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Loading …Twenty four hours ago, Matt worked a CAD workstation in an air conditioned office. His chair was ergonomic and a strange Chinese brand of orange Coca-Cola fizzed on the edge of his desk. Currently he was climbing a precipitous mountain’s rock face high above the Yangtze river. Hired just over a year ago to train workers on the new 3D capabilities of the latest software, the money indicated it was a dream job. Hearing the ubiquitous roar of water rushing by below, and the high probability of death turned his experience into a nightmare.
“Isn’t this great?!”, Jerry cried out, roughly fifty feet higher in elevation. “Just breathe it in, Matt!” He was no longer ascending, but having locked his legs in the rock face, was taking in the scenery. Matt could barely see him, the irregular surface made visibility poor or nonexistent even to tandem climbers. The tree covered mountains of the Three Gorges spread out as far as the eye could see. Where there wasn’t trees, there was rock, with the odd home or building dotting the landscape. “Pretty soon, we build that dam, and this will all change.”
“Urrnggg.” Matt’s guttural reply made it clear sight-seeing was not on his agenda.
(7 votes, average: 3.57 out of 5) Loading …“There it is!” shouted Dr. Perlman. He directed the small party’s attention toward the white building piercing through the gloomy green of the delta hills rising before them.
“It’s beautiful,” said Kate, turning in her seat to catch the full view. “Are you sure it’s safe here?”
“Trust me Kate, there is no one within a hundred miles from here,” Dr. Perlman reassured her.
(6 votes, average: 4.17 out of 5) Loading …“I spy with my little eye, something that is…. red!”
I groaned. I hated this game, and it was one of my sister’s favorites. As if there was any doubt as to what she could have picked out of the scene in front of us, given that everything else in our environment was either green or brown or blue. Or white. But I had to be nice — my mother had insisted that I be the patient older sister on this trip.
“Hmm… let me see… ” I played along. I couldn’t disguise the lack of enthusiasm in my voice, but my sister was young enough to be oblivious to such things. “The rooftop on that building across the lake there.”
(4 votes, average: 3.75 out of 5) Loading …I sat at the edge of the boat, looking out across the water, waiting for someone, anyone, to say something. Balancing at the edge of falling in. Wondering what I should do next.
We came for the weekend, our group of “halves”. People without spouses. You might think we looked like a dating group, being single and all, but none of us were interested in dating. Especially not each other.
We came here each month for a late afternoon cruise. A short trip out on the water. At the start, there were almost twenty of us. It had been a fun trip then. A couple of boats, a trunk full of beer, and we had hours of pleasure before going home.
(5 votes, average: 3.4 out of 5) Loading …With a few strides, I reentered the store. The old man was standing in the middle of the store, leaning heavily on his staff, looking frail, the bathroom door closed behind him. As I entered, and opened my mouth, to say what I don’t know, he looked at me, and said “Silence.” He straightened and strode past me, to shut the door to the store. The scarred wooden door fit the doorframe inexpertly, as though the wood had shrank with age. This was fortunate, as the only source of light in the store, I noticed, was from the door, and with it closed, light only managed to sneak through a centimeter wide crack that ringed it. Outlined in front of me was the old man, who now stood straight, and equaled my six foot height.
His voice rasped through the dark, “Are you done running away like a child?”
My mouth, still hanging open from my entrance to the store, closed, then opened again as I said, reluctantly, “Yes.”
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