept it steady from below, then he’d follow me up, pull the ladder after, set it across the peak of that lower roof, and we’d climb up to the top. He asked me once what I’d do if I slipped and started rolling. I threw my arms out wide. He nodded. “Makes sense.” We talked theoretical safety procedures near the forty-foot drop (never had to use them). Dad did the worrying for me; I loved the roof. No one but us ever went up there.

A Brief Conversation (140)

“Alternating abecedarian, alliterative, and apropos answers assume an able accomplice. Agreed?”

“Beginning boldly, bada-bing! But, brother, beware: be benign, because bamboozlement besmirches beauty.”

“Contrived comments cast contemptible concerns. Can caped, creepy crones counteract courteous, clever cronies? Contrarily, creativity considers calamity calmative: consumes corruption, continues crafting.”

“Deftly defended! Doubts drop deservingly, depending… Do dangerous delinquents deviate, daringly destroy dragons, deliver distressed damsels?”

“Enough! Errant eunuchs enable endangered elephants’ escapes! Even erstwhile effluent entices efflorescent enlargement.”

“Fiends: friends? Fictions falter! Fragmented figures--foolish figments--fail for floundering!”

“Greener grass greets gracious ganders!”

“Hell has heaven hobbled!”

“Idiot! Infidels increase imaginations; irksome imps imbue invention!”

“Jumping jaguars! Just joking--jesting!”

“Kidding?”

“Like laughing llamas.”

“May meaning meet monstrosity?”

“No.”

“Opponents offer opinions?”

“Perhaps people prefer pondering?”

“Quite.”

“Really?”

“Sure.”

“Tenacity…”

“Ubiquitous?”

“Verily.”

“What wonder would work?”

“Xenophopic Xerxes’ xylophone.”

“Yet you yawn?”

“Zzz…”

“!?”

TV Magic (100)

(Note: This story arc began in Chef. For more, follow the Snapshots tag.)

In my time at acting school, I started watching cop shows. The thrill of it got to me, and I soon realized that I was rooting for the bad guy. I wanted the system to fail: wanted the cop to run out of leads, wanted the killer to go free. Every time, tv magic would come through. There would be some breakthrough that the cop was clever or lucky enough to figure out, and the guy would be caught.

In the real world, there is no tv magic. The system fails. The cop runs out of leads. I go free.