100 words: special delivery

[viking_cat]

This is an absurdly busy time for me. I'm interviewing, I'm writing, I'm dealing with annoying computer problems, I'm doing game prep, and I'm cursing at stat blocks. What I'm not doing, however, is allowing 100 words to slip from weekly to biweekly -- so let's do some fast typing

Comments

Special Delivery

[apintrix]

At some point my grandfather stopped talking about the war. Mama told us about the medal in the box, and the sinking ship.

Near the end, though, when he was very sick, we wheeled him in the nursing home garden. By then he could only "speak" with a talking keyboard. I had recently been to Japan, and he was curious. He began to type.

"I was in Tokyo after the war. I didn't see much. I was a courier. I carried messages between the ships."

I felt suddenly as if I had never known him. He laughed, gape-mouthed, and more words appeared:

"I wore my dress uniform every day."

Re: Special Delivery

[viking_cat]

That's wonderful. I can't tell - is it true?

Re: Special Delivery

[apintrix]

Yes. I wanted to share it. :)

Post Haste

[viking_cat]

He unlocked the deadbolt and winced, just like always. He couldn’t keep up. Worse, he couldn’t admit he was slowing down, because this wasn’t a firing offense. This was jail time in ten thousand sealed envelopes. He should never have started.

Letters cascaded off shabby chairs as he sat down to sort. Third class mail got culled first. He tried to deliver the others, and usually succeeded days later. One letter caught his eye. Special delivery? Damn.

They’d notice if that didn’t go through today. Sometimes he wished they would.

Sighing, he got back up and pulled on his boots.

Maple or Ash?

[jydog1]

The police offered to bring him the papers, but Carrie told them she'd do it herself. They were dubious, she was adamant. Special delivery, she insisted. Reluctantly, they agreed.

Evan wouldn't be scared by cops showing up with a restraining order, but she knew a way to make an impression. Them doing only make him even more angry while he got drunk, and either way he'd be kicking through her door later tonight.

So she taped the paperwork to a Louisville Slugger and waited behind the swing on the darkened porch. When it was done he could consider himself served.

Taking things too literally.

[kid_cthulhu]

It seemed like a great idea on paper. Give the mentally challenged jobs, the chance to earn money and build self-esteem. With the GPS units talking them through the routes, they wouldn’t get lot. They work for peanuts and never form unions. There’s always room for another courier service in the big city.

They loved the snappy red striped uniforms, with the conical hats. They loved yelling the company name when they rang the doorbells and put the letter or package into the hands of the stunned recipient.

I dunno. Maybe the world just wasn’t ready for “Special Delivery, Inc.”

Re: Taking things too literally.

[jydog1]

You are both horrible and wonderful and I'm proud to call you my friend.

Re: Taking things too literally.

[apintrix]

Oh god. *dies*

[pstorminator]

“What’s the red smear at the bottom of the image?” I asked.

“Interference. There are 14 cruisers in the area, and all the radars are on the same frequency. They hop to isolate the bands, but you get overlap.” Bennie knows every pixel of his images.

“What are we looking for?” I hate to sound stupid, but I don’t want to miss it.

“You’ll know.”

And I do. A column of red, stronger than the scattered interference, rises from the bottom of the RTI image and then the RV separates.

George Tenet’s slam dunk - Special delivery from Saddam Hussein.

[viking_cat]

You're on a roll. Your stories the other week were superb as well.

[pstorminator]

well, the Reberth wasn't exactly high art... ;)

But once I made the typo on my home version, it took on a life of its own!

PS