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Archive for the 'Issue 1.12' Category
(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
Loading …Trent Wood stepped into ‘bull pen’, the open area used by his co-workers, San Francisco’s finest. His left arm in a white sling he stood out for the first time in his life. All eyes turned to watch, then thunderous applause filled the air. As some red warmed his face, Trent held up his good arm, and proclaimed his thanks.
“Trent, Chief wants to see you. Oh, and good to see you back. Well done.” Sandy Perkins continued walking by after giving him the message. As quickly as the fanfare began, it was over, and everyone was back to work. Phones rang, keyboards clacked, and a general murmur continued to infect the area.
In the past two weeks, Trent learned how to avoid hurting his arm further. That usually meant not bumping into furniture, and sleeping very, very carefully. Getting through the bustling room was akin to stepping though an area seeded with landmines. Trent made it, and rapped softly on the outside of the Chief’s door, hoping he wouldn’t be called in, but knowing the confrontation was inevitable.
Continue reading ‘Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood.’
(2 votes, average: 3 out of 5) Loading …Immersed in complete darkness, Mark felt like he was sliding down a long pipe, slipping and sliding to the left and right, sometimes on his back, sometimes facing impossibly down. He was going faster and faster, and started feeling sick to his …
Suddenly, he was in the light. Sitting at a picnic table, watching two men play chess. Or checkers. Or maybe even cards. Neither of them had moved, and all the games were there in front of them. It looked like they were concentrating on the chess game, but Mark was having a hard time keeping his thoughts straight. Where was he? The last thing he remembered was …
The bus. He had been driving the bus this morning, his normal early route. Forty-three children on their way to another happy day in elementary school. Then forty-three children in the ditch, the last thing he saw. Someone driving on the wrong side of the road, weaving in and out of traffic, on and off the road. Right toward him, toward the …
The man next to him moved his rook, taking a pawn from his opponent. As a prize, he reached to the checkers board, jumped a piece, and rather than just removing the offender from the board, he ate it.
(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5) Loading …Make at least five thousand dollars per month working only three or four hours per week!!!
Monica stared at the multiple exclamation points at the end of the subject line on the email she’d printed out yesterday. She had known it would be too good to be true. But she’d called the number indicated in the email anyway, and to her surprise she had reached a live person, not a recording.
“Anderson Enterprises.” answered the drone on the other end of the line. “Can I help you to achieve your earning potential today?”
What a line. Still, she’d answered with a sarcastic “Yeah, why not?”
They’d asked her for her name, age, phone number, cell phone number, and whether or not she had a criminal record.
(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5) Loading …John Wayne gulped down his scrambled eggs, shoveling the steaming rubbery mass into his mouth with a wedge of whole wheat toast, salting every other bite. Every ten seconds or so, he checked his watch. Instead of the time, which currently stood somewhere in between infomercials and the early early morning shows, halfway between the crack of dawn and the break of dawn, the cheap digital watch was in its stopwatch mode, one of the seven modes advertised on the box. John had only ever found three of the modes, but took it for granted that there must be four more, after all, around the face of the watch it said “Precision Digital Watch 7 Modes”. They couldn’t write that on there if there weren’t at least six modes. At the very minimum, five.
The last bite of toast carried the last bite of egg to John’s mouth. As he methodically chewed it, he smiled - he loved when he synchronized his toast intake to his egg intake. With his last sip of coffee - a triple threat synchronicity day! - he washed it all down and hit the stop button on the watch. The time stood at two minutes and one second. “Dammit!” John cursed under his breath.
Continue reading ‘I Forgot to Give This Story a Point, But I Still Like It’
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