Saturday special: Eavesdropping

Sorry for the late post. Kyle is on vacation and I couldn't decide what to post for our Saturday Special. We had two options of either having a guest or me writing something new. I procrastinated so here is something old. The prompt was to eavesdrop on someone else's conversation and to write about it. Here is the result with a bit of stretching the truth.

            Three couples were huddled around 2 tables large enough to seat all of them but they were standing. As if to say they were intending to leave. Their meal had ended some time ago, as did the rest of the patrons to the small establishment. The conversations had splintered into two for some time with a larger group of four devolving into the recent Olympic events. I could see and hear everything as I continued to labor away, hoping to leave early.

            “Did you guys get to watch the hockey game against Canada?” A man in glasses inquired the rest.

            “Yeah, I got to see the tail end of it because of work, it was pretty close.” A man in a beard replied.

            “ It made me so mad when we lost!” the girl in a headband piped up.

            “But man, we fought to the end,” a man in a backwards cap said.

            “ It just shows the U.S. Resiliency,” glasses admitted.

            While this was going on the last two ladies were having their own conversation. One of them was leaning towards the soda wearing a sweater; the other was holding her baby in a haphazard manner.  I never held Juan in such a manner.

            “You look so good for just having your baby, I can hardly believe it,” the girl in the sweater said.

            “Thank you so much. There was a point during the pregnancy where I doubted I would ever be able to look at myself in the mirror the same way.”

            “Excuse me ma’am.” I asked as I attempted to pass the chatting girls to continue cleaning. I want to add so badly, “ We are closed could you please continue your pointless conversation elsewhere,” but she couldn’t risk losing this job as well. Checking the time, Juan was going to be done with bad practice soon and needed to be picked up. I hope they don’t stay much longer.

            With out batting an eye the girl in the sweater moved slightly for the girl to pass. “Don’t worry about that you look stunning.”

            The woman situated the baby in her arms. “ Oh you are just trying to be nice, not all of us can keep the same college body forever.”

            The volume of the other group had grown some decibels and began to eclipse the other. “Can you believe those Russkies,”one of the men roared. “ They can’t even have adequate preparations for the games cutting expenses all over the place.”

            “ Yeah and then they continue to win most of the medals,” the bearded man butted in.”

            “I bet you it was Mind Games and sabotage just as usual with the Russians. If they are in dangerous and lackluster living environments the Russians have an edge, just another day in the neighborhood,” the man and the glasses asserted.”

            “ Still cheating after all this time I see the commies haven’t changed at all,” said the mad with the hat.

The woman in the sweater finally had decided that she needed the drink more than ever cut through their conversation with the ice machine. The group of men grew silent, for a while they waited for the other two to save them.

“Excuse me.” I passed back through the group. Hoping they would get the hint. I wish they would leave; I can’t do anything till they leave. Juan will never let this down if I’m late again today. Relief swept over me as I noticed hugs being passed around and feet shuffling toward the door, finally. Maybe if I hurry up I can make up for lost time.

“Mom? Where are you? I thought you wouldn’t forget me again?”

The gift: Friday Special

Hello! Time for another Friday Special. Today we are debuting the start of a story we started a long time ago. It has gone through several iterations but this is supposed to be the beginning and give hints towards the future. This is a stand alone part of the series and is basically a prologue so enjoy.

It was dark, the only light emanated from the holographic interface that displayed the then known galaxy’s of the Universe. Two figures sat and watched from opposing sides each other untrusting but knew their duty. They had to come to a decision which would greatly affect the course of a planets life and possibly the Universe. Where would their next venture take them? Was the single question they set to answer as they did every couple of standard space years. Their job was immense but not impossible, they only had to agree. Each figure had several planets chosen as candidates for their gift. I was a sign of their good will and possibly ill intentions but with life in the universe being so spread apart they have to do anything and everything in their power to cultivate it for the Greater Good.

“Olivia search for planet Z0512.” One of the figures said and instantly the hologram zoomed through space past galaxies to land on a lone planet orbiting a small white dwarf star. “How about this one?” the figure began to speak again, “ It could use some technologic rehabilitation to stop the wars that ravage it.”

