Session August 15, 2015

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“His determination always flagged around 4 pm, and that was when he was most likely to compromise his goals.”
by RC

Randy and Mona had been sure that nothing could go wrong on their trip to the north Pacific. They had signed on with a tour group, booking passage on a cruise ship, which was to include a kayak trip around a certain bay, the name of which he quickly forgot.

Everything went well until the actual day of the kayak outing. There were about a dozen boats and everyone pulled together around the bay, smiling, laughing, and generally having a grand time. There were icebergs floating everywhere, very beautiful and camera-worthy. The group leader was apparently so excited that he led the little flotilla much farther than he had planned. Randy could see that the leg back was likely to turn out a real chore—but, he wasn’t worried. After all, everyone was together.

That’s when he looked at his wristwatch. It was almost four o’clock. It was a funny thing, but he always seemed to know when it was getting on that time in the day. His determination always flagged around 4 pm, and that was when he was most likely to compromise his goals.

Randy and Mona got farther and farther behind the group. After a while the others were specks on the horizon. 

“What is with you, Randy?” Mona finally complained. “I’ve been doing all the rowing.”

“I just ran out of oomph,” Randy replied.

They found them much later, sitting on an iceberg. I say sitting, when imbedded is probably a better word. I guess Randy’s determination never quite came back.

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There wasn’t a lot of smoke but it alarmed her nonetheless.

By CC

Carl and Carla P. Fingerworthy had spent many years building their retirement dream cottage in Nepal. Walla Walla had been a good place to earn money, but they looked forward to a cooler climate in retirement, both being ectomorphs with overactive metabolic systems requiring them to eat 6,000 calories a day just to maintain their weight. They settled on a waterfront cliff ledge location where it would be easy – yet fun – to get air drops of calorically dense foods from the Costco drone.

The only real challenge was the bridge they had to build to get to their house.  It was the only way in and out unless they used the motorized skiff and rock-climbed to the ledge, which was not Carla’s strong suit. Someday they would have to hack a few hundred steps into the rock, maybe next year. But the bridge had been difficult, so they built another, just for redundancy, or so each one of them could have their own bridge. Since they were so fast and light it was easy to use the bits and bobs of dried wood laying around for planks. But those were the only bits and bobs they could find in hundreds of miles. Otherwise they had thought about oak-patterned clip-together laminate planks but Home Depot didn’t have a large enough drone to bring those in.

One day Carl and Carla were sitting on their front ledge admiring the view as the Durga Ma river raced past a hundred feet below. Then suddenly a wisp of smoke caught Carla’s eye, floating up into the air. There wasn’t a lot of smoke but it alarmed her nonetheless. She looked out over the bridge and saw another curl of smoke emanating from one of the planks.  “Look, Carl,” she said. “The bridge caught on fire.”

Carl stood up and walked over to the bridge. “Sure did.” He quickly trotted out to the middle of the bridge and heaved the offending plank overboard. It splashed into the river and disappeared in the swift current. Then he went back.

“That was strange, wasn’t it?” he said. “I didn’t see any lightning. Do you suppose someone dropped a cigarette from one of those trekker helicopters?”

Carla shrugged. “Just another mystery of Nepal, it seems,” she said brightly.

“We’ve got a bit of a jump now,” he said, motioning back towards the bridge, “But I’m sure we can manage to get over it.”

“I need to stretch more anyway,” Carla replied with a smile. “I always wanted to be a Ballerina.”

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"The hurricane tore up many trees by the root, blocking roadways and crushing cars."
by TNT

We barely escaped the hurricane on our way to the Grand Canyon. The hurricane tore up trees by the root, blocking roadways and crushing cars. We were barely ahead of the damaged highway. We looked behind us in the rear view mirror. Jan and July, the twins, kept screaming "Faster! Faster!" We were going close to 90 mph as we sped down the freeway. June wanted to take photos but of course that was impossible - but we were thankful not to have been trapped behind or crushed in our RV. 

The RV shook at the wind force and 90 mph speed. I was very afraid the RV would fall apart from the stress. The RV was old, but sturdy. We slowed down going uphill and towards the mountains. Finally we left the devastated town and fields behind and we looked forward to the rest of our vacation. 

Of course our great relief was short-lived. When we arrived at the Grand Canyon June was taking photos and Greg backed up and fell backwards down a ledge just as June took his photo. We called the Rangers  - but this is our last photo of Greg. It was the most exciting vacation we had ever had. I doubt that we'll go anyplace for a long time.

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"They fought so regularly that she had gotten used to it and even felt energized by it."
by GS

She watched warily as he approached her sacred spot. He had been told repeatedly to stay away while she indulged in her pagan rituals, yet he continued to sneak over to catch a glimpse. He suspected that she was sacrificing live creatures, and as a vegan he wanted to put a stop to it. The look on her face revealed her anger at the interruption, however they fought so regularly that she had gotten used to it and even felt energized by it. 

Being a princess gave her certain authority, but he had no problem ignoring her orders. He sought her attention by being contrarian and it seemed to be working since she tolerated those attentions. She was somewhat flattered since so few men in the kingdom had the courage to even look into her face. When she grew up she hoped to find the right man to help her rule the kingdom, and he was the only possibility for now. 

Today she would let him watch as she dissected the baby doll and planted the pieces in her garden, knowing this to be a successful fertility rite. If he accepted that abomination, she would make him her consort.

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"He had always wanted to sail around the world, and now, at last, he could."
by PV

The break from the hostilities had been even more surprising. The heavy movements in the brush had automatically put the soldier in him. He was steady, but his trigger finger had closed and the shot the charging boar. His fellow soldiers were both amused and grateful that he had once again saved their skins. 

