Today's Wandering Shop Stories #prompt is #boom. Feel like writing something short and sweet that has the word "boom" in it? Check out the definitions of the word at: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/boom Join in and tag it with #wss366! #writing #WritingLife #microfiction h/t @extraspecialbitter
Here's the conclusion to yesterday's #wss366 offering from @tobadzistsini . It let's you know what happens to Hugo AND it uses today's prompt word, "record." First of a 5-parter below:
"If we delve back through the historical #record, back past the Plastic Age, we come to the Age of Linoleum." With a brush, Prof. Chifley dusted off a thin, rectangular square and held it up for the field class to see. They were at an excavation site of a mid-20th century town.
"It was totally natural," Prof. Chifley said admiringly. "A #blend of linseed oils and fillers like sawdust on a burlap backing."
The students examined the ancient floor covering in wonderment.
When he dared peek, Bo was alone in the basement.
Rumpled on the floor, like a wetsuit, was Hugo's skin and clothes. He toed the heap then jumped back.
Hugo was gone.
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the mini #recorder.
He forgot to hit record.
Even if he waited the remaining twenty-something minutes, the FBI weren't coming. Yet another bluff.
Defeated, he balled up what remained of Hugo to dispose of it.
If only he could find that damned notebook.
It'd mean tenure. 5/5
#wss366
"Hugo Jefferson. Fine Arts. You scribbl..."
He finished the sentence, "...scribbled an equation in the margin of my notebook almost solving why zero-point energy doesn't make a large cosmological constant." Hugo's laugh sent a chill up his spine. "Any of your grade schoolers know E equals emcee squared, but they don't know what it does or what it means. Same goes for the..."
Light filled the room.
Bo squeezed his eyes shut and covered his face.
Something wet flopped onto the floor. 4/x
#wss366
Hugo sighed, "Really? You're going to waste our time getting to know me?" He stood and began to pace. Hugo made a point to stay away from the only door. "Do you want me caught and dissected and put on display at Langley? Or do you want a spaceman best friend helping you publish so you don't perish?"
He regarded the portly man, "I know you."
Hugo nodded, "Cosmology 201. Good class. You people are onto something but you're so damned wrong about everything else."
Bo's jaw dropped. 3/x
#wss366
Hugo wrinkled his nose, "Listen, I just want to go home. I'm an anthropologist and not a very good one." He looked at the old, black rotary phone. "That call was for me." Hugo looked Bo in the eye and Bo blinked.
"That call would've told me where and when they were going to pick me up."
"What do you really look like?" Bo leaned in, "Under there." He pulled down his eyelid with a finger. 2/x
#wss366
"We have less than an hour." Bo gripped the pistol. "If I don't call the FBI before then, this campus will be swarming with agents."
Hugo blinked, "Your pistol isn't loaded."
The gun clattered to the ground, "I needed you to hesitate to hear about my bigger gun." Bo pushed an office chair over to Hugo before he sat down.
Bo scooted to Hugo, "Who are you?" He looked over the young man. Black hair, brown eyes, dark skin, average height and weight.
The kid was remarkably unremarkable. 1/x
#wss366
reception desk
no record
of my appointment
#wss366
record cold
birthday reminders
for dead friends
#wss366
used record store
the fragrance
of patchouli
#wss366
The curators of #wss366 propose to meet via Zoom on Tuesday, April 22, at 6:30pm EDT. If you would like to join the meeting to chat, DM @stevendbrewer for the link.
For today's #wss366 prompt word ("record"), we already have a contribution in the hashtag--a 3-parter from @stevendbrewer that begins here and features his Better Angels:
Yesterday the free time I had went into talking about chickens and homeowners associations on my blog, so I missed writing for yesterday's #wss366 prompt word, which was "blend." But my friends in the hashtag didn't! I boosted a bunch, but one I missed was @tobadzistsini 's 3-post contribution. First one is below, but warning! It's a to-be-continued situation at the end:
Today's Wandering Shop Stories #prompt is #record. Feel like writing something short and sweet that has the word "record" in it? Check out the definitions of the word at: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/record Join in and tag it with #wss366! #writing #WritingLife #microfiction h/t @extraspecialbitter
Hugo slipped inside.
At the bottom of the stairs a phone began ringing.
*The* phone.
"Hello?"
Barely audible over the CMB's hiss were whistles and clicks.
Home.
He whistled back and snapped his fingers, he asked when and where they'd pick him up.
The lights flicked on.
A portly aborigonal with pale skin, dark hair, and darker eyes walked in. He reached into his pea coat.
"Evenin'." His affect was cool as he pulled out a snubnosed revolver. "How about putting the phone down?" 3/3
#wss366
For Hugo there was '#blending in' and there was *blending in*.
This was too much.
Every week back home would ring an old phone line in Forrest's basement at 8:56 p.m. local time. He had to pick up on the eighth ring to actually make contact.
No more.
No fewer.
Two students ran past. Newspaper between their heads and the rain. Hugo stood back in the shadows and checked his watch.
8:43 p.m.
When the coast was clear, he bolted for the maintenance entrance. 2/x
#wss366
Night fell when the new moon slipped behind the foothills.
An earnest rain soaked the Willow Creek College campus.
"Three years," Hugo mused. His skin itched under his disguise. This was his worst assignment ever. Hugo only took it since the air, water, and chirality matched his.
But this sun was too bright.
This sun was the wrong color. Aboriginals were friendly.
Clever too, but they stank.
Last month he woke smelling like one. Hugo knew he needed to get out. 1/x
#wss366
First of a two-parter from @stevendbrewer in the #wss366 hashtag for today's prompt word, "blend."