“An interesting pick,” the other figure said, its voice sounded slightly electronic, “what’s the motivation to bring a war torn civilization into our society?”

“Well as you can see from data their numbers have been dwindling for centuries and could be on the brink of extinction in several centuries.” The being paused for a moment, choosing his words carefully, “We could do some good by saving them.”

“That’s very altruistic of you, but many species follow similar trends, a good sixty percent end up blasting themselves back to the paleolithic era only to start again. I’m saying this to you since you’ve been recently promoted to directorship, not to antagonize Zeta.”

“I understand, we have been at this for some time now. We have already shot down some of our best ideas.” The first figure relented, “I figured you would not approve primitive lifeforms that would rather kill each other than work on more noble pursuits.” He sighed and said, “Olivia please mark off Z0512 from our list.” He peered across the table to his equal, “What is your next suggestion?”

“Naturally I want to suggest a Mega Corp planet, I have a few you might consider. Olivia, can you bring up M7132?” The hologram shifted and spun traveling across millions of lightyears within half a second to the adjacent arm. “M7132 now collectively called Franzia by its citizens has recently entered into a resource crisis, but instead of entering into a state of resource wars they have unified as a means to preserve and advance their energy production.”

“Hmm…” the Zeta corp representative thought for a moment as he looked through the data from the scouting scans of the world. Finally he spoke, “seems like a good choice altruistic and they seem to be fairly level headed. However there are a couple of small problems. Our gift does use a lot of resources and even with an accelerated track we would not be able to help them without exposing ourselves and bringing in outside resources and that star looks like it could implode at any moment. Which could end the project before it even begins.”

“I see…. Olivia can you bring up the projected decline of M7132?”

A series of charts and graphs aligned themselves over the hologram there was one for fossil fuels, another for hydrogen and oxygen, rate of environmental damage; a medical chart for the planet, with each and every graph declining to zero within the next one hundred and sixty-eight years.

“A shame,” the Mega director said, “I seem to have had my mind set too politically. You raise a fair point.”

“I have a concession for you if you are interested.” The being grinned at the other sitting across from him .

“You have my curiosity.”

“Your corporation can send a smaller gift to accelerate the populus to the point past scarcity fairly easily with some of your previous experiments in subliminal suggestion technology. I have no problem with your intervention but leave us out. We are here for the big project.”

“The big project? I’m afraid I wasn’t briefed in this, I thought this was a routine Gift giving ceremony.”

“Recently the Zeta corporation board has been wanting bigger returns on their Gifts. We want to concentrate our efforts on one world with great possibilities. It is a sort of experiment instead of our usual Gift.”

“I’m intrigued, a scientific endeavor on top of a scientific endeavor I take it. Do you have any particular planets in mind?”

“Glad you asked. Olivia could you please bring up the recently discovered planet?” The hologram zoomed past replicating light speed in its rendering. It slowed on a small cluster of planets orbiting a not so special star. The Mega director had taken the bait he had laid out. This was the moment of truth and what his recent directorship was riding on.

The Mega director gazed upon the planet’s projection. “Hmm, an unmarked planet. Do we have any data on it?”

“Olivia where are we on the data analysis from the probe?”

“I am sorry but I can only show partial renders of the data,” a voice emanated from the room around them. “I could show what I currently have.”

“Please do Olivia.” The raw data slowly engulfed the table. Pictures of wildlife and and societies from a distance in space started going through a slide show. Chemical compositions of the soil and geography data were put in virtual piles. The Zeta director spoke up again as the other director started looking through the data for any glimmers of hope, “I had a chance to look over some of the preliminary data just before this meeting, I had hoped I wouldn’t have to come to showing you such an unprepared subject.” He paused again to make sure the other looked at him as he spoke his next words, “Although it seems that there are a great variety of creatures on the planet the primary one seems to have divided itself in arbitrary land disputes and borders, this is a clue to them having aggressive tendencies. However It seems that they have also been able to work together for the Greater Good and could be pushed to behave in a more respectable manner with our intervention.”