An unexpected dividend to all this was that His Excellency had needed just precisely a major gourmand addition to the hard earned feast the Hungarian capital needed. Leopold fancied far horizons. He had always wanted to sail around the world - and now that His Excellency needed a crack shot and a fearless man to sort out things on the Vladivostok Peninsula - at last, he could.

Session August 1, 2015

ONE PHOTOGRAPH - MANY STORIES!

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 “His whole life felt like a pallid reflection of what it might have been."

by RC

 Charlie was depressed. It wasn’t just that things weren’t going right lately; things hadn’t gone right for a long, long time. His whole life felt like a pallid reflection of what it might have been. You see, in his social circle nothing much was expected of him—or of anyone, for that matter. All that the others expected out of life was food, sleep, and—well, a few other necessary things—every day, and then one day (in the not too distant future) death. But, that was not Charlie’s idea of life. He wanted to do exciting things! He wanted to overcome the odds, be the best he could be. He would have joined the Marines, but he was sure that he didn’t qualify on the matter of height. Lots of German Shepherds could get in, but not him.

Charlie tried lots and lots of ways to distinguish himself, but something always interfered with his greatness. The last time was this race they had on the sidewalk down near the beach. It was a big thing, accompanied by much hoopla, and all the people were standing around the boardwalk to watch. Right after the foot race was a bicycle race. But, wouldn’t you know it, Lola, that little cutie from around the block detained him, in the way she detained every other boy, and he got there late. He tried squeezing in at the last minute, but the others got off before him and he came in last.

It was just too much for Charlie. He thought that he couldn’t stand the humiliation. He was going to go sign up with the Foreign Legion. He’d heard they were looking for scouts with good noses for the enemy. It was either that, or run over a cliff somewhere. This was the only way out for a guinea pig to save face.

“Where did they come from?” Andy wondered aloud. “I’ve never seen anything like them before.”

By CC

“Where did they come from?” Andy wondered aloud. “I’ve never seen anything like them before.”  Celeste nudged him with her elbow so he would refocus his attention on the guinea pig race that her stepson, Luther, had arranged as a brilliant entertainment for his own birthday party. Celeste knew that Andy didn’t like Luther very much, so any apparent slight ticked her off. But Andy kept looking up into the sky, where the circling discs glittered brightly in the noonday sun. There must have been 15 of them, slowly revolving overhead.

“I wonder,” he said, finally looking down at the guinea pigs, “if those aren’t really alien children, and they’ve come to take them back.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Put your hat on, the top of your head is getting sunburnt and addling your brain. Just watch, they’re getting ready to start!”

The Guinea Pigs lined up carefully on the sidewalk. Palgez, the first, telepathed their game plan to the other three. “None of these creatures knows who we are,” he said to them in their heads. They all gnawned nervously on their delicate lips, because this was crunch time - their only opportunity out of the cage where they could rejoin the ships.

“When the race starts, run every which direction and don’t get caught! Then they can beam us up separately. Remember, we can’t be beamed up together!”

Suddenly the crowd went silent as Luther shouted, RUN. And run they did. Pelgez shot between the legs of a cyclist and was instantly beamed back to the mother ship. Limduz and Cargol unfortunately got tangled up together and were beamed up as an eight legged two headed being called Limgol. They were just happy to be out of the cage and didn’t care about the merging, as they always had got along. But Dingbat didn’t run. Dingbat was frozen in place, as the terrible realization hit him – he preferred the cage. He liked being petted and fed. This sudden understanding was a shock to his system, and he keeled over. Luther thought he had died and kicked his little body to the side of the road. When Dingbat woke up, he was all alone.

It was truly a strange new world.

"The animals knew beforehand, you could tell by their strange behavior."

by PV

Well, here we are. I wish our group wasn't so long lived. Remember, Aloysius, the velocipede stampede of 1904? How could I forget. Benjie, you and Clarissa were huddled beside Bruce Baby as now - if only we hadn't run into that crazed French lady in the laboratory smock. Come to think of it, sleeping next to our guinea Gretgeren who mysteriously disappeared, I should have been more wary of those glows in the dark. Benjie if you hadn't chewed up the cage strap we might have been in Guinea Pig heaven. So much for Madame Curie. I guess part of my present unease came from a bespectacled rider, obviously quite intelligent. He deduced a lot from our behavior - which he was whispering. The animals knew beforehand, you could tell by their strange behavior. I really think they understand us.

"She was obsessed with native textile designs and soon bored all her friends by endless talking about them."

by GS

They were ready at the starting line, having trained for weeks for the big race. The boys were in the outside lanes, and Chrissy was in the middle where she could could distract both of them in the hope of winning the prize - a wheel of Saint Andre! The competition had been arranged by her friends to change her focus from her hobby. She was obsessed with native textile designs and soon bored all her friends by endlessly talking about them. When they could not stand listening to Chrissy for one more minute they devised the plan for the race offering the wheel of Saint Andre brie as the prize, since she loved it even more than textile designs. The plan was partly successful for the two weeks before the race, but as soon as she won she was full out to textile designs again, so they fed her to the tomcat who lived next door.

"Left to their own devices, nothing would ever get done, and they wouldn't care one whit."

by TNT

They were outside and the children were left to their own devices - nothing would ever get done, they wouldn't care one whit. They were watching the cracked cement sidewalks and had sent the animals to check thing out for them. it was predicted there would be a major earthquake - the animals would warn them.