“Much like the older days! Has Zeta begun establishing stations there yet?”

“No we wanted to wait and see what you thought first. Certainly jumping in before all relatable data has been analysed before starting our experiment. We would also like your consent and any ideas you have on the matter, of course. You must understand my cautiousness this will be a large endeavor that will be different from anything we have tried before.”

“I propose a joint endeavor with Mega and Zeta both establishing stations throughout the planet itself. I will initiate an orbital analysis of the planet. It will be the first MZ for the first time in over three centuries. Olivia, can you designate the planet an ID?”

“MZ15 -” Olivia began saying only to be cut off by the director.

“No, lets make this something special. Lets call it what the locals call it, do you know what it is known by Director?”

The mouth of the Zeta director widened as he spoke, “This little blue planet is called Earth.”

Moving Day

 I've only lived in two cities my entire life, so I always find moving weird. I spent my first 18 years in one city where I made plenty of friends who I'm still really close with, and then I came to college and stayed here for four years. Now I say I find moving weird mostly because I'm not used to it, its sad to see places you had so many memories in (good or bad) go empty. However emotional moving may be I do see the silver lining of the situation, I get to go somewhere and make new friends and memories.

           When you live on the third floor every task is a small workout. It’s great for fitness junkies and those who like to maintain their cardio, but terrible for most. I honestly had no problem with living on the third floor, it gave my apartment complex a view, and in West Texas that view from just thirty feet up can reach for miles upon miles. As a bonus I became pretty clever with taking up groceries, multiple trips to my car was too much of a hassle. Slide a bag or two down my wrist using my watch as a means to stop the bags from falling, grab all the light bags in one hand and the heavy in the other, keys ready to open my apartment door. I got it down to a science; gravity had nothing on me and my food. Well at least I thought I had it down until I moved out.

            After living in the same apartment for the past three years I kinda forgot that there would be a moment in which I would say good bye to it all. My apartment, shared with three others, became a social hotspot amongst my friends. I don’t even know why, maybe it was because we had an Xbox, Wii, PS3, PS2, Genesis, SNES and a NES, and would always play Brawl. Maybe it was because before we all turned the big twenty-one we had all the alcohol. Maybe it was because we had a back light and a bunch of posters to go along with it, like the Bob Marley one that looked like his ghost had haunted the poster underneath the violet glow. Maybe it was because we had a hammock, a chair made entirely of old couch cushions and a custom made ball pit. I really don’t know, but what I do know is that as I’m putting everything into boxes I feel the life of this apartment slowly dwindle.

            Packing is weird, I’m fully conscious of picking up or taking away something from the setting and pulling it into a brown cardboard box, but when I look back into the room I feel as if the room is slowly draining itself of its personality, becoming a blank slate for the next tenet. My room’s personality is all but a shell of its former self, no posters of Watchmen or abstract pieces of art to show I was there. Sure my laptop and speakers are still in the room, but only because they are essential. Even the small pile of dirty clothes that typically grew on the floor was disappearing; each t-shirt and pair of pants was currently being washed as another brown box waited patiently on top of the dryer waiting to consume them. Everything is ready to leave the interiors of my college apartment to go and fill up another blank slate apartment twelve hours away.

            New beginnings, that’s what moving is all about. I know emotions of moving are hard, nobody likes goodbyes after all, but they’re apart of life. I’ve made so many friends here over the past four years of college and as much as I would like to hold onto them as long as possible I have also fully embraced the idea of moving to a new city without knowing anyone. My apartment and I had plenty of memories, plenty of memories I will never forget, but to resist the idea of going out to make new memories is to resist the very thing that makes living life worth living: change.

snoozing on the couch dreaming of you

Today is an interesting post, if you notice every sentence goes up the alphabet Z-A. It may seem hard but really you need to play with form and let the story come to you. It goes in a very strange direction. So please enjoy the alphabet. 

Zzzz, I was sleeping on the ratty couch in my apartment with my computer still on. You were off finding real men, somewhere that I didn’t know. ‘XOXO I love you so,’ read the note attached to shiny red wrapping paper. Why did you have to leave me all alone? Valentines day used to mean something, to be with the one you love. Unless that means showing how you really feel underneath the pain.

“Thanks, but no thanks,” She said turning away.

“Stop, please don’t do this to us,” I pleaded attempting to grasp her soft hands.

“Richard, you did this to us a long time ago and I should have left long time ago,” she said slamming the door behind her.

Quiet now, you begin to whack one off. Perhaps to Veronica’s Facebook photos but it only drug up bittersweet memories. Only it is not enough anymore. Nothing gets me off more than that time I secretly filmed us making love it was beautiful. My only regret was that you found out. Love, I did it out of pure unadulterated love. Knowing she threated to leave unless I deleted it, I guess it was a normal reaction. Just as a precaution I made copies, now that she is leaving I guess I can put it on the Internet.

I finish a little too quickly, just like the video. Having never really satisfied Veronica, another disappointment. God you were out of my league, too hot for me. Fantasies plague my dreams. Everything used to be perfect. Didn’t think it would ever come to this, come to vindictiveness. Couldn’t you have waited at least till tomorrow, to give you the ring? But you want me to suffer here, alone. Another fuck up on the board of my life.

What really happened

This is a late exercise that is a changed point of view of last tuesday's submission by me: More than a home. It should have parallels but it gives what really happened front he perspective of Zach. I hope you like it.

I loved her more than I ever imagined. I did anything and everything for Vanessa. She was the light of my world and the only thing keeping me from descending back to that horrible place. I had lost everyone that ever cared about me. My dad was in jail for killing my mother. My sister disappeared shortly after with out a word. I was alone and scared. Alcohol helped me cope with the horrors. I kept up appearances where I could. It was either hiding from depression or hiding the sweet poison. No one knew, no one asked, no one cared but she did.

We met by chance. We were both late to the bus one day that it was raining. I had stupidly forgot anything to keep me from getting soaked. She was nice enough to share her umbrella with a wet mutt like me. I could see a shining kindness in her eyes, much like my mothers. So I chatted with her, told her how nice and good looking she was.  It was simple and easy talking to her and when I finally got her name I was smitten. Vanessa, unique and special just like her. She seemed interested in me. So why not try again.

I cleaned myself up. Shaved, hair cut, new clothes the works. I had to have her. It took me weeks to work up the courage to ask her out on a date, when she said yes I was ecstatic. We went to a nice Italian restaurant in town, I did anything and everything to woo her. It all paid off when she asked me to join her in her yearly garden party where she cooks a feast for her friends and family. I knew then and there we had something and that I loved her more than anything in the world at that point.

Soon after that we were going steady, going out, having fun at my place, movies, anything and everything. We were so happy, nothing could bring me down. We generally stayed at my place because her house gave me the creeps. Like someone or something was always watching. Vanessa told me that it was silly and that there was no one else in the house. It didn’t comfort me so I always convinced her to come over to my place instead.  It worked for some time but she always wanted her home, something my place couldn’t give her. She said it was perfect for her, always was since her mother bought it when she was little.

We began to fight, innocently enough until it grew too large to handle. Little things here and there would be a big deal like, how my place was always cold, or her leaving stuff on. It was childish to say the least. I turned to alcohol again to relax and to let the little things go. Of course it didn’t work, every fight turned into a reminder of my mother and father. How he beat her and I for her being strong. I became angry that I couldn’t control anything anymore. So I took matters into my own hands the only way I knew how. But it made things worse, she was gone and I was alone again.

Everything was a blur from then on, back to drinking anything to stop the pain. Whenever I checked in on myself I was stalking Vanessa; at home, on the bus, at work. I confronted her several times but each ended the same, her pushing me away. I finally found myself  in a gutter  with an empty bottle of the strongest liquor I could find. Breaking it on the dirty trashcan I left and went back to whatever is left of a home. Sobering up I tried for one Last Chance, trying to plead for my innocence.  I write this as an account of what happened, I hope it finds you well